Sr. Product Manager (PAN-OS Lifecycle and Management)

Company Description

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks® everything starts and ends with our mission:

Being the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.
Our vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. We are a company built on the foundation of challenging and disrupting the way things are done, and we’re looking for innovators who are as committed to shaping the future of cybersecurity as we are.

Who We Are

We take our mission of protecting the digital way of life seriously. We are relentless in protecting our customers and we believe that the unique ideas of every member of our team contributes to our collective success. Our values were crowdsourced by employees and are brought to life through each of us everyday - from disruptive innovation and collaboration, to execution. From showing up for each other with integrity to creating an environment where we all feel included.

As a member of our team, you will be shaping the future of cybersecurity. We work fast, value ongoing learning, and we respect each employee as a unique individual. Knowing we all have different needs, our development and personal wellbeing programs are designed to give you choice in how you are supported. This includes our FLEXBenefits wellbeing spending account with over 1,000 eligible items selected by employees, our mental and financial health resources, and our personalized learning opportunities - just to name a few!

At Palo Alto Networks, we believe in the power of collaboration and value in-person interactions. This is why our employees generally work full time from our office with flexibility offered where needed. This setup fosters casual conversations, problem-solving, and trusted relationships. Our goal is to create an environment where we all win with precision.

Job Description

Your Career

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Sr. Product Manager to join our world-class product management organization. This high-visibility role will be instrumental in defining and executing the lifecycle strategy for PAN-OS, the software that powers our next-generation firewalls. You will play a pivotal role in radically transforming how customers manage, upgrade, and deploy our core Strata network security platform, directly influencing adoption and customer satisfaction.

This position is ideal for a hands-on individual who is passionate about solving complex operational challenges with a strategic approach to enhance product reliability, accelerate new feature adoption, and drive the success of our company's platformization journey.

Your Impact

• Lead PAN-OS Lifecycle Management: Own the end-to-end lifecycle, including upgrade management, version adoption, and quality metrics. Drive our North Star metric to provide best-in-class coverage for the applications customers rely on most.

• Transform the Upgrade and Patching Experience: Collaborate with engineering and our management software teams (Panorama, Strata Cloud Manager) to streamline and automate lifecycle management. Develop and implement proactive strategies to ensure upgrades are seamless, predictable, and non-disruptive, reducing customer-found defects and upgrade-related issues.

• Optimize Product Reliability & Security: Work closely with cross-functional teams to enhance product quality and security. Your initiatives will directly reduce customer-found defect rates, accelerate patching, and drive down high/critical CVEs, giving customers the confidence to operate without worry.

• Enhance Operational Experience & Support: Develop strategies to improve the day-to-day operational experience of managing PAN-OS. Partner with customer success and field teams to implement a "shift-left" approach, providing customers with tools and insights that empower them to maintain a healthy fleet and resolve issues faster.

• Drive Strategic Growth: Analyze customer deployment insights and telemetry data to inform product decisions and accelerate feature adoption. Your work will enable a continuously successful upgrade path, ultimately driving higher customer retention, growing our core network security business, and influencing the adoption of emerging technologies like GenAI.

Qualifications

Your Experience 

• 5+ years of experience in a technical role such as software development, release management, device management or quality assurance. Experience in product management is a plus.

• Technical Acumen:

  • Strong, hands-on operational experience with managing large network appliance systems or enterprise-scale software upgrades.

  • Expe