Senior Manager of Finance – Next Generation Firewall

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.

Our Approach to Work

We lead with flexibility and choice in all of our people programs. We have disrupted the traditional view that all employees have the same needs and wants. We offer personalization and offer our employees the opportunity to choose what works best for them as often as possible - from your well-being support to your growth and development, and beyond!

At Palo Alto Networks, we believe in the power of collaboration and value in-person interactions. This is why our employees generally work from the office three days per week, leaving two days for choice and flexibility to work where you feel most effective. This setup fosters casual conversations, problem-solving, and trusted relationships. While details may evolve, our goal is to create an environment where innovation thrives, with office-based teams coming together three days a week to collaborate and thrive, together!

Job Description

Your Career 

Do you have leadership skills, strong finance experience supporting a software sales team and the ability to drive strategic insights?  Looking to make a difference in a growth business environment?

We are looking for a Senior Finance Manager to support the Next Generation Firewall business unit.  This role will report to the Strata Business Unit CFO. Working with the Sales, Product Management & Operations teams, you will provide insightful and trusted counsel to Product Management, Sales Strategy and Operations leadership on financial and broad-based business issues related to Short and Long-term strategic planning and business performance monitoring.

The ideal candidate is a self-starter, strategic thinker, great communicator, and enjoys leading finance initiatives and collaborating with people with a diverse set of talents in a fast-paced environment.

Your Impact  

• Key finance business partner to the Sr. Vice President, Firewall
• Effective at establishing a “seat at the table” with the leadership team and is considered a critical member of that leadership team
• Participation in business reviews with the Senior Leadership team including the ability to convey key messages through effective presentation skills
• Strong understanding of business model with demonstrated ability in effectively guiding business proposals for pricing and compensation incentives
• Recommend benchmarks for measuring financial and operating performance - Develop and enhance necessary dashboards to track key metrics and business performance to drive business decisions
• Provides financial insight to the business in assessing risk and opportunities to achieve its financial commitments - This includes establishing insightful analytics that enable the business to “see around corners” or better anticipate the future
• Design and implement financial processes that deliver consistent and predictable results that link operational performance to the P&L, both top line and margins
• Proactively collaborates across multifunctional teams to create an environment that strives for global consistency of best practices identified both internally and externally to the organization
• Provides financial leadership to meet deliverables during various financial cycles including monthly close, quarterly business reviews, monthly forecast and annual operating plan cycles and other ad hoc requests
• Work closely with other members of the central and corporate finance team to ensure financial impacts of various business decisions are understood, aligned, and communicated – examples include Corporate FP&A, Central Sales and Marketing, and Global Shared Services

Qualifications

Your Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Finance, Accounting, or related field from an accredited university or equivalent military experience required
• MBA / Master’s degree preferred
• Minimum of 7+ years experience in jobs of increasing responsibility within Finance or Accounting
• Minimum of 2 years of people management experience
• Diversity of experience and exposure to a wide range of complex business models
• Application SaaS and Software industry experience is strongly preferred
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with demonstrated ability to convey thoughts and ideas to effectively influe