Director, Data Analytics and Engineering

Job Description

Job Description

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

We are seeking a leader who is both a deep technical expert and a savvy business strategist to build and scale our Data Analytics and Engineering function. The ideal candidate thrives on diving into the details of data architecture and machine learning models with their team, while simultaneously being able to uplevel the conversation to steer executive-level decisions.

As a key partner to business leaders across the company, you will build and lead a high-performing, multi-disciplinary team to deliver strategic, actionable insights and scalable data products. This is a unique opportunity for a "player-coach" to set the vision for our data organization and build a robust data foundation from the ground up, driving a new level of data-driven excellence at the company.

Your Impact

Strategic Partnership : Collaborate with senior leaders to translate their strategic priorities into a clear, actionable roadmap for the Data Analytics and Engineering team. You don’t just deliver on a project, you and your team are invested in getting your insights and solutions operationalized.

Team Leadership & Development : Build, manage, and mentor a world-class team of analysts, data scientists, and data engineers, fostering a culture of extreme ownership and continuous learning.

Deliver Actionable & Predictive Insights : Go beyond simple reporting to solve ambiguous business problems. You will guide the team in applying advanced analytics and machine learning to deliver predictive insights that drive tangible business outcomes.

Own the End-to-End Data Lifecycle : Take full ownership of the data pipelines for critical business domains. You will be responsible for building and maintaining robust systems for data ingestion, transformation (ETL / ELT), modeling, quality, and governance to ensure data is accurate, accessible, and ready for analysis.

Qualifications

Your Experience

Strategic Mindset : You are a strategic thinker who can partner with senior leadership to tackle complex, open-ended business problems with a rigorous, data-driven approach.

Exceptional Technical & Business Depth : You have the ability to go deep into data architecture, data science models, and pipelines to guide technical teams effectively. You will use your deep business acumen, with demonstrated expertise in at least two of the following domains (Go-To-Market, Finance, or Product), to steer the product roadmap and guide executive decisions.

Proven Leadership Experience : You have 12+ years of experience in data and analytics, with at least 8+ years in a leadership role, preferably in a fast-paced enterprise software environment. You have a demonstrated track record of leading and mentoring diverse technical teams.

Player-Coach Mentality : You are a hands-on leader who can provide expert guidance to your team on everything from data architecture to advanced analytical methods.

Excellent Communication Skills : You excel at translating business needs into technical requirements and communicating complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.

Technical Expertise :

Hands-on experience with data modeling, data architecture, and ETL / ELT processes.

Proficiency in data science, with prior experience deploying ML data products (e.g., classifiers, time series models, recommender systems).

Deep familiarity with modern data stacks (e.g., AWS / Azure / GCP / Snowflake).

Proficiency with BI and data visualization tools for telling stories with data.

Additional Information

The Team

Our shared mission to safeguard our digital way of life unites and drives us. You will join a multinational team building data and data science solutions to unlock significant business potential and boost productivity by resolving complex data problems. This involves developing innovative algorithms, predictive models, conducting advanced statistical analysis, and engineering scalable data pipelines. Your work will ultimately lead to data products and actionable insights that empower decision-making across the organization. You will be at the forefront of leveraging cutting-edge technologies and methodologies.

We believe in using AI to amplify, not replace, human intellect. We expect you to champion this mindset. You and your team will leverage the best tools available—from generative AI for code and analysis to agentic data science frameworks—to accelerate your impact.

Compensation Disclosure

The compensation offered for this position will depend on qualifications, experience, and work location. For candidates who receive an offer at the posted level, the starting base salary (for non-sales roles) or base salary + commission target (for sales / commissioned roles) is expected to be between $241,000 / YR - $329,500 / YR. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

Our Commitment

We’re problem solvers that take risks and challenge cybersecurity’s status quo. It’s simple : we can’t accomplish our mission without diverse teams innovating, together.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for all qualified individuals with a disability. If you require assistance or accommodation due to a disability or special need, please contact us at   accommodations@paloaltonetworks.com.

Palo Alto Networks is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity in our workplace, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or other legally protected characteristics.

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship? No.  Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.