Business Development Capture Management - SLED EAST

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.

FLEXWORK is an employee-centric reimagining of how we work. We built FLEXWORK based on employee feedback – it is about flexibility, trust, and choice whenever possible. It’s been a journey of disruption that has yielded the best of our values. We offer as much flexibility as possible, and choices that enable you to be most productive, including benefits that meet your needs and learning opportunities that you feel passionate about.

Your Career

The Business Development/Capture Director for SLED/EAST is responsible for leading the strategic programmatic capture efforts in the SLED/EAST district. Responsible for identifying target opportunities, qualifying program pipeline, and being the face of Palo Alto Networks to critical mission owners and stakeholders including officers, mission owners across agencies up to and including CXO-level relationships. You’ll work closely with prospects and partners as a subject-matter sales expert to demonstrate how a proposed solution meets and exceeds customer requirements and in quarterbacking win strategies that utilize Field/Inside Sales, Proposal, Legal, Finance, and System Integrator teammates. This is a Director-level individual contributor position with a competitive compensation plan based on major program milestones and wins.

This is the opportunity for those interested in being a part of something bigger than themselves. We are out to fulfill our company mission with the strongest products in the industry. To fit in this role, you are personable, willing to ask questions, always learning, have a strong work ethic, are persistent, and coachable. You are confident in who you are and able to enjoy the personable interactions that come with a job in sales. Becoming a part of the team means you will be surrounded by amazing, smart and hardworking teammates and that’s a great place to be. Plus, the added bonus of changing the world? Now that's just icing on the cake.

Your Impact

• Responsible for meeting and exceeding assigned pipeline and bookings quota MBOs
• Work closely with the Senior Management and Sales Account Team to provide relevant analysis/market information and strategic recommendations to result in a bid/no-bid decision
• Monitor relevant bid-boards to help find and track new and existing opportunities
• Ensure Program Capture pipeline is aligned with the associated Sales Director’s priorities perform in a fast-paced, deadline-oriented work environment
• Lead pursuit team in developing and substantiating a winning value proposition that meets the needs of the customer, including analyzing critical business drivers and risks
• Prepare and provide information and decision briefings for senior management
• Responsible for validating/endorsing the technical solution in close partnership with the Solution Architect and/or sales engineering team
• Coordinates with the Programs team to assure that solution design can be properly delivered
• Develop a timeline and ensures that we meet key deal milestones and deadlines
• Post-award lead handoff process to transition a contract to the Programs team to lead
• Become an expert in your domain, develop appropriate technical expertise, understand the value to the mission, ghost the competition, and use passion and conviction to win
• Work with Product Managers, Sales Engineering, Sales Operations, Legal and other resources to close complex opportunities - must work well in a team environment
• Partner with key business units and their leadership in developing winning value propositions, sales strategies, and gathering customer feedback
• Incubate and pioneer sales GTM approaches and develop them into a repeatable process for our sales force and partner community
• Engage with senior decision-makers and influencers internally and within the accounts supported - must be comfortable and credible in executive conversations

Your Experience

• Experience Closing Large Program Captures
• Proven ability to articulate compelling, business outcome-focused, value propositions
• Proven program management skills and able to demonstrate leadership capabilities
• Experience working with Channel and Alliance teams
• Demonstrated success in the development and capture of large government programs
• Adept at negotiating and establishing teaming arrangements/agreements
• Cross-functional influence, relationship building, and project management skills toward a broad constituency ranging from customers, channel partners, sales, marketing, and technical management
• Strong business acumen and negotiation abilities
• Great team player with a strong drive to win
• Willing to take a leadership role in driving initiatives, working across organizations, and structuring approaches to new opportunities
• Familiarity with a broad range of application, security and infrastructure software is desirable
• Strategic thinking and planning skills - demonstrated effectiveness in conducting market analysis, prioritizing investments, and measuring growth in territory and quota is preferred
• Direct selling expertise, ‘hunter’ mentality is a plus
• A solid presenter who is confident and able to sell ideas to internal and external stakeholders is desired
• Simplicity - ability to make complex issues easy to understand is desired
• Established contacts and intimate knowledge of the SLED EAST Market is desired
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent military experience required
• Proven success within the SLED East market, related to Capture within the last 5 years and proven skills in all areas of business development and capture, opportunity identification and qualification, competitive landscape, capture strategy, building winning teams and solutions
• Deep understanding of innovative solutions including certifications, security, and other SLED specific requirements
• Proven track record developing and capturing ($25 M) opportunities in New Full & Open Programs as well as use contract vehicles to secure new business
• Strong business and IT modernization acumen including Cyber Security, networks and Artificial Intelligence

Preferred Technical and Professional Expertise

• Proven ability to articulate compelling, business-outcome focused, value propositions
• Responsible for meeting and exceeding assigned pipeline quota
• Demonstrate your understanding of SLED Procurement Management, planning and resourcing
• Knowledge of SLED budget and planning
• Ability to adapt quickly to a fast-paced environment
• Tangible experience and use cases of where you have worked with Senior Management and Sales Account Teams to provide relevant analysis/market information and strategic recommendations that resulted in major program wins
• Proven Success in a partner driven environment (FSI/VAR/DISTI)
• Experience in working with Product Managers, Sales Engineering, Sales operations, Legal and other resources to lead EBCs and critical customer engagements
• Examples of where you worked with key business units and their leadership in developing winning value propositions, sales strategies, and gathering use cases we can leverage and repeat

The Team

Our technical support team is critical to our success and mission. As part of this team, you enable customer success by providing support to clients after they have purchased our products. Our dedication to our customers doesn’t stop once they sign – it evolves. As threats and technology change, we stay in step to accomplish our mission.

You’ll be involved in implementing new products, transitioning from old products to new, and will fix integrations and critical issues as they are raised – in fact, you’ll seek them out to ensure our clients are safely supported. We fix and identify technical problems, with a pointed focus of providing the best customer support in the industry.

Our Commitment

We’re trailblazers that dream big, 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.

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/com-missioned roles) is expected to be between $151,600/yr to $245,200/yr. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here .