Sr Manager Cloud Finance and Strategy

Palo Alto Networks

Job Summary

This role is for a Sr Manager Cloud Finance and Strategy at Palo Alto Networks, focusing on driving financial impact at the intersection of finance, technology, and strategy. The individual will act as a Cloud Finance business partner to a large product pillar, influencing key decisions on cloud hosting and product strategy, and shaping financial efficiency. Responsibilities include cloud spend forecasting, unit cost/economics analysis, and negotiating with Cloud Service Providers. This position requires a highly experienced cross-functional collaborator with a passion for technology.

Must Have

  • Drive real impact at the intersection of finance, technology, and strategy.
  • Be the Cloud Finance business partner to a large and fast-growing product pillar.
  • Work directly with senior product, engineering, and finance leaders.
  • Own cloud spend forecasting.
  • Drive unit cost/economics analysis to enable decision making.
  • Lead negotiations with large Cloud Service Providers.
  • 8+ years of experience in Management Consulting, Finance, or business analytics.
  • Demonstrated success working with product/engineering, finance, and cross-functional teams.
  • Exceptional presentation skills and ability to communicate complex ideas.
  • Experience in initiating and executing analysis that generates new insights.
  • Bachelor or Advanced Degree in Finance, Economics, Engineering, or a related field.

Good to Have

  • FinOps experience and/or Cloud certifications.
  • Basic programming skills for data extraction.
  • Experience with Looker, Tableau or other visualization tools.

Perks & Benefits

  • Restricted stock units and a bonus.
  • Comprehensive employee benefits.
  • Reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
  • Equal opportunity employer.

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 believe collaboration thrives in person. That’s why most of our teams work from the office full time, with flexibility when it’s needed. This model supports real-time problem-solving, stronger relationships, and the kind of precision that drives great outcomes.

Job Description

Your Career

In this role, you will have the opportunity to drive real impact at the intersection of finance, technology, and strategy. You will be the Cloud Finance business partner to one of our largest and fastest growing product pillars. In this role you will work directly with senior product, engineering and other finance leaders to influence key decisions around our cloud hosting including and product strategy and help shape how we think about financial efficiency at scale. For example, you will own cloud spend forecasting, drive unit cost/economics analysis to enable decision making with Product leaders and lead negotiations with all the large Cloud Service Providers.

This role requires a highly experienced cross-functional collaborator who has Management Consulting or Product Finance experience with a passion for technology. If you're passionate about problem solving, thrive in cross-functional settings, and want to build a career at the intersection of Finance and Product —this is your chance.

Your Impact

  • Strategic Thought Leadership: Be the thought partner to product and finance leadership, on cloud hosting strategy, cost optimization, unit cost / economics to enable business growth
  • Data-Driven Insights: Develop and monitor critical success metrics, providing actionable insights that empower product and cross-functional teams to drive key business decisions
  • Financial forecasting and planning: Drive alignment with all product teams and be responsible for Monthly Business Reviews, Monthly Forecast, Annual Planning, and Long-Range Planning
  • Negotiate with Cloud Service Providers: to secure favorable terms and optimize long-term value
  • Cloud FinOps Excellence: Define and lead Cloud FinOps initiatives, bringing industry best practices and mobilizing cross-functional teams to jointly deliver on our priorities

Qualifications

Your Experience

  • 8+ years of experience in Management Consulting, Finance (especially product finance) or business analytics, ideally within the technology sector
  • Collaboration: Demonstrated success working with product/engineering, finance and other cross-functional teams to drive change and impact
  • Communication & Leadership: Exceptional presentation skills, with the ability to lead and clearly communicate complex ideas
  • Analytical Skills: Experience in initiating and executing on analysis that generates new insights to enable decision making. Demonstrated ability of being the translator between finance and product, e.g. converting engineering actions into financial implications and hosting insights into engineer actions
  • Bachelor or Advanced Degree in Finance, Economics, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent experience)
  • Preferred (Not Required): FinOps experience and/or Cloud certifications. Basic programing skills for data extraction. Experience with Looker, Tableau or other visualization tools

Additional Information

The Team

The Cloud Finance team is responsible for managing and optimizing cloud infrastructure spend, which is a critical strategic component to our cloud-delivered security offerings across the entire PANW portfolio and all Cloud Service Providers (CSPs). We directly manage CSP relationships to drive procurement optimizations through rate negotiations and committed/reserved usage discounts. Alongside a dedicated IT team, we build tooling and dashboards that provide all teams with cost and unit economics visibility, optimization recommendations, and best-practice sharing. This function enables product teams to make the best strategic decisions and provides Executive Staff with insightful, proactive recommendations to drive both topline growth and bottom-line efficiency across all Cloud-hosted products within the company.

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 $185,000 - $220,000/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.

9 Skills Required For This Role

Team Management Cross Functional Financial Forecasting Forecasting Budgeting Game Texts Business Analysis Lqa Looker Tableau

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