Channel/MDR Systems Engineer

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.

We have the vision of a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. These aren’t easy goals to accomplish – but we’re not here for easy. We’re here for better. 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.

Disruption is at the core of our technology and on our way of work to meet the needs of our employees now and in the future through FLEXWORK, our approach to how we work. We’re changing the nature of work from benefits to learning, location to leadership, we’ve rethought and recreated every aspect of the employee experience at Palo Alto Networks. And because it FLEXes around each individual employee based on their individual choices, employees are empowered to push boundaries and help us all evolve, together.

Your Career

As a Palo Alto Networks Channel/MDR Systems Engineer, you will be responsible for presenting the Palo Alto Networks Portfolio to Palo Alto Networks’ most strategic and impactful Channel and MDR partners.

As a Channel/MDR Systems Engineer, you will be tasked with delivering training, best practices and demonstrations of the Palo Alto Networks Platform in person and remotely. You will be accountable for gathering the partner’s technical requirements for new features and knowledge. 

As an extended member of the Sales and Channels team, the Channel SE part of the role will align with the PANW field engineering teams and Channel Business Managers in the region to create, update and deliver the partner technical enablement strategy. The impact of this person will be tracked and used as one key variable in how they get compensated.

As an extended member of the EcoSystems and MDR team, the MDR SE part of the role will be the expert for our Endpoint and broader Cortex portfolio. Your portfolio includes Advanced Endpoint Protection (Traps), Cortex XDR – Investigations and Response, Cortex XDR – Analytics, Autofocus, Cortex Data Lake, Demisto (Security Orchestration, Automation & Response) and Expanse (Attack Surface Management)

Your Impact

• Build relationships with key partner and PANW SE’s within the assigned partner base

• Focus on enablement & relationships for limited # of partners & new recruits

• Management and creation of technical enablement plan for channel partners

• Owns, monitors, reports on, and drives technical enablement activities for assigned partner base

• Teaches in-geo SEs and Value Added Distributor how to manage and deliver technical enablement plan for their partner base

• Be a PANW technical expert: know networking, security, competition and channels business dynamics

• Can walk the talk: lead lab, demo, best practices session & workshops

• Provide on the job training for partner SE’s by allowing partner SE’s to shadow presentations and evaluation installations

• Coordinate partner training activities with wide range of PANW field & corporate resources

• Lead security conversations across all SOC sub-domains and levels

• Understand the competitive landscape and be able to overcome common objections

• Work with Product Management, Technical Marketing and R&D as a conduit for the customer, providing product feedback in both directions

• Manage Proof of Concept projects for technical validation and revenue growth

• Capture customer requirements and design deployment architectures for customers

• Communicate within the sales teams for collaboration and enablement

• Advanced knowledge of the cyber threat landscape and threat actors

• Understanding of the Mitre ATT&CK framework

• Understanding of Incident Response and malware forensics techniques

• Understanding of SIEM operations and deployment within a SOC environment

• Scripting experience with a focus on Python and PowerShell

• Working knowledge of common security technologies, ie. vulnerability management, firewalls, threat intelligence

• Strong communication and presentation skills, both verbally and written

• Strong problem finding and solving skills, ability to analyze complex multivariate problems and use a systematic approach to gain quick resolution

• Advanced knowledge of web threats and cybercrime

• Experience installing, configuring ,and integrating a complex security environments

• Experience understanding malware, exploits, operating system structure and behavior 

• Working knowledge and experience around endpoint security (EPP & EDR), SIEM, vulnerability management tools, SOC, SOAR, UEBA, and other security technologies from an operational perspective

• Experience selling, demonstrating, installing, and solving security operation problems

• Experience working in a SOC as an incident response investigator

• Familiarity with some of the following vendors is a plus: Splunk (phantom), Crowdstrike, Carbon Black, Darktrace, Vectra, RSA Netwitness, Swimlane, LogRhythm, FireEye, Cylance, SentinelOne, Rapid7 IDR, IBM Rellient, Siemplify

Your Experience

• BSCS or equivalent with 3+ years of experience as a pre-sales engineer, solutions architect, or systems integrator

• Working knowledge of Palo Alto Networks products preferred, with a focus on Next-Generation Firewall and some comparative technologies; Continuous technical development

• Experience with systems installation, configuration and administration of routers/switches, UNIX/Linux, and Windows-based systems 

• Experience that emphasizes L2-L4 Networks (L2 switching architectures including Spanning Tree, IP routing that includes OSPF and BGP, and L4 Load balancing)

• Understand and effectively present our security platform to technical and non-technical audiences 

• Strong analytical skills to evaluate complex multivariate problems and find a systematic approach to gain a quick resolution, often under duress

• Mature and effective time-management skills

• Prior experience selling network infrastructure-based security appliances, including but not limited to: Firewalls, SSL/IPSec VPNs, Security Proxies and Caches preferred

• Familiarity working with Channel partners and understanding of a channel-centric market approach 

• Previous work in the enterprise networking security space preferred

• Experience and knowledge of modern network threats and malware, network forensics, automation tools and technologies, and end point security technologies

• Significant industry certifications (SANS, CISSP, CCIE, etc.) preferred

• Open to travel up to 50% of the time as appropriate

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 [email protected].

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.

Disclosure required by sb19-085 (8-5-20) of the minimum compensation (includes on-target earnings = base + on target incentives for sales roles) for this role to be located in the state of Colorado. If hired in Colorado, this position starts at $177,800/yr. Depending on the position offered, restricted stock units and incentive or bonus pay may be provided as part of this compensation package. Additional benefits may be found here.