Senior Director, AI Center of Excellence

Our Mission

At Palo Alto Networks®, we’re united by a shared mission—to protect our digital way of life. We thrive at the intersection of innovation and impact, solving real-world problems with cutting-edge technology and bold thinking. Here, everyone has a voice, and every idea counts. If you’re ready to do the most meaningful work of your career alongside people who are just as passionate as you are, you’re in the right place.

Who We Are

In order to be the cybersecurity partner of choice, we must trailblaze the path and shape the future of our industry. This is something our employees work at each day and is defined by our values: Disruption, Collaboration, Execution, Integrity, and Inclusion. We weave AI into the fabric of everything we do and use it to augment the impact every individual can have. If you are passionate about solving real-world problems and ideating beside the best and the brightest, we invite you to join us!

Job Summary

As the Senior Director, AI Center of Excellence, you will lead the organization responsible for standing up a dedicated AI Center of Excellence. You will partner closely with Regional Leaders, Support, Product, Engineering, and Sales to create a unified AI integration experience and drive alignment across teams in our "speedboat" model for Cortex and Cloud. Your insights will shape delivery innovation, influence product direction, and lead the transformation of how we integrate automation and AI into our global services model.

This is a role for a leader who brings clarity to complexity, elevates teams, and navigates change with confidence. You will set the tone for AI-driven delivery excellence while contributing directly to our overarching global efficiency strategy.

Key Responsibilities

• Standardize delivery practices, proactively identify risks, and drive data-backed decisions across areas to improve service health.
• Align with Global Customer Support, Sales, Product, Engineering, and Partner teams to drive customer and business outcomes.
• Represent the AI COE in global forums, advocating for AI transformation insights and regional needs.
• Lead teams through complex workflow transitions, rapid change, and new AI-driven delivery models.
• Drive the deployment of the Agentic initiatives to build, vet, and index specialized agentic workflows.
• Build, develop, and mentor a high-performing technical organization focused on AI innovation.
• Upskill team resources in advanced prompt engineering and agentic multi-agent architecture designs.
• Create a culture grounded in accountability, continuous learning, and operational excellence.
  

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years in technical services, AI operations, professional services, or similar roles in a high-growth SaaS/cloud environment.
• 5+ years leading regional or multi-regional teams with functional and matrixed reporting structures
• Strong track record of delivering against KPIs including deployment speed, workflow efficiency, margin, and utilization.
• Deep familiarity with AI platforms, prompt engineering, agentic architecture, and enterprise software environments.
• Experience presenting to and influencing executive stakeholders across Product, Services, Engineering, Sales, and Customer Success organizations.
• Experience leading specialized teams through technological transformations.
• Strong communicator who can influence technical and non-technical teams.
• Proven ability to build trust, develop leaders, and guide teams through ambiguity in rapidly evolving technology environments.
• Sound judgment in managing escalations and complex AI deployment decisions.
• Highly collaborative, with a track record of driving alignment and continuous improvement.
• Ability to travel 20–30% within the North America region, with occasional international travel requirements.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent military experience required.

Preferred Qualifications

• Industry-recognized credentials in AI/Machine Learning, Cloud Architecture, or Data Science.
• Master’s degree or MBA preferred

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/com-missioned roles) is expected to be the annual range listed below. 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 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.

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