Director, Brand & Creative

Palo Alto Networks; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 204,000 - 282,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks is seeking a Senior Brand Director to lead global brand strategy, governance, and creative campaign development for a complex, platform-driven enterprise. You will balance craft with operational discipline while scaling brand storytelling across geographies and channels.

Reporting to the VP, Brand & Creative, you will lead a team of Brand Managers, partner with Product Marketing, Media, PR, and regional teams, and drive metrics for brand health, awareness, and attribution.

Qualifications

• 12–15+ years of senior leadership in brand strategy and marketing.
• 8+ years leading managers and senior leaders.
• Proven success transforming product-focused narratives to unified platform storytelling.
• Expertise in digital-first brand building and AI-enabled creative workflows.
• Strong ability to translate technical concepts into emotive narratives.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration.
• Comfort leading large teams and driving measurable brand impact.
• Get-things-done mindset; thrives in ambiguity.

Responsibilities

• Define global brand strategy and architecture across geographies and channels.
• Develop the company’s brand narrative and ensure consistency.
• Orchestrate full-year modern marketing plan across brand, digital, social, PR, events and regional marketing.
• Partner with Product Marketing, Media, Events & Comms teams to develop briefs and campaigns.
• Lead a team of Brand Managers executing global campaigns with consistency across channels.

Skills

Brand leadership

Executive leadership

Brand storytelling

Cross-functional collaboration

AI-driven creative

Communication skills

Ambiguity tolerance

Problem solving

Global marketing

Team building

Job description

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.

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! 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 Summary

The Brand & Creative team plays a pivotal role responsible for evolving Palo Alto Networks’ brand into a globally recognized, digital-first symbol of Trust, Innovation, and AI-powered security. Reporting into the Vice President of Brand & Creative, this Senior Brand Director will lead the global brand strategy, creative / campaign development, brand governance, ensuring a cohesive and compelling expression of Palo Alto Networks’ value as it continues its transformation from product-centric leader to unified, platform-driven innovator. Balancing world-class creative craft with rigorous operational discipline, the Senior Brand Director will elevate brand storytelling while enabling scale, speed, and consistency in a highly complex, global enterprise. Leads a team of high performing (3) Senior / Brand Managers that serve as the quarterbacks on brand strategy, our masterbrand brand platform, creative campaign development and thought leadership.

General Responsibilities

• Develops brand architecture and guidelines to ensure all brand messages effectively capture the PANW voice and drive brand equity
• Brings our products to life via storytelling, experiences, programs, and integrated marketing campaigns
• Partners effectively with Product Marketing, Product, Campaign/Media, PR/Comms, Social and Regional Marketing stakeholders to develop go-to-market integrated campaigns and deliver exceptional brand/product experiences
• Acts as a brand advocate, providing thought-leadership, inspiration, and best practices that contribute to the success of the brand across all channels
• Understands how to use brand strategy to drive business results
• Ensures the voice of the customer is consistently heard and incorporated into the thinking of brand and creative concepts at the highest levels
• Leads a team of highly creative and ambitious brand marketers
• Influences others through the entire campaign dev journey to ensure input, alignment, and understanding of the campaign approach and details

Specific Responsibilities

Brand & Creative Strategy

• Define and evolve Palo Alto Networks’ global brand strategy, shifting from fragmented product narratives to a cohesive, platform-level story anchored in trust, innovation, and AI leadership.
• Leads the development of the company’s brand narrative and architecture, ensuring consistent expression across geographies, audiences, and channels.
• Leads the development & orchestration of our full year modern marketing plan across brand, digital marketing, social media, Comms, sales, events and regional marketing.

Creative Excellence at Scale

• Partners closely with Product Marketing, Media, Events & Comms teams to develop strategically sound marketing briefs that drive our always on creative development process.
• Partners with our internal Creative team to evolve into an AI-first, high-performing creative studio that balances bespoke, world-class craft with scalable, repeatable asset production.
• Leads a team of Brand Managers responsible for the execution of our creative strategy and production for integrated, 360-degree global campaigns, ensuring seamless consistency across awareness, consideration, and demand generation stages of the user journey.

Brand Governance & Integrity

• Defines clear brand standards, visual systems, and tone of voice, enabling global teams to execute with speed while maintaining absolute brand integrity.
• Leads the implementation of scalable creative systems (playbooks, etc.) including AI-enabled workflows and design platforms that empower teams without diluting brand quality.

Thought Leadership & Executive Presence

• Leads the development and implementation of the Palo Alto Networks’ executive thought leadership platform, shaping editorial narratives and flagship content that influence industry dialogue and reinforce the company’s position as a trusted authority.

Measurement & Impact

• Owns brand health metrics, including awareness, consideration, recall, and sentiment among senior technology and security decision-makers globally.
• Leverages data, research, and insight to continuously refine brand strategy and demonstrate measurable business impact.
• Partners with our analytics team to ensure everything that we put out in the world is measurable and driving attribution back to brand health and campaign KPIs.

Qualifications

• 12-15+ years of senior leadership experience in brand strategy, creative campaign development, experiential and paid media, gained within global technology companies
• 8+ years of people leadership experience, including leading managers and senior leaders.
• Demonstrated success leading brand transformation from product-focused narratives to unified, platform-level storytelling.
• Deep expertise in digital-first brand building and modern content ecosystems, with a track record of leveraging AI into creative workflows and operating models.
• Ability to translate complex technical concepts into simple, emotive, and high-impact visual and verbal narratives.
• Proven ability to lead large, complex teams and influence cross-functional stakeholders at the working & executive level.
• Experience deploying strong creative judgement and audience/customer focus
• Builds partnership and collaboration to address organization-wide challenges or opportunities
• Excellent written and oral communication skills; the ability to present and explain creative directions to a broad audience, and to contribute effectively during all phases of development
• A "get things done" creative problem solver who thrives in ambiguity and continuously pushes the boundaries of traditional enterprise tech marketing.

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.

$204,000.00 - $281,500.00/yr

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 [e-mail].

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.