Senior Finance Manager, FP&A Sales Finance

Palo Alto Networks, Inc.; Santa Clara (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. seeks a Senior Finance Manager, Sales FP&A to partner with North America Sales and Finance leaders, driving strategic financial insight and operational rigor. You will support headcount planning, OPEX control, and cross-functional reporting across Sales Operations and HR.

You will own the close, forecast, and annual planning cycles, delivering data-driven insights to improve profitability and efficiency for the NAM organization.

Qualifications

• 8+ years FP&A experience with Sales leadership collaboration
• Demonstrated leadership in ambiguous, changing environments
• Strong project management, planning, and organizational skills
• Ability to translate data into actionable business insights
• Excellent verbal, written communication and business partnering skills

Responsibilities

• Partner with North America Sales leadership to drive strategic financial decisions and operational rigor
• Lead close, forecast, reporting, and monthly/quarterly analytics for headcount and OPEX
• Own annual planning and resource allocation for the NAM region
• Evaluate investments and GTM initiatives to optimize resource use and efficiency

Skills

Project management

Analytical thinking

Data-driven decisions

Communication

Leadership

Growth mindset

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business/Finance or related field

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.

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.

Your Career

Palo Alto Networks has an exciting opportunity for an experienced and highly motivated Senior Finance Manager, Sales FP&A professional to join our team. In this role, you will work closely with the Senior Director of North America Finance and business partners in North America Sales to help drive strategic decision-making, provide financial insight, and build operational rigor and efficiency. This individual will also partner with Speedboat and Central Finance teams, and collaborate cross-functionally with Sales, Sales Operations and HR teams on a regular basis. Being successful in this role requires a large degree of analytical thought leadership, excellent organization and communication skills, and the ability to drive process improvement and actionable insights across all the key FP&A areas

Your Impact

• Business Partnering
  • Trusted advisor and Finance partner to key Sales leadership within North America
  • Develop an understanding of their business and translate that into operational and financial information
  • Help develop various metrics and reports to monitor the health of the business on a regular basis, including identification of areas of P&L risk and opportunities
  • Deliver insights of data to help grow and drive profitability of the NAM business
  • Unlock growth opportunities through deep data analysis and implementation of effective analytical frameworks
  • Support the analysis, approval and execution of key operational activities such as headcount requisitions, program spend, purchase requisitions, and time and expenses
  • Able and willing to champion difficult but necessary trade-offs in the business
  • Lead headcount (HC) management and workforce planning, serving as the financial gatekeeper for headcount requisitions, backfills, and team capacity alignment
  • Manage regional OpEx and operational spend through rigorous review and approval of program spend, purchase requisitions, and time & expenses
• Quarterly / Monthly Close, Forecast and Reporting
  • Guide and drive the Segment Sales financial close and forecast process for headcount and OPEX
  • Provide monthly and quarterly financial reporting, analysis and key metrics that enable business decision making
  • Incorporate best practices and create a more streamlined, methodical and data-driven approach to drive forecasting accuracy, and drive a more efficient close process
• Lead Projects to evaluate investments and GTM strategy, optimize resource allocation and drive efficiency and process improvement
  • Upholding a mindset of continuous improvement to enable the NAM to scale the business and deliver high impact analysis for decision making
• Annual Planning & Resource Allocation
  • Lead annual financial and operational planning for Area, partnering with leadership to set growth targets, allocate resources, and optimize headcount.

Qualifications

• 8+ years FP&A experience including recent (within past 3 years) strategic business partnership with Sales leadership at Manager level or above; or prior experience in strategy consulting focused on go-to-market strategy
• Ability to demonstrate effective leadership in ambiguous and frequently changing situations. Thrives in ambiguity with ability to deliver strong business outcomes
• Strong project management, planning, and organization skills, including ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously in a fast-paced environment
• Takes charge of complex issues and develop new ways of approaching business challenges independently and proactively
• Superior analytical and problem-solving skills, with demonstrated intellectual and analytical rigor
• Ability to lead by example with a growth mindset, willingness to listen, receive feedback and embrace change, and a natural hunger to continuously learn and improve
• Execution-focused
• Excellent verbal, written communication and business partnership skills
• Self-starter with unquestionable integrity
• Passionate, high-energy, impactful team-player
• Bachelors in