Channel Systems Engineer

  • Full-time
  • Department: Sales/Sales Operations
  • Job Country: South Africa

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.

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.

Job Description

Your Career

As a Palo Alto Networks National Channel Systems Engineer, you will be responsible for
presenting the Palo Alto Networks Next Generation security platform and technology
solutions to Palo Alto Networks’ most strategic and impactful channel partners.

As a National Channel SE, You represent the company as a technical advisor tasked with building excitement and support for the company with the partner’s sales and technical teams. You take ownership of the technical relationship with our channel partners to demo, train, enable, communicate with and continually engage technical partner team members by proactively managing and delivering technical content and building relationships either onsite, online, and via telephone. You will be tasked with specific recruitment, enablement, training and communication objectives aligned with the objectives of Palo Alto Networks. In the National SE role, you will primarily work with your CBM and partner leadership to create and execute on your business plan, leveraging the regional SEs and regional sales teams to help drive and facilitate that plan.

Your Impact 

  • Ability to align partner needs and strategy with the value of Palo Alto Networks
  • Provide product demos on all aspects of the Palo Alto Networks Platform
  • Provide technical enablement and training to strategic/national partners
  • Strategically position Palo Alto Networks with other technologies sold by partners
  • Participate in partner business planning activities by supporting the development and execution of the partner technical business plan
  • Facilitate the planning and preparation of partner Sales Engineers (SEs) in achieving Palo Alto Networks and industry certifications
  • Oversee partner pre-sales activities, including competitive analysis, test plans, demos, proofs of concept, and RFPs
  • Cross-communicate Palo Alto Networks and partner value propositions, especially between partner and Palo Alto Networks field SEs
  • Understand and effectively present the Palo Alto Networks’ security platform
  • Create, execute, and review a technical readiness plan with the CBM/regional sales team, including measurable achievements to track progress
  • Provide localized technical training to partner’s pre-sales and post-sales technical resources
  • Support product/service training of the partner sales teams
  • Educate and promote the use of Palo Alto Networks support model and effective use of available resources
  • Collaborate with the CBM/regional sales team on the development and management of the channel partner business plan and mutual action plans
  • Understand and communicate the business advantages of a partnership with Palo Alto Networks
  • Develop a strong understanding of Palo Alto Networks’ channel partner objectives

Qualifications

Your Experience

  • BSCS or equivalent or equivalent military experience required and 6+ years of experience as a Pre-Sales Systems Engineer or Solution Consultant or Sales Engineer or Systems Integrator
  • Pre-sales experience handling Commercial customers & partners
  • Techno-Commercial Pre-sales experience handling solutions around Network Security (NGFW, IPS/IDS, WAF, DNS security etc), Cloud Security (CNAP, CWPP, WAAS etc), Secops (EDR/XDR, SOAR, SIEM, Threat Management, SOC etc)
  • General understanding of local/national partner community, technology trends, and competitive landscape
  • Strong communication and listening skills, including effective delivery of presentations
  • Ability to write and speak clearly and precisely, and structure information logically for digestion
  • Ability to ask questions to clarify situations before acting or making decisions
  • An understanding of how to qualify partner needs to create accord
  • Flexible and adaptable self-starter with strong relationship-building skills
  • Intellectual curiosity, humility, accountability, and positive approach
  • Demonstrable experience with systems installation, configuration, and administration of routers/switches, UNIX/Linux and Windows-based systems (prior Active Directory/LDAP experience desirable)
  • Experience emphasizing L2-L4 Networking (L2 Switching architectures including Spanning Tree, IP routing including OSPF and BGP, L4 Load-balancing)
  • Industry knowledge of security and network product and technology trends
  • Experience selling, demonstrating, installing and/or solving network infrastructure security products
  • Experience selling network infrastructure based security appliances including, but not limited to - Firewalls, SSL/IPSec VPNs, Security Proxies and Caches
  • Practical experience working with routing and switching products that will be installed adjacent to our appliances
  • Strong communication and presentation skills, both written and verbal
  • Strong analytical skills, ability to analyze complex multivariate problems and use a systematic approach to gain quick resolution

Additional Information

The Team

As part of our Systems Engineering team, you’ll support the sales team with technical expertise and guidance when establishing trust with key clients. You won’t find someone at Palo Alto Networks that isn’t committed to your success – with everyone pitching in to assist when it comes to solutions selling, learning, and development. As a member of our systems engineer team, you are driven by a solutions-focused sales environment and find fulfillment in working with clients to resolve incredible complex cyberthreats. 
 

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.

Palo Alto Networks is evolving and changing the nature of work to meet the needs of our employees now and in the future through FLEXWORK, our approach to how we 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.

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.

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  [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.

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