Palo Alto Networks

Principal Consultant

Palo Alto Networks$125K — $150K *
Information Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years in cybersecurity consulting or identity and access management (IAM) engineering
  • Hands-on experience with Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, and PAM architectures
  • Familiarity with identity posture audit tools like BloodHound and PingCastle
  • Exceptional communication skills for translating technical issues into business risks
  • Preferred certifications include CISSP, CISM, or Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate (SC-300)

Responsibilities

  • Lead end-to-end client identity assessments for security offerings
  • Brief CISOs and IT leaders on identity vulnerabilities and mitigation strategies
  • Perform technical reviews to identify gaps in identity architectures
  • Collaborate with incident response teams to integrate threat actor intelligence
  • Support pre-sales scoping and refine service offerings
  • Produce executive-ready assessment reports and actionable risk roadmaps

Benefits

  • Health insurance and wellness programs
  • 401(k) retirement plan with company match
  • Professional development and training opportunities
  • Flexible working hours and remote work options
  • Generous paid time off and holidays
Full Job Description
Job Summary

As an Identity Consultant within Unit 42, you will serve as a trusted advisor leading high-impact identity security assessments for enterprise clients. You will evaluate on-premises and cloud identity architectures (such as Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, and Okta), expose critical misconfigurations, and deliver threat-informed remediation roadmaps. This role requires a balance of executive-level client facilitation, deep technical identity expertise, and close alignment with internal threat intelligence, incident response, and sales teams.

Key Responsibilities
  • Lead Identity Assessments: Direct end-to-end client engagements for Unit 42's identity assessment offerings, leading discovery interviews, scoping technical reviews, and evaluating client IAM postures.
  • Client Engagement & Advising: Brief CISOs, IT leaders, and security operations teams on critical identity vulnerabilities, attack paths, and strategic mitigation steps from new Identity Assessment.
  • Identify Threat & Architecture Gaps: Perform technical reviews of Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, SAML/OAuth implementations, and Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions to identify privilege escalation paths, credentials that must be managed and weak controls.
  • Cross-Functional Incident Support: Partner closely with Unit 42 Incident Response and Threat Intelligence teams to integrate real-world threat actor TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures) into assessment methodologies.
  • Internal Alignment & Scoping: Collaborate with internal account teams, solution architects, and service leads to support pre-sales scoping, refine service offerings, and ensure seamless delivery execution.
  • Deliverable Development: Produce executive-ready assessment reports, risk matrices, and actionable technical roadmaps tailored to client risk profiles.


Required Qualifications
  • Experience: 5+ years in cybersecurity consulting and/or identity and access management (IAM) engineering, ortechnical identity risk auditing.
  • Technical Proficiency: Hands-on experience with Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, identity threat detection and response (ITDR), Ping, Okta, and PAM architectures.
  • Assessment Tooling: Familiarity with identity posture and security audit tools (e.g., BloodHound, PingCastle, Purple Knight, Idira, or Cortex).
  • Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated experience translating complex technical identity flaws into business risk for executive audiences.
  • Certifications (Preferred): CISSP, CISM, Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate (SC-300), or equivalent industry credentials.


Qualifications

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.

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About Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks, Inc. is an American multinational cybersecurity company with headquarters in Santa Clara, California. Its core products are a platform that includes advanced firewalls and cloud-based offerings that extend those firewalls to cover other aspects of security. The company serves over 70,000 organizations in over 150 countries, including 85 of the Fortune 100. It is home to the Unit 42 threat research team and hosts the Ignite cybersecurity conference.
Learn more about Palo Alto Networks
Size
11,870 employees
Market Cap
$42.6 billion
Industry
Net Income
-$368.2 million
Founded
2005
5 Year Trend
+25.7%
Revenue
$3.7 billion
NASDAQ

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