Palo Alto Networks

Senior Consulting Director, Offensive Security, Proactive Services (Unit 42)

Palo Alto Networks$236K — $275K *
US-AnywhereRemote in Virginia, US
Technical Services
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree plus 14+ years or Master's with 12+ years in relevant fields; or PhD with 10+ years
  • Extensive experience managing consultant teams for penetration testing
  • Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills for client interaction
  • Proven ability to draft clear reports for executive audiences
  • Experience in scoping opportunities and drafting proposals
  • Hands-on knowledge of penetration testing tools and techniques
  • Willingness to travel approximately 30% as needed

Responsibilities

  • Drive business growth and profitability with oversight of P&L and resource utilization
  • Lead a team to enhance the security posture of top-tier clients
  • Manage scheduling and alignment of offensive security specialists
  • Mentor and guide the professional development of security personnel
  • Craft policies reflecting the latest security practices and threat actor behaviors
  • Lead customer-facing cases for complex security challenges
  • Ensure quality and technical oversight during client engagements
  • Support complex security operations using advanced techniques
  • Assist sales by articulating penetration testing methodologies to clients
  • Develop tools and methodologies to streamline processes
  • Contribute to the maturation of Unit 42's offensive security services

Benefits

  • Access to a comprehensive benefits package
  • Support for professional training and development
  • Opportunities to work with cutting-edge security technologies
  • Dynamic work environment focused on innovation and growth
  • A chance to lead impactful security initiatives for esteemed clients
Full Job Description
Job Summary

The Senior Consulting Director, Offensive Security will lead a team of technical security consultants focused on assessing and challenging the security posture of Unit 42's clients across a wide array of industries, geographies, and organizational structures. They will be the client's advocate for cybersecurity risk management and will provide strategic and technical leadership in this area.

Key Responsibilities
  • Drive business growth and profitability, maintaining direct oversight of practice P&L, margin targets, revenue forecasting, and resource utilization efficiency.
  • Provide a direct positive influence on the security posture of the world's most prestigious organizations by leading Unit 42's elite group of cybersecurity professionals in a variety of assessments for our top-tier clientele.
  • Orchestrate and manage a dynamic schedule for a large team of elite offensive security specialists, ensuring optimal alignment of skill sets to meet client needs and maximize usage of available billable hours.
  • Serve as a mentor to a team of offensive security personnel, maximizing professional development by providing ad hoc technical guidance and aligning employees with appropriate industry-standard training courses.
  • Craft policies governing offensive security practices which reflect cutting-edge capabilities of advanced persistent threat actors and enforce security best practices that ensure the safety of our client's environments.
  • Fulfill a customer-facing case leadership role for multiple concurrent events, guiding a technically diverse team of personnel through the complex challenges posed by some of the world's largest networks.
  • Ensure high quality engagement outcomes and deliverables by providing quality assurance and technical oversight during engagements.
  • Provide hands-on support for highly complex offensive security operations, utilizing cutting-edge techniques in technically challenging environments.
  • Provide front-line support to the sales team by meeting with clients to clearly articulate various penetration approaches and methodologies to both technical and executive audiences. Transform customer requirements into executable statements of work, including a work breakdown structure with accurate estimates of billable hours for each discrete phase of testing.
  • Develop scripts, tools, and methodologies to automate and streamline internal processes and engagements.
  • Assist in the development of security standards and best practices for the organization and recommend security enhancements as needed.
  • Assist with the development and maturity of both new and existing Unit 42 offensive security offerings.


Qualifications

Required Qualifications
  • Bachelor's degree with 14+ years of progressive cybersecurity experience; OR Master's degree with 12+ years; OR PhD with 10+ years in Computer Science, Cyber Security, Digital Forensics, or a related field.
  • Extensive experience managing a team of consultants in the execution of a variety of penetration testing requirements.
  • Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to serve as a front-facing representative of Palo Alto Networks, building and maintaining strong relationships with clients and stakeholders.
  • Proven ability to draft thorough, articulate reports that convey technically complex material to an executive-level audience, ensuring clear understanding and informed decision-making.
  • Experience scoping new opportunities with prospective clients, including drafting statements of work and proposals.
  • Hands-on experience and deep understanding of tools and techniques for conducting network, wireless, and web application penetration testing.
  • Ability to perform travel requirements as needed to meet business demands (on average 30%).


Preferred Qualifications
  • Demonstrated subject matter expertise in multiple core offensive security service offerings, including a deep understanding of architecture requirements for Red Team exercises, Endpoint Detection and Response evasion methodologies, and Advanced Persistent Threat emulation techniques.
  • Experience with penetration testing, administering, and troubleshooting major flavors of Linux, Windows, and major cloud IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS providers (i.e., AWS, GCP, and Azure).
  • Knowledge of best practices for application, database, and web server design and implementation.
  • Knowledge of open security testing standards and projects, including OWASP & MITRE ATT&CK.
  • Experience with scripting and editing existing code and programming using one or more of the following: Perl, Python, Ruby, Bash, C/C++, C#, or Java.


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.

$236,000.00 - $275,000.00/yr

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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