Business Development Director Jobs in Santa Clara, CA

Santa Clara, California, United States Business Development Ref ID: JR-018856

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!

This role is remote, but distance is no barrier to impact. Our hybrid teams collaborate across geographies to solve big problems, stay close to our customers, and grow together. You will be part of a culture that values trust, accountability, and shared success where your work truly matters.

Job Summary

As the Director of Emerging GSI Business Development, you will lead the global strategy, creation, and execution of programmatic go-to-market (GTM) strategies targeting high-potential, emerging Global System Integrators (GSIs). These are partners who may not have massive bookings today, but possess the strategic capability, footprint, and alignment to become massive revenue engines tomorrow.

This role sits at the intersection of programmatic scale and entrepreneurial business development. You will build the global frameworks, onboarding plays, and monetization models that turn under-penetrated GSIs into thriving, repeatable sources of partner-led growth. This is a high-impact, global position that requires a strategic builder who is motivated by overall program bookings and programmatic KPIs.

Your Impact

1. Drive Programmatic Scale with Emerging GSIs

• Design & Execute Global Programs: Build robust, repeatable global frameworks for onboarding, enablement, incentives, and lifecycle management specifically tailored to emerging GSI partners.

• Create the Repeatable Blueprint: Standardize product-centric GTM plays (e.g., for SASE, Cortex, NGFW) that can be easily adopted, contextualized, and scaled by regional ecosystem teams across different geographies.

• Establish Onboarding Excellence: Own the initial partner incubation phase, ensuring new GSIs move quickly from contract signing to active market engagement.

2. Commercial Modeling & Offer Development

• Monetization Strategy: Partner with GSIs to define joint value propositions, develop solution storyboards, and consult on commercial packaging, end-customer pricing models, and billing structures.

• Service Definition: Assist partners in building managed or professional service offerings wrapped around Palo Alto Networks technology, driving early-stage pipeline visibility.

• Contractual Alignment: Lead business development activities and collaborate with Legal and executive stakeholder teams to structure foundational partner agreements.

3. Cross-Functional Collaboration & Measurement

• Global-to-Regional Orchestration: Serve as the central point of coordination, working closely with regional channel teams and distributors to ensure global programmatic strategies match local market dynamics.

• Performance Tracking: Manage and optimize the program based on strict programmatic KPIs (e.g., partner activation rates, service launches) alongside overall program bookings performance.

• Internal Evangelism: Act as an internal thought leader to product management, marketing, and sales leadership, advocating for the unique needs of the emerging GSI ecosystem.

Qualifications

We are looking for a strategic program builder who understands how to navigate complex partner ecosystems globally. You should possess strong business development and commercial acumen, balanced with enough technical familiarity to credibly position security platforms without needing to be an engineer.

• 10-15+ years of professional experience in Enterprise Tech

• Minimum of 5 years of experience directly building, launching, or managing partner GTM programs, global alliances, or partner-centric business development initiatives.

• Proven Track Record in Scale: Demonstrated experience taking early-stage or low-booking partner relationships and transforming them into scalable, high-growth engines.

• Moderate Technical Acumen: Comfortable discussing cybersecurity trends, architectures, and platform benefits (SASE, Cloud Security, XDR) to align business models, without requiring a deep systems engineering background.

• Global Scope & Cross-Functional Mastery: Experience operating across multiple geographic regions and influencing matrixed internal and external stakeholder groups.

• Entrepreneurial Mindset: Highly self-motivated, execution-focused, and comfortable building frameworks from the ground up in a fast-paced environment.

• Education: Bachelor’s degree or higher; relevant industry or business certifications are a plus.

The Team

You will join a high-energy Global GTM Programs team composed of opportunistic problem solvers. We navigate creative solutions to complex challenges, serving as internal subject matter experts who shape the future of how Palo Alto Networks scales through strategic alliances. We are highly collaborative, performance-driven, and focused on shared success.

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.

$210,000.00 - $289,250.00/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 accommodations@paloaltonetworks.com.

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.