Sr. Director, Data Science

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.
Our vision is a world where each day is safer and more secure than the one before. 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.

Who We Are

We take our mission of protecting the digital way of life seriously. We are relentless in protecting our customers and we believe that the unique ideas of every member of our team contributes to our collective success. Our values were crowdsourced by employees and are brought to life through each of us everyday - from disruptive innovation and collaboration, to execution. From showing up for each other with integrity to creating an environment where we all feel included.

As a member of our team, you will be shaping the future of cybersecurity. We work fast, value ongoing learning, and we respect each employee as a unique individual. Knowing we all have different needs, our development and personal wellbeing programs are designed to give you choice in how you are supported. This includes our FLEXBenefits wellbeing spending account with over 1,000 eligible items selected by employees, our mental and financial health resources, and our personalized learning opportunities - just to name a few!

At Palo Alto Networks, we believe in the power of collaboration and value in-person interactions. This is why our employees generally work full time from our office with flexibility offered where needed. This setup fosters casual conversations, problem-solving, and trusted relationships. Our goal is to create an environment where we all win with precision.

Job Description

Your Career

We are seeking a hands-on leader to build and guide the data science discipline at our company. You will be a strategic partner to leaders across several functions including GTM, Customer Success, Product and Marketing, shaping our most critical business decisions. Your team will serve as the company's quantitative center of excellence, tackling our most ambiguous and complex challenges.

We’re looking for a "player-coach" who can both nurture a high-performing team and dive deep into the technical work. You have a background of statistics and ML, but you are actively leaning into the AI revolution to transform your own work and that of your team. If you thrive on owning open-ended problems, navigating both technical and organizational complexity, and building systems that drive real-world value, this role offers a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact.

Your Impact

• Lead & Mentor: Recruit, hire, and cultivate a world-class team of data scientists. Foster a culture of intellectual curiosity, rigorous execution, and deep business partnership.

• Define the Roadmap: Partner with executive leadership to identify and prioritize the most impactful business problems that can be solved with data science, from marketing attribution and product adoption to customer health scoring.

• Steer Flagship Initiatives: Serve as the direct technical lead and architect for our most critical, cross-functional data science initiatives, personally guiding the methodology, execution, and delivery to ensure success on high-stakes projects.

• Execute with Impact: Lead your team in the end-to-end execution of complex projects. You will be hands-on, guiding the technical approach and contributing directly to the modeling, analysis, and deployment of key initiatives.

• Tell the Story, Own the Details: Translate sophisticated model outputs and analytical insights into clear, compelling narratives for executive audiences. When needed, you can effortlessly go deep, explaining the nuances of algorithms and model architecture to technical stakeholders.

• Drive to Production: Champion the full data science lifecycle. You understand that a model isn't done until it's deployed. You will ensure your team's work is productionalized, monitored, and maintained, leveraging your practical knowledge of data engineering and MLOps.

Qualifications

Your Experience 

• A track record of building and leading high-performing data science teams in a fast-paced environment.

• Master's degree or PhD in a quantitative field such as Statistics, Mathematics, Computer Science, Economics, or a related discipline.

• Extensive experience (10+ years) in data science with a clear progression into leadership roles (5+ years), demonstrating success across multiple domains (e.g., product analytics, marketing science).

• Proven ability to take ownership of ambiguous, complex problems and deliver concrete outcomes through a combination of technical rigor and strategic thinking.

• Deep fluency in the modern data science stack, including Python and SQL, and a strong, intuitive grasp of machine learning, statistical modeling, and causal inference.

• An innate ability to build strong, collaborative relationships with cross-functional partners, establishing yourself and your team as trusted advisors.

Additional Information

The Team

Our shared mission to safeguard our digital way of life unites and drives us. You will join a multinational team building data and data science solutions to unlock significant business potential and boost productivity by resolving complex data problems. This involves developing innovative algorithms, predictive models, conducting advanced statistical analysis, and engineering scalable data pipelines. Your work will ultimately lead to data products and actionable insights that empower decision-making across the organization. You will be at the forefront of leveraging cutting-edge technologies and methodologies.

We believe in using AI to amplify, not replace, human intellect. We expect you to champion this mindset. You and your team will leverage the best tools available—from generative AI for code and analysis to agentic data science frameworks—to accelerate your impact.

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/commissioned roles) is expected to be between $257,000 - $$357,250/YR. The offered compensation may also include restricted stock units and a bonus. A description of our employee benefits may be found here.

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  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.