AI Strategic Partnerships Business Development

AIRS Strategic Partnership Business Development Manager

Palo Alto Networks is seeking an AIRS Strategic Partnership Business Development Manager or Senior Manager to drive the commercial expansion of the Prisma AIRS (AI Runtime Security) portfolio through high-impact partnerships with Global System Integrators (GSIs), management consulting firms, and technology ISVs. This role sits within the AI Security Partnerships team and reports into the leadership of the AIRS strategic alliances function.

You will be responsible for the full lifecycle of AIRS partnerships - from identifying and sizing opportunities, building use cases and business models, structuring and negotiating partnership agreements, to co-developing partner offerings and taking them to market. You will work hands-on: building slides, modeling financials, drafting agreements, and collaborating with partners to shape how Prisma AIRS is packaged, priced, and sold through the partner ecosystem.

The right candidate brings a consulting background - rigorous, structured, and comfortable with ambiguity - combined with genuine curiosity about AI and a strong instinct for where technology trends create commercial opportunity. You are as comfortable building a business value slide for a partner CEO as you are walking a GSI technical architect through a Prisma AIRS integration pattern.

Key Responsibilities

1. Use Case Development & Opportunity Identification

The foundation of this role is the ability to identify where Prisma AIRS creates tangible value within partner-led AI deployments - and to articulate that value in commercial terms.

• Use Case Discovery: Identify, develop, and document compelling use cases for Prisma AIRS across GSI, consulting, and ISV partner contexts - covering AI model security, agent security, runtime protection, and red teaming.
• Opportunity Sizing: Rigorously size partnership opportunities using market data, customer segmentation, and partner revenue analysis. Build credible models that withstand scrutiny from finance and executive leadership.
• Market Signal Translation: Stay ahead of developments in AI infrastructure, agentic systems, and enterprise AI adoption to identify where new use cases and partnership opportunities are emerging before they become obvious.
• Experimentation Mindset: Actively experiment with new use case hypotheses - engaging partners in structured pilots and POCs - to validate commercial potential before committing to full partnership structures.

2. Business Modeling, Pricing & Business Case Development

You will own the financial and commercial architecture of AIRS partnerships, ensuring every deal is grounded in a rigorous, credible business case.

• Business Model Design: Develop and evaluate partnership business models - including resell, co-sell, embedded OEM, and managed service structures - that align partner incentives with Prisma AIRS growth objectives.
• Pricing & Commercial Structuring: Define pricing frameworks, discount structures, and revenue-sharing models for partner-led AIRS offerings. Ensure commercial terms are competitive, scalable, and operationally viable.
• Business Case Development: Build compelling, data-driven business cases for partnership investments - covering market opportunity, revenue potential, cost to serve, and strategic rationale - tailored for both internal approval and partner alignment.
• Financial Modeling: Construct detailed financial models that project partnership revenue, partner economics, and return on investment across different growth scenarios. Comfortable owning a model end-to-end.

3. Partnership Negotiation & Agreement Closure

You will lead the negotiation and closure of AIRS partnership agreements, navigating complex commercial, legal, and technical trade-offs to reach durable, mutually beneficial outcomes.

• Deal Leadership: Drive partnership engagements from initial outreach through signed agreement - owning the commercial narrative, managing partner stakeholders, and keeping momentum through complexity.
• Negotiation: Lead commercial negotiations with senior partner stakeholders including Heads of Alliances, Chiefs of Strategy, and General Counsel. Skilled at finding creative paths to agreement without sacrificing strategic value.
• Cross-Functional Coordination: Work closely with marketing, finance, legal, and technology teams at Palo Alto Networks to align on deal structure, approval, and execution. Able to move quickly across functions without losing the thread.
• Stakeholder Management: Build and sustain senior relationships across partner organizations engaging marketing, finance, legal, and technology leaders as peers. Comfortable in the room with executives and able to earn trust through substance.

4. Partner Offering Development & Go-to-Market

Closing a deal is the beginning, not the end. You will work with partners to shape how Prisma AIRS is packaged and brought to their customers.

• Partner Offering Design: Co-develop partner-specific Prisma AIRS offerings - defining the service scope, packaging, pricing, and value proposition - tailored to how each partner type (GSI, consulting firm, ISV) goes to market.
• Joint GTM Planning: Build and execute joint go-to-market plans with partners, including co-marketing commitments, sales enablement, pipeline targets, and customer success milestones.
• Commercial Enablement: Develop partner-facing commercial materials - business value slides, ROI frameworks, pricing summaries, and solution briefs - that equip partner sales and consulting teams to position Prisma AIRS effectively.
• Customer Engagement: Support partners in customer-facing settings - from executive briefings to commercial conversations - helping to close lighthouse deals that serve as the proof points for broader partner adoption.

5. Communication, Slide Craft & Executive Influence

In this role, your ability to communicate with clarity and conviction - in writing, in slides, and in person - is a core competency, not a soft skill.

• Business Value Storytelling: Build slides and written materials that make complex technology and commercial propositions immediately accessible to business audiences. Comfortable distilling a nuanced argument to a single clear page.
• Dual-Audience Communication: Able to move fluidly between technical and business audiences - presenting an architecture diagram to a partner CTO and a revenue model to a partner CFO in the same day, adjusting register and depth accordingly.
• Executive Presence: Communicate with senior stakeholders - internally across marketing, finance, legal, and technology, and externally at partner organizations - with the gravitas and clarity expected at the VP and C-suite level.
• AI-Augmented Productivity: Comfortable using AI tools to accelerate research, drafting, and analysis - and critically, able to identify and correct AI-generated errors, hallucinations, and low-quality outputs before they reach partners or leadership.

Critical Competencies

Business & Commercial Acumen

• Opportunity sizing and market analysis
• Pricing strategy and commercial model design
• Financial modeling and business case development
• Partnership agreement structuring and negotiation
• Understanding of GSI, consulting, and ISV business models and economics

Technical Fluency

• Ability to translate technology value propositions into business value propositions
• Understanding of AI infrastructure, inference, and agentic architectures sufficient to engage partner technical teams
• Familiarity with Prisma AIRS, NGFW, and CDSS or demonstrated ability to acquire product depth rapidly
• Comfortable using and critically evaluating AI tools in day-to-day work

Communication & Slide Craft

• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills
• Strong command of Google Slides and PowerPoint able to build slides that are clean, structured, and persuasive
• Ability to produce executive-quality business value narratives without extensive editing support
• Hands-on: willing to draft, build, and iterate directly rather than delegating to support functions

Partner Ecosystem Knowledge

• Understanding of how GSIs (Deloitte, Cognizant, NTT, Wipro) build practices and sell to enterprise customers
• Familiarity with management consulting firm structures and how they develop and monetize AI offerings
• Understanding of ISV go-to-market models including OEM, marketplace, and embedded integration patterns

Partner Ecosystem Scope

This role will build and manage commercial partnerships across three partner categories:

Global System Integrators (GSIs)

Deloitte, Cognizant, NTT, Wipro, Infosys, and similar firms. Focus on embedding Prisma AIRS into GSI-led AI delivery practices, managed security services, and enterprise transformation programs. Deals typically involve practice development agreements, co-sell arrangements, and managed service commercials.

Palo Alto Networks