Director, Product Management - Federal Certifications & Regulated Products (Cortex)

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!

We believe collaboration thrives in person. That’s why most of our teams work from the office full time, with flexibility when it’s needed. This model supports real-time problem-solving, stronger relationships, and the kind of precision that drives great outcomes.

Job Summary

Own the Cortex product roadmap into US federal environments (FedRAMP Moderate/High, IL-5 etc.) and serve as the single product-facing POC for everything Cortex invests in across federal. You'll own commercial-vs-federal parity awareness, map which Cortex capabilities enter each boundary and when, drive the Cortex engineering teams to audit-readiness, and equip the field and federal customers with accurate readiness and roadmap information. You'll partner closely with our Global Certifications & Regulated Products team (who own authorizations and the audit relationship), the federal field/sales team, and peer federal PMs across Palo Alto Networks.

Responsibilities

• Own the product roadmap for bringing Cortex capabilities into federal environments - sequencing what enters each boundary and when.
• Be the commercial-vs-federal SME and single POC for Cortex federal: know exactly what is in/out of each boundary, feature parity, data flows, and integration differences, and keep this current and well-documented so sales and customers are never surprised.
• Build and maintain a Cortex module-by-environment availability map (what's authorized, transactable, and at parity across commercial / Moderate / High / IL-5) - an immediate priority for the role.
• Drive Cortex engineering teams to audit-readiness : translate compliance and audit findings (controls, vulnerabilities, posture gaps) into clear product/engineering requirements, prioritize them, and drive remediation. The certifications team owns the audit relationship; you own getting Cortex ready.
• Coordinate across teams and functions - Cortex engineering, NetSec, IT, GNS, and the certifications team; build the relationships that get everyone to the table.
• Partner cross-functionally with the product organization, engineering, DevOps, and DevSecOps to bring capabilities into federal boundaries and keep them running.
• Enable the field and federal customers : provide sales with accurate readiness, roadmap, and positioning material; represent Cortex authoritatively in customer conversations (roadmap, capabilities, moderate vs high vs IL-5) - this includes customer-facing sessions, with sales owning the selling motion.
• Own the federal market and business view for Cortex: the federal market and buyers, Cortex's federal TAM, current business performance across Moderate/High/IL-5, the competitive landscape, and opportunities for growth. Use it to make the investment case to leadership.
• Partner with peer federal PMs (the portfolio-level FedRAMP/DoD PMs and the field's federal sales team) to ensure coverage.

Qualifications

• Director-level product management experience with security or cloud platforms.
• Direct, hands-on experience with federal certifications (FedRAMP Moderate/High, IL-5, DoD) - personally driving them, not supporting from the periphery; comfortable working with auditing partners and reading audit reports.
• convert audit/compliance findings (controls, vulnerabilities, posture gaps) into engineering requirements and drive them to completion.
• Strong technical depth - can read architectures and reason about data flows, module capabilities, and integrations, and hold credible conversations with technical leadership.
• Proven ability to drive outcomes across many teams under sustained pressure (program-management strength and resilience; this role coordinates across 10+ teams).
• Strong customer-facing and field-enablement skills with senior federal stakeholders.
• US citizenship - required for hands-on access to federal environments.
• Operates autonomously and drives cross-functional efforts in a fast-moving environment.

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.

$243,300.00 - $333,900.00/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 View email address on click.appcast.io.

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.