Palo Alto Networks · 12 hours ago
Senior Principal Program Manager, Enterprise AI
Santa Clara, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$193K/yr - $264K/yr
12+ years expPalo Alto Networks is committed to protecting our digital way of life through innovation and impact. They are seeking a Senior Principal Program Manager to drive the industrialization of their Enterprise AI initiatives, orchestrating cross-functional teams to ensure successful AI project outcomes.
Agentic AICloud SecurityCyber SecurityNetwork SecuritySecurity
Responsibilities
Drive the AI Development and Rollout Lifecycle: Operationalize our proprietary AI development lifecycle, guiding teams through rigorous gate-checks for Problem Fit, Data Fit, and Process Fit to ensure high success rates
Orchestrate "AI Pods": Act as the "connective tissue" between Product Managers, AI Engineers, Data Engineers, and Business Subject Matter Experts, ensuring these diverse personas collaborate effectively within the AI lifecycle
Enforce Quality over "Vibes": Shift the culture from subjective testing to scientific evaluation, ensuring deliverables like "Golden Sets" and "Evaluation Harnesses" are prerequisites for launch
Accelerate "Kill Switch" Decisions: Empower leadership to make hard pivot/kill decisions early by surfacing clear data on feasibility risks and data readiness
Strategic Execution & Playbook Governance
Lead the timely execution of AI initiatives, managing the non-linear loops of Code, Data, and Model development
Apply the Feasibility Framework (assessing Stakes, Checkability, Accuracy, Latency, Economics) during the intake phase to identify "Traps" vs. "Sweet Spots" for Generative AI
Apply the Data Readiness Framework (assessing Security, Hygiene, Attributes, Rationale, Proven Examples) to determine if datasets are ready for enterprise AI ingestion
Facilitate "Kill Switch" reviews at key stage gates to prevent "zombie pilots" that never deliver Return on Investment
AI Pod Orchestration & Deliverable Management
Coordinate the workflow of the AI Pod, ensuring clear handoffs between the Strategy Layer (Product Mgr), Model Layer (AI Eng), and Data Layer (Data Eng)
Ensure the timely creation of modern AI deliverables, including Product Requirements Docs with defined "Error Budgets," Golden Sets (Acceptance Criteria), and System Architecture Docs
Manage dependencies for Infrastructure-as-Code and Guardrails Configuration to ensure the "Compound AI System" is deployed securely and reliably
Operational Excellence & Adoption
Drive Process Fit using the Process Design Framework, ensuring AI agents reduce steps and are embedded in the flow of work rather than creating new "chat portals" that users ignore
Partner with Business Subject Matter Experts to define Process Swimlanes and Operations Runbooks for "Human-in-the-Loop" handling of AI hallucinations
Establish Model Observability metrics (Cost, Latency, Feedback Loops) to prevent silent model decay in production
Qualification
Required
12+ years of technical program management experience with a track record of delivering complex, cross-functional technology initiatives
Deep understanding of the differences between Traditional Software (Deterministic) and AI Software (Probabilistic)
Expert-level ability to create CXO-ready pitch decks and messaging
You can distill complex technical 'AI noise' into clear, concise business narratives that drive executive decision-making
Experience with 'Golden Sets,' 'Evaluation Harnesses,' or similar ground-truth testing methodologies
You understand that 'it feels good' is not a valid launch criterion
Preferred
Experience managing projects involving Large Language Models, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, or Agentic workflows is highly preferred
Prior experience in Management Consulting (Big 4 or Strategy firm) is highly preferred
Benefits
Restricted stock units
Bonus
Company
Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto Networks is a cybersecurity company that offers cybersecurity solutions for organizations.
10001+ employees
H1B Sponsorship
Palo Alto Networks has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (579)
2024 (482)
2023 (341)
2022 (452)
2021 (493)
2020 (235)
Funding
Current Stage
Public CompanyTotal Funding
$65MKey Investors
Icon VenturesLehman HoldingsGlobespan Capital Partners
2012-07-20IPO
2008-11-03Series C· $10M
2008-08-18Series C· $27M
Leadership Team
Helmut Reisinger
CEO EMEA
Nikesh Arora
Chairman CEO
Recent News
2026-01-22
The Motley Fool
2026-01-22
Company data provided by crunchbase