Principal Consultant, Zero Trust Advisory, Proactive Services (Unit 42)

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

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 Description

Job Summary

As a Principal Consultant in our Zero Trust Advisory practice, you will lead complex, client-facing engagements, translating advanced Zero Trust theory into resilient, real-world security architectures. You will serve as a senior technical and strategic advisor for our most sophisticated clients, shaping their security posture and driving high-value transformation. This role is pivotal in delivering elite advisory services while also scaling Unit 42's market-leading Zero Trust practice.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead high-value, billable Zero Trust transformation engagements, converting complex security challenges into resilient architectural outcomes for enterprise clients.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to C-suite executives and technical teams, translating business risk into actionable security architectures aligned with NIST and CISA frameworks.
• Assess enterprise architectures to expose hidden zones of implicit trust, analyze telemetry to identify visibility gaps, and design risk-based control sets that prioritize least-privilege access.
• Design and deliver end-to-end Zero Trust architectures across IAM, network, endpoint, and cloud domains, producing clear roadmaps toward an optimized security posture.
• Proactively collaborate with clients and internal teams to scope new opportunities, draft statements of work, and respond to Requests for Proposals (RFPs).
• Audit the technical integration of SASE, Identity, and XDR solutions to ensure they function as a unified, automated security fabric.
• Drive thought leadership by developing intellectual property, presenting at industry events, and mentoring team members to enhance our collective expertise.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in a relevant field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 6+ years of experience leading cybersecurity advisory, risk management, or professional services engagements for enterprise clients.
• 3+ years of direct consulting experience architecting and deploying Zero Trust, SASE, or Identity-centric security models for large organizations.
• Demonstrated expertise in designing end-to-end security architectures aligned with frameworks like NIST SP 800-207 and the CISA ZT Maturity Model.
• Deep, hands-on expertise with modern security capabilities such as ZTNA, NGFW, SSE, SASE, CNAPP, XDR, and IAM.

Preferred Qualifications

• Proven track record of strengthening client relationships and contributing to business growth through pre-sales and solution positioning.
• Experience architecting security solutions in hybrid and multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Deep expertise with Palo Alto Networks technologies, including Prisma Access, NGFW, and Cortex XDR.
• Experience communicating complex technical concepts to both executive and engineering audiences.

Additional Information

The Team

Unit 42 Consulting is Palo Alto Network's security advisory team.  Our vision is to create a more secure digital world by providing the highest quality incident response, risk management, and digital forensic services to clients of all sizes. Our team is composed of recognized experts and incident responders with deep technical expertise and experience in investigations, data breach response, digital forensics, and information security. With a highly successful track record of delivering mission-critical cybersecurity solutions, we are experienced in working quickly to provide an effective incident response, attack readiness, and remediation plans with a focus on providing long-term support to improve our clients’ security posture.

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 $151,000 - $208,000/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  [email protected].

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.