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
Your Career
The Senior Corporate Counsel, Deal Acceleration will provide expert legal advice and assistance on a range of complex commercial transactions, serving as a dedicated escalation point for high-value, strategic deals. Based in EMEA, this position will expertly manage and resolve critical contract escalations dealing with security (InfoSec), trust, data protection, privacy, and artificial intelligence (AI) matters.
You will be part of a fast-moving, collaborative legal team that directly impacts all go-to-market aspects of the business. The Deal Acceleration Team is focused on unlocking revenue and unblocking complex negotiations to scale across the entire Palo Alto Networks platform. This position works closely with sales, commercial counsel, deals desk, revenue, finance, information security, and product teams, and is a critical resource for colleagues globally. Strong candidates are proactive, solutions-driven, and independent, with direct and leading experience in negotiating subscriptions, cloud services, data protection agreements (DPAs), security addenda, and AI frameworks.
The Senior Corporate Counsel will report to the Senior Director of Legal - Product and Deal Acceleration.
Your Impact
- Manage Commercial Escalations: Serve as the primary, expert escalation point for complex, high-value commercial transactions involving software, subscriptions, services, and cloud agreements, ensuring deals close efficiently while aligning with company risk tolerances.
- Unblock Trust & Security Gatekeepers: Expertly negotiate and resolve sophisticated customer challenges surrounding enterprise security requirements, information security addenda, and customer trust frameworks.
- Drive Privacy & Data Protection Deals: Review, draft, and conclude complex Data Protection Agreements (DPAs) and cross-border transfer mechanisms, successfully aligning customer demands with GDPR, CCPA/CPRA, and global data regimes.
- Navigate AI Transactions: Advise on and negotiate contract provisions relating to current and upcoming legislation and customer requirements for artificial intelligence, automated decision-making, and algorithmic data usage.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner promptly and effectively with sales, operations, revenue, deals desk, and core privacy/product legal teams to recommend practical courses of action under tight deal timelines.
- Enablement and Scalability: Assist in training sales enablement and commercial counsel on handling frontline security, trust, privacy, and AI objections, reducing escalation friction over time.
- Process Optimization: Support the continuous improvement of standard form playbooks, fallback provisions, and legal escalation processes to accelerate deal velocity.
Qualifications Your Experience- Credentials: Must be a lawyer qualified to practice law in at least jurisdiction in EMEA with an active license in good standing.
- Years of Experience: 5+ years of relevant legal experience with the ability to work both independently and with a team and show demonstrated success, including direct in-house experience.
- Transaction Expertise: Significant experience advising internal clients on structuring sales, licensing, subscription, and commercial transactions under high pressure.
- Domain Knowledge: Expert-level familiarity with data protection/privacy regimes (GDPR, CCPA), information security practices, data governance, and emerging commercial AI liabilities.
- Execution Under Pressure: Excellent interpersonal skills, business judgment, strategic thinking, and superior work ethic, with the proven ability to manage numerous complex contract negotiations simultaneously under tight deadline and quarter-end pressure.
- Collaboration Mindset: Highly dynamic, team-oriented, and able to confidently influence and align cross-functional stakeholders (Sales, InfoSec, Product) to drive revenue forward.
- Industry Focus: Experience in cybersecurity or other high-technology sectors is preferred.
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 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.
Is role eligible for Immigration Sponsorship? No. Please note that we will not sponsor applicants for work visas for this position.
