Application Context · Palo Alto Networks · NetSec Central & Eastern

Scaling NetSec Professional Services
Delivery — predictably, profitably,
and at Director scale.

14+ years building Professional Services organizations in enterprise SaaS. Scaled global teams from 3 to 50+ engineers, lifted consultant utilization 125%, and reduced enterprise escalations 75% — while protecting service margin and customer satisfaction across periods of rapid product portfolio expansion.

Austin, TX · Central & Eastern NAM coverage

NGFW + SASE focus · Prisma Access certification underway

P&L ownership: utilization, margin, CSAT, service sales

Schedule a 30-Minute Conversation View 90-Day Plan

Download Resume (PDF)

14+

Years Leading PS

50+

Engineers Scaled

95%

Retention Thru M&A

Track Record

Professional Services outcomes I've already delivered.

The metrics PANW's Director job description prioritizes — utilization, margin, CSAT, deployment, adoption — quantified across roles at LogicMonitor, FirstUp, and Augmentry.ai.

+125%

Consultant utilization improvement

At LogicMonitor, restored services unit profitability through skill-based matching, bench compression, and weekly forecast discipline.

−75%

Enterprise escalation reduction

Achieved through structured engagement governance and earlier cross-functional alignment between PS, Sales, and Product.

9.1 /10

CSAT — current role, Augmentry.ai

Up from 7.2/10 baseline. Sustained while supporting 5M+ monthly transactions across customer-facing technical operations.

98%

Enterprise migration success rate

At LogicMonitor, delivered enterprise migration programs without service disruption during platform transitions.

−40%

Customer time-to-value reduction

Standardized implementation playbooks and automated onboarding workflows across global delivery teams.

95%

Retention through M&A integration

At FirstUp, preserved retention while moving customer migration acceptance from ~20% to 85% post-merger.

$1.2M

New recurring services revenue (year one)

Packaged service offerings launched at FirstUp during a period of organizational restructuring.

3 → 50+

Engineers scaled globally

Built distributed delivery across NA, EMEA, and APAC while standardizing methodology to maintain consistent quality.

Operational Focus

Three operating disciplines I'd bring to
PANW's existing NetSec service portfolio.

PANW already has a comprehensive Professional Services catalog — QuickStart, Deployment Services (Essential through Elite Plus), Advanced Deployment Services (Small through Extra Large), Consulting Services, and Extended Expertise. The opportunity isn't new SKUs. It's tightening the operating disciplines that move existing engagements through delivery faster, more predictably, and with greater customer self-sufficiency at the end.

PANW's Existing NetSec Professional Services Portfolio

QuickStart → Deployment Services (Essential / Enhanced / Elite / Elite Plus) → Advanced Deployment (S / M / L / XL) → Extended Expertise

01

Scope & Execution Discipline

Reducing scope variance across Advanced Deployment tiers

Advanced Deployment engagements (Small through Extra Large) carry the most delivery variability — and the most P&L exposure when they slip. The pattern that has worked in similar environments: pre-sales discovery checklists that validate scope before SOW signature, complexity-scoring frameworks that size tier selection more accurately, and explicit exit criteria that prevent "one-more-thing" creep.

Connection to track record: In prior roles, this discipline produced 98% on-time enterprise migration success and brought forecast accuracy within ±10% across distributed consulting teams.

02

Adoption & Enablement Discipline

Moving customers from "we configure" to "we guide, you build"

Post-deployment dependency is the silent margin killer in Professional Services. Customers who don't develop in-house operating fluency keep coming back for low-leverage tickets, blocking consultant capacity from new deal velocity. A "Build-With-Us" engagement pattern — paired admin training, runbook handoffs, and joint-touch QBRs through the first 90 days — flips that curve.

Connection to track record: At FirstUp this discipline drove 75% customer self-sufficiency, 3× customer-built integrations, and a 15% reduction in churn.

03

Margin & Visibility Discipline

Standardized cadence for utilization, backlog, and service health

Regional PS organizations often lack a single operating rhythm — weekly utilization reviews, monthly service health reporting, quarterly business reviews with GCS and Sales. Without it, leadership decisions on margin and capacity rely on anecdote. With it, decisions get faster, forecasting gets tighter, and backlog stops surprising anyone.

Connection to track record: At LogicMonitor this rhythm restored an underperforming PS unit to profitability and lifted consultant utilization 125%, while establishing the financial reporting frameworks leadership used for capacity and revenue planning.

Entry Plan

First 90 days as Director — listen, align, then move.

A measured entry into PANW's NetSec Central & Eastern delivery organization. Discovery before opinion. Alignment before action. Momentum before scale.

01

Days 1–30

Discovery & Orientation

Build working fluency before forming opinions.

Shadow active NGFW and SASE consulting engagements across Central and Eastern regions.
Meet individually with each manager and senior consultant to map capabilities and account health.
Review existing PSA, Salesforce, and BI tooling to assess reporting maturity.

02

Days 31–60

Alignment & Prioritization

Validate observations and align priorities cross-functionally.

Pressure-test findings with regional managers and GCS leadership.
Support 2–3 strategic account engagements to build credibility through delivery judgment.
Define shared operating rhythm: utilization tracking, service health reviews, escalation governance.

03

Days 61–90

Momentum & Proof Points

Demonstrate early impact through targeted improvements.

Implement weekly utilization, monthly service health, and quarterly business review cadences.
Roll out piloted delivery practice improvements regionally with TTV and project closure measurement.
Conduct value reviews with 1–2 strategic accounts to demonstrate PS contribution to renewal confidence.

What Success Looks Like at Day 90

Trending toward target

Utilization

±10%

Forecast Accuracy

Reducing across NetSec

Time-to-Value

Visible & predictable

Backlog Health

≥95%

First-Pass Success

Maintained or improved

CSAT

Download Full 90-Day Plan (PDF) View Executive Brief

Case Proofs

Three results worth carrying into NetSec at scale.

Restored an underperforming PS unit to sustained profitability.

LogicMonitor · Director, Professional Services & Solutions Engineering

Inherited a Professional Services unit operating below target on margin and utilization. Stood up standardized implementation playbooks, weekly utilization reviews, and a consistent service health reporting cadence.

Consultant utilization improved 125%
Customer time-to-value reduced 40% through standardized onboarding
Enterprise migrations at 98% success rate without disruption

Directly applicable to PANW's NetSec consulting margin, utilization, and operating rhythm priorities for Central & Eastern.

Held 95% retention through a post-merger platform migration.

FirstUp · Director, Global Professional Services

Led post-merger platform migration strategy during a period of organizational integration. Realigned teams, workflows, and escalation paths to maintain delivery continuity through the transition.

Customer migration acceptance moved from ~20% to 85%
Customer retention held at 95% through the integration period
Generated $1.2M in new recurring services revenue in year one

Directly applicable to PANW's M&A integration tempo and the customer confidence required during NetSec platform consolidation.

Lifted CSAT from 7.2 to 9.1 while supporting 5M+ monthly transactions.

Augmentry.ai · Director, Engineering Operations & Services

Built and lead customer-facing technical teams supporting 5M+ monthly transactions. Introduced structured technical discovery and qualification practices that prevent mis-scoped enterprise engagements downstream.

CSAT moved from 7.2 to 9.1 / 10
85% cost reduction in customer-facing technical operations
Reduced cross-functional friction across Sales, Product, Engineering, CS

Directly applicable to the Director-level cross-functional alignment required between PS, Sales, Product, and GCS leadership.

Measurement Discipline

The KPIs PANW's Director role prioritizes —
and how I think about each one.

Utilization

≥ Target

Lifted 125% prior

Service Margin

Trending up

Restored unit profitability

CSAT

9+ / 10

7.2 → 9.1 at Augmentry

Time-to-Value

Reducing

−40% at LogicMonitor

Service Sales Growth

Attached & growing

$1.2M new ARR at FirstUp

Escalation Volume

Decreasing

−75% prior

NetSec PS Health

Why PANW

The right place to operate
NetSec services at scale.

Palo Alto Networks is executing a platformization strategy that depends on consistent, profitable post-sale technical delivery across NGFW and SASE. The Director, NetSec Central & Eastern role sits exactly where service economics, customer outcomes, and cross-functional alignment converge — which is the work I've been doing for 14 years.

The role is not a greenfield rebuild. It's stewardship of an existing, high-quality services organization through a period of portfolio expansion and aggressive growth — protecting margin, customer satisfaction, and team health while standardizing operating rhythm across distributed regional teams.

That's the work I've done at LogicMonitor, FirstUp, and Augmentry. The opportunity to apply that operating muscle inside the SASE market leader, against the platformization tailwind, is exactly the right next step.

Job Description Requirements → Track Record

10+ yrs PS / CS / Tech Support in high-growth SaaS

14 years in PS leadership across enterprise SaaS — LogicMonitor, FirstUp, Augmentry

5+ yrs leading regional / matrixed teams

9+ years of director-level leadership across globally distributed PS organizations

Drive utilization, service sales growth, margin, CSAT

+125% utilization · $1.2M new ARR · Restored profitability · 9.1/10 CSAT

Strong NGFW + SASE foundation

Active Prisma Access NetSec Pro certification path · prior network security and IAM platform exposure

Run profitable PS business — revenue, margin, backlog

Operated PS P&L through M&A integration; standardized financial reporting frameworks for capacity & forecasting

Manage critical customer escalations

−75% escalation reduction through structured account governance

PSA, Salesforce, BI (Tableau) experience

Direct hands-on with PSA tooling, Salesforce reporting, and BI dashboards across roles

AI/automation in delivery

Reusable automation frameworks (LogicMonitor SDK patterns); AI integration reducing PS ops 40% (Augmentry)

Cross-functional alignment with Sales, Product, Engineering, GCS

Established alignment models that −75% escalations + improved handoff continuity

Travel up to 25%+ domestically

Available; Austin home base centers Central & Eastern coverage well

Economics

The math behind the disciplines.

Two simple illustrations of the financial leverage in NetSec PS operating disciplines — applied to representative consultant counts and rates.

Quarterly Capacity Reclaimed from Utilization Discipline

              Headcount × Weeks × Hours × Δ Utilization × Blended Rate
            

Consultants 20

Utilization lift 10 pts

Blended rate $200/hr

Fixed: Quarter = 13 weeks · Weekly hours = 40

= $208,000

additional billable capacity per quarter

Equivalent to ~1.6 consultants without any new hiring.

Annual Customer-Side Cost Avoidance from TTV Reduction

              Hours saved/week × Loaded rate × # Customers × 52 weeks
            

Hours saved per customer/week 10

Customer loaded rate $150/hr

Active customers 50

Fixed: Annual weeks = 52

= $3.9M

in annual customer-side cost avoidance

Translates directly into renewal confidence and expansion conversations.

Illustrative math using representative inputs. Actual figures depend on regional team composition, mix of service tiers, and specific customer rate structures.

Next Step

30 minutes is enough to know
if this is the right fit.

I've built the operating disciplines, the 90-day plan, and the track record. The next step is a short conversation about where the priorities sit.

Schedule a Conversation Email Directly

Download Resume (PDF) · Executive Brief · 90-Day Plan · LinkedIn

Scaling NetSec Professional Services Delivery — predictably, profitably, and at Director scale.