Principal Consultant

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! 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 Summary As an Identity Consultant within Unit 42, you will serve as a trusted advisor leading high-impact identity security assessments for enterprise clients. You will evaluate on-premises and cloud identity architectures (such as Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, and Okta), expose critical misconfigurations, and deliver threat-informed remediation roadmaps. This role requires a balance of executive-level client facilitation, deep technical identity expertise, and close alignment with internal threat intelligence, incident response, and sales teams. Key Responsibilities Lead Identity Assessments: Direct end-to-end client engagements for Unit 42’s identity assessment offerings, leading discovery interviews, scoping technical reviews, and evaluating client IAM postures. Client Engagement & Advising: Brief CISOs, IT leaders, and security operations teams on critical identity vulnerabilities, attack paths, and strategic mitigation steps from new Identity Assessment. Identify Threat & Architecture Gaps: Perform technical reviews of Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, SAML/OAuth implementations, and Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions to identify privilege escalation paths, credentials that must be managed and weak controls. Cross-Functional Incident Support: Partner closely with Unit 42 Incident Response and Threat Intelligence teams to integrate real-world threat actor TTPs (Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures) into assessment methodologies. Internal Alignment & Scoping: Collaborate with internal account teams, solution architects, and service leads to support pre-sales scoping, refine service offerings, and ensure seamless delivery execution. Deliverable Development: Produce executive-ready assessment reports, risk matrices, and actionable technical roadmaps tailored to client risk profiles. Required Qualifications Experience: 5+ years in cybersecurity consulting and/or identity and access management (IAM) engineering, ortechnical identity risk auditing. Technical Proficiency: Hands-on experience with Active Directory, Microsoft Entra ID, identity threat detection and response (ITDR), Ping, Okta, and PAM architectures. Assessment Tooling: Familiarity with identity posture and security audit tools (e.g., BloodHound, PingCastle, Purple Knight, Idira, or Cortex). Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated experience translating complex technical identity flaws into business risk for executive audiences. Certifications (Preferred): CISSP, CISM, Microsoft Certified: Identity and Access Administrator Associate (SC-300), or equivalent industry credentials. Qualifications 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 . - /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 . 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.