Claude Roger Bailey
Niles,IL
Summary
Senior Sales Engineer with over 25 years of experience in information systems, telephony, and sales. Proven success in managing Fortune 100 accounts and driving strategic initiatives aligned with corporate goals. Expertise in contract negotiations and operational management, with a strong focus on mentoring and team development. Recognized for tracking industry trends and implementing improvements that enhance sales performance.
Overview
12
12
years of professional experience
7
7
Certifications
Work History
Systems Engineer - Strategic Accounts
Palo Alto Networks
Santa Clara, California
01.2021 - Current
- Proven Track record of sales over many years exceeding quota and developing sales strategy, exceeding 140 million in total sales.
- Completed 9 month management course for aspiring leadership which aligns to management succession planning.
- Manages team workshops and account strategy meetings to ensure adoption and expand this knowledge to other sales teams.
- Communicates effectively with Senior Leaders to ensure they understand how product offering was progressing
- Partnered with Product Management to enhance product offerings and identify market gaps against competition.
- Collaborates with Strategic Business partners and GSI's to ensure our GTM was aligned to customers needs.
- Guided and managed interactions and projects across Services, SDL, Resident Engineers, and Customer Support, leading a team of up to 15 per account.
- Leading team calls and forecast calls.
- Provided mentorship to field sales engineers to enhance their skills and performance. and assistance where needed.
- Developed and taught soft skills course for emerging Sales Engineers.
- Developed and delivered multiple speaking engagements for Engineers and peers in 2025.
- Palo Alto Networks mission is to be the cybersecurity partner of choice, protecting our digital way of life.
- Solution Consultant of the Year - Nominated by peers
- Leadership speaking events for up and coming sales engineers and peer development.
- Mentorship work with Solution Consultants
- Aviation ISAC team lead for trade show
- Nominated to Aspiring Leadership program for Palo Alto Networks (9 Month Program)
- Palo Alto Networks Century Club Award Winner (138% of Total Quota - FY '23)
- Closed $23M in New Business in H1 FY 2023
- Promoted to New Central Global/Strategics Team (Majors was previously the largest central team)
- Big Deal Club Award for FY 2022 (individual deals above $5M+)
- Reached personal goal of over 100 million dollars in sales at a single company
- Palo Alto Networks Century Club Award Winner (154% of Total Quota - FY '21)
- Achieved 253% of Speedboat Quota (Specialty Product - Cortex and Prisma - FY '21)
- Largest US Win for Cortex Data Lake, with Analytics and XSoar (FY '21)
- Moved to Strategic Accounts Team (FY '21)
- Palo Alto Networks Century Club Award Winner (125% of Total Quota - FY '20)
- Achieved 130% of Speedboat Quota (Specialty Product - Cortex and Prisma - FY '20)
- Lead North Central Majors in Net-New Customer Wins (FY '20)
- Palo Alto Networks Century Club Award Winner (153% of Quota - FY '19)
- US Central Major Accounts Sales Team Champions - Prisma Cloud (FY '19)
- Grew New Revenue by 136% Over Previous Account Team (FY '19 vs. FY '18)
Senior Systems Engineer / Networking and Security
VMWare
Santa Clara, California
01.2017 - 01.2018
- Designed and implemented NSX solutions and architecture for healthcare sector, enhancing system functionality.
- Completed account planning with Regional Sales Director and Account Managers for Healthcare accounts.
- Secured $6M in revenue in first year, successfully fulfilling sales objectives.
- Led regional QBRs to align teams on strategies and objectives, facilitating collaboration across departments.
- Assisted management in recruitment and development of SE training plans, contributing to improved SE retention.
- Development of SE education materials and development of the partner community surrounding our customers.
- Partnered with Product Managers to enhance features within the existing product portfolio.
- Collaborated with Product Managers and BU owners to drive product requirements.
- Worked with Support to ensure customer satisfaction and drive closure to technical issues.
- To empower people and organizations by radically simplifying IT through virtualization software.
Sales Engineer - SLED / Mid-Enterprise
Fortinet
Santa Clara
01.2015 - 01.2017
- Working as a Healthcare Solution Architect I developed and presented technical sales solutions for Partners, Customers, and Sales Teams.
- Spoke at events and supported trade shows and events such as CHIME and HIMSS.
- Provided technical pre-sales support to customers and partners for Mid-Enterprise and SLED accounts.
- Focused on customer needs and presented product features and benefits.
- Product areas include NGFW firewalls, sandboxing, web content filtering, anti-virus and application control.
- Led and educated teams on Healthcare vertical needs and industry direction
- Achieved 122% Quota attainment in Healthcare vertical
- Achieved 108% Quota attainment in Mid-Enterprise / SLED
- Co-developed training plans with Sales Engineering Director to enhance account performance.
- Regional QBRs where we work with teams to understand their focus and strategy for the past and upcoming quarters.
- Assisted management with recruitment, SE training plans, SE retention.
- Account planning with Regional Sales Director and Account Managers for Healthcare accounts.
- Partnered with Product Managers to enhance features within the existing product portfolio.
- Collaborated with Product Managers and BU owners to drive product requirements.
- Work with Support to ensure customer satisfaction and drive closure to technical issues.
- Joint effort with Sales OPS to ensure customers hardware/software is delivered timely.
- Managed pre-sales opportunities by responding to RFIs and RFPs to secure customer engagements.
- Focused on enhancing security protocols to ensure the safety of people and devices.
Channel Sales Engineer - Americas
Cisco Systems
Santa Clara
01.2014 - 01.2015
- Supported National Sales team in achieving revenue goals through quality pre-sales technical support and value-driven presentations for partner sales teams.
- As a Cisco Systems Engineer I try to ensure the best possible technical solution with the information provided.
- Specific areas of sales include verticals such as System Integrators, Service Providers, and Channel Partners.
- My customer base was 4 partners with international footprints.
- Proven Sales track record on a National Sales Team covering Cisco's Partner Organization.
- Sales quota of over 3 Billion between the partners I support.
- Enabled reps and SEs to increase Cisco product sales, contributing to the achievement of targeted sales goals and metrics.
- Cloud Networking Sales and market development for partners.
- Participated in Wireless Virtual Technology team to enhance technology solutions.
- New route to market development for IT services.
- Promote the use of Cisco tools and Partner Portals.
- Submit periodic reports on the state of the business.
- Conduct training for reps on products and promotions.
- Assist team in conducting Cisco events, such as floor days, promotions and table top displays.
- Increase overall brand awareness and mindshare for Cisco.
- Developed and facilitated monthly engineering workshops for partner engineers to enhance product knowledge and sales effectiveness.
Education
High School Diploma -
St. John's Northwestern Military Academy
Delafield, Wisconsin01.1992
Some College (No Degree) - Fire Science (Firefighter / EMS School)
WCTC
Waukesha, WisconsinSome College (No Degree) - Computer Science
Harper
Schaumburg, IllinoisSome College (No Degree) - Broadcast Journalism
Drake University
Des Moines, IowaSkills
- Cisco Technologies
- Palo Alto Networks Security Platform
- Juniper Technologies
- Fortinet Fabric Platform
- F5
- SOAR
- Healthcare and Insurance Industry Security
- Industrial security
- SASE
- Law enforcement consulting
- AI Security
- Citrix Systems Products
- Cloud security
- Data Lake
- Endpoint Security
- SIEM
- Aviation Industry Security
- IOT Security
- SAAS
- Leadership development
- IAAS
- Solutions architecture
- Technical sales strategies
- Customer relationship management
- Product management collaboration
- Account planning
- Team leadership
- Effective communication
- Mentorship development
- Public speaking
Qualifications Certifications Specialties
- Cisco routers, switches, load-balancers, and firewalls
- Palo Alto Networks Security Platform
- Juniper routing/switching/security
- Fortinet 'Fabric Platform'
- F5 load-balancers
- SOAR
- Healthcare and Insurance Industry Security
- Industrial Security
- SASE
- Law Enforcement Consulting
- AI Security
- Citrix Systems Products
- Cloud Security
- Data Lake
- XDR
- SIEM
- Aviation Industry Security
- IOT Security
- SAAS
- Leadership development
- IAAS
Certification
Palo Alto Cybersecurity Profesional
Accomplishments
Solution Consultant of the Year - Nominated by peers
Affiliations
Dog Rescue team
Timeline
Systems Engineer - Strategic Accounts
Palo Alto Networks
01.2021 - Current
Senior Systems Engineer / Networking and Security
VMWare
01.2017 - 01.2018
Sales Engineer - SLED / Mid-Enterprise
Fortinet
01.2015 - 01.2017
Channel Sales Engineer - Americas
Cisco Systems
01.2014 - 01.2015
High School Diploma -
St. John's Northwestern Military Academy
Some College (No Degree) - Fire Science (Firefighter / EMS School)
WCTC
Some College (No Degree) - Computer Science
Harper
Some College (No Degree) - Broadcast Journalism
Drake University