Director of Analyst Relations

We are looking for a Director of Analyst Relations to join our amazing team, reporting to Cato’s SVP of Product Marketing and Strategic Alliances. This is an exciting opportunity to work with the company who invented and pioneered the revolution of SASE.  

You will play a critical role in nurturing and building relationships with technology industry analysts to maintain and enhance Cato’s credibility and thought leadership in the industry.  

You will also help formalize our fast-growing technological alliances and partnerships with peer security vendors. 

Responsibilities 

• Evolve and execute Cato’s annual strategic analyst relations plan designed to inform and support product and market strategy, and market positioning to drive pipeline and category leadership. 

• Craft and deliver company level narratives and storylines to facilitate broader and deeper analyst understanding about Cato’s vision, strategy, value proposition and key competitive differentiation.  

• Develop project plans and drive cross-functional program management of key reports and surveys including Gartner Magic Quadrants, Forrester Waves and alike.  

• Manage the strategy, coordination and preparation of presentations, briefing sheets, talking points and materials needed for key spokespeople ahead of analyst interactions. 

• Monitor research and deliver analyst sentiment, insights and opportunities on market and competitors to key internal stakeholders and the senior leadership team.  

• Communicate Cato’s news to the analyst community and handle inbound analyst requests in a timely and effective manner, including: surveys, inquiries, briefings and customer requests. 

• Engage and educate executive key stakeholders on the value of AR to business and have clear points of view on the program goals, milestones and support required from this critical audience 

Required skills 

• 8+ years of work experience working in Analyst Relations. Strong preference for experience in a high growth SaaS company. Additional work experience in product marketing, strategy, competitive intelligence is a plus. 

• Experience with industry analyst evaluations such as Gartner Magic Quadrants, and Forrester Waves a must 

• Excellent written and verbal communications skills with an outstanding ability to translate technology features into business outcomes. 

• Proven ability to function as internal and external spokesperson. Internal: presence to present to senior management regarding the market, competitive landscape and analyst outlook. External: ability to communicate company messages and positions and to handle objections. 

• Ability to establish effective working relationships with all levels within Cato’s and the analyst community. This includes working with executives in sensitive situations. 

• Ability to manage and deliver multiple projects simultaneously and under tight timelines; self-motivated and thrives in a fast-paced, unstructured environment 

• Proven strategic problem solver with a demonstrated ability to develop stories with data and facts to influence industry trends. 

• Relationship driven - experience building successful senior level relationships, internal and external. 

• Ambition, drive and commitment to great results; including a constant desire to evolve the AR program and to understand and develop best practices. 

• Intellectually curious, creative problem-solver who loves to tackle complex challenges.  

• Travel as needed for advisory days, analyst events, etc.  

• Knowledge in networking and/or security preferred  

Education 

• Background or education in computer science, marketing or business administration is an advantage.