Leaves & Accommodations Specialist

About this role

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   As a Leaves & Accommodations Specialist, you will be an integral part of the People team community, serving as the dedicated internal expert and owner for all complex leave of absence (LOA) and ADA accommodation matters. You will step into a highly specialized role designed to provide a single point of contact to manage North America LOA and accommodation matters across the organization. In this role, you will use your deep expertise in the interactive process, undue hardship reviews, and federal/state frameworks to help leaders navigate sensitive accommodation, leave of absence, and return-to-work scenarios. You are someone who balances technical, legal, and operational excellence with empathy, ensuring that our business can operate at full effectiveness with minimal disruption while fully supporting our employees. We are looking for an experienced and innovative HR professional with a passion for building scalable processes designed to support managers through complex compliance and operational challenges. You should be comfortable collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders, driving operational follow-through, working in ambiguity and scaling our accommodation infrastructure to meet evolving business and legal needs.  This role is critical for ensuring our company remains a supportive, inclusive, and compliant place to work as we continue to scale.

Your Impact

In this role you will: • Own the operational leave/accommodation lifecycle, ensuring the development of rigorous and clear processes for LOA and accommodations management.

• Build scalable workflows, templates, decision frameworks, service-level expectations, and reporting mechanisms to support the long-term success of the function.

• Serve as the single internal point of expertise and end-to-end accountability for complex leaves of absence and ADA accommodation matters.

• Lead and document a timely, individualized, and good-faith interactive process for complex accommodation requests, ensuring proposed options are thoroughly evaluated for effectiveness, feasibility, and compliance.

• Lead undue hardship reviews in close partnership with business leaders, People Business Partners (PBPs), and Legal to assess business impact and drive practical, timely solutions.

• Work closely with our third-party leave of absence administrator (Sedgwick), ensuring seamless internal coordination and status checks.

• Conduct structured reviews of employees on extended or long-term leave, identify cases requiring updated medical information, interactive process engagement, return-to-work planning, reassignment consideration, or employment-status resolution, and drive each case to a timely and well-documented outcome.

• Provide clear, operational guidance to managers and stakeholders on leave tracking, complex accommodations, and return-to-work protocols.

• Bridge the gap between decision-making and operational execution by tracking high-risk or non-standard leave scenarios through completion across Payroll, Benefits, Talent Acquisition, Finance and other functions as needed.

• Use data, reporting, and trend analysis to identify accommodation impacts, monitor state leave framework expansions, and make data-driven recommendations to leadership.

• Perform other HR operational tasks and/or project support as needed.

• Act as an advocate for equitable and fair treatment; ensure our accommodation practices continue to align with our company’s core values: Disrupt, Execute, Inclusion, Collaboration, and Integrity.

Qualifications Experience • A minimum of five years of dedicated experience managing leaves of absence and ADA accommodations within an HR, Benefits, Compliance, or Employee Relations function.

• Expertise in leading individualized, good-faith interactive processes and conducting complex undue hardship analyses to guide stakeholders toward practical, compliant solutions.

• Extensive practical experience advising managers on non-standard leave frameworks, evaluating essential job functions, functional limitations, and navigating return-to-work complexities.

• Experience reviewing and resolving extended leave cases involving exhausted statutory leave, uncertain return-to-work timelines, repeated extensions, reassignment considerations, and potential separation decisions. Demonstrated success partnering with third-party leave administrators (e.g., Sedgwick) to drive consistent communication and clear accountability throughout the leave lifecycle.

• Proven track record of operational excellence and project follow-through, with the ability to bridge gaps between stakeholder approvals and actual workflow execution in dynamic environments.

• Strong interpersonal skills and high emotional intelligence, allowing for

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