Cybersecurity Firewall Analyst

Position Summary

Protect Operational Technology (OT) environments, including substation networks, against unauthorized cyber activity through the governance, validation, and continuous monitoring of network defense controls.

Ensure security technologies, access controls, and network segmentation strategies are implemented and maintained in alignment with NERC CIP standards, TSA Security Directives, SOX controls, and PCI-DSS requirements.

Responsibilities

• Perform day-to-day oversight and validation of firewall policy administration, including review, approval, and lifecycle management of network access control rules on specialized cyber defense systems.
• Review, validate, and govern network access control lists (ACLs) to ensure alignment with least privilege, segmentation requirements, and regulatory expectations.
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date documentation of network security infrastructure, configuration changes, and security strategies to support audit readiness and operational transparency.
• Develop and support testing and validation procedures for network security controls, ensuring changes are properly assessed and meet compliance requirements prior to implementation.
• Collaborate with security architecture and engineering teams to interpret, apply, and enforce security requirements within OT and substation environments.
• Provide oversight of network defense system lifecycle activities (installation, configuration, testing, and maintenance), ensuring implementations meet regulatory and internal standards.
• Support and provide regulatory guidance for project-based firewall and network security deployments.
• Proactively identify security risks, control gaps, and compliance issues, and recommend corrective actions aligned with NERC CIP, TSA, SOX, and PCI requirements.
• Participate in or lead MREE and TSA audit requests and interviews.

Required/Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, or other related degree
• 2 years related work experience
• In lieu of Bachelor's degree(s) AND 2 year(s) related work experience listed above, High School/GED AND 6 year(s) related work experience

Desired Qualifications

• CCNP and/or CISSP and/or GCIH and/or GIAC Information Security Professional and/or CompTIA Security+
• SANS

Additional Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in Cybersecurity preferably with firewall and proxy technology, event logging and detection mechanisms.
• Knowledge of foundational computer elements from the operating system, TCP/IP, routing and network topology.
• Knowledge of cybersecurity and privacy principles.
• Knowledge of the application firewall concepts and functions (e.g., Single point of authentication/audit/policy enforcement, message scanning for malicious content, data anonymization for PCI and PII compliance, data loss protection scanning, accelerated cryptographic operations, SSL security, REST/JSON processing).
• Ability to determine how a security system should work (including its resilience and dependability capabilities) and how changes in conditions, operations, or the environment will affect these outcomes.
• Skills in configuring and utilizing network protection components (e.g., Firewalls, VPNs, network intrusion detection systems).
• Skills in performing packet-level analysis.
• Knowledge of web filtering technologies.
• Experience with IDPS functionality.
• Experience with Palo Alto Firewalls.
• 1-5 years of relevant work experience in Information Technology.
• Compliance experience (PCI/SOX).
• Experience with Syslog, TACACS, Radius, and SNMP.
• Ability to perform self-directed work.
• Experience in networking protocols: DNS, HTTP, SSL, SMTP, TCP.
• Experience working with Hardware Security Models.
• Experience in Web security and compliance experience (e.g., Firewalls, IDS/IPS systems, DDOS prevention and PCI, HIPAA, FIPS, etc.).
• Strong Linux or Windows system administrator skills.

Office Environment

Hybrid Mobility Classification – Work will be performed from both remote and onsite locations after the onboarding period. However, hybrid employees should live within a reasonable daily commute to a Duke Energy facility.

Working Conditions

Occasional minor lifting at the waist of 25-50 pounds.

Travel Requirements

5-15%

Relocation Assistance Provided (as applicable)

No

No Represented/Union Position

No

No Visa Sponsored Position

No