Firewall Engineer

About the role

We are seeking a Senior Firewall Engineer to support the design, optimization, operation, and security of enterprise firewall infrastructure across complex and critical infrastructure environments. This role will focus heavily on Palo Alto Networks technologies, application traffic analysis, firewall policy optimization, Zero Trust initiatives, and operational resiliency. The ideal candidate will have strong hands-on Palo Alto experience, a solid foundation in IP routing and network architecture, and experience working in regulated, compliance-driven, or other high-availability environments.

Responsibilities

• Review and assess existing Palo Alto firewall policies to identify gaps, redundancies, and opportunities for optimization.
• Design, implement, and maintain firewall security policies and rule sets, including NAT and security zones, GlobalProtect VPN, and site-to-site VPN configuration and routing.
• Develop and maintain clear documentation of application communication flows, including source/destination, ports, protocols, and business purpose.
• Utilize existing flow data, traffic analysis, and firewall policy information to develop accurate application, port, and IP address mappings.
• Lead efforts to evolve firewall policies toward a Zero Trust security model, with a particular focus on OT environments and other critical systems.
• Partner with Security, OT, Infrastructure, and other stakeholders to define and enforce least-privilege access controls.
• Test and validate high-availability (HA) firewall configurations to ensure resilience, appropriate failover behavior, and operational continuity.
• Plan, execute, and validate firewall OS and code upgrades, minimizing operational risk and service disruption.
• Author detailed Methods of Procedure (MOPs) for maintenance, upgrades, and significant configuration changes.
• Follow established Change Advisory Board (CAB) processes, including risk assessment, change documentation, and approval workflows.
• Perform scheduled and emergency firewall maintenance in accordance with approved change plans.
• Validate changes following implementation and update documentation to reflect current-state configurations.
• Support audit, compliance, and cybersecurity initiatives by maintaining well-documented, testable firewall and network controls.

Qualifications

• Strong hands-on experience with Palo Alto Networks firewalls, including security policy and rule-set design, NAT and security zones, GlobalProtect VPN, and site-to-site VPN configuration and routing.
• Strong understanding of IP routing and network architecture within complex enterprise environments.
• Experience supporting or operating enterprise or service-provider networks.
• Experience working in regulated, compliance-driven, or security-sensitive environments.
• Strong ability to document firewall configurations, network changes, application flows, and architecture decisions.
• Experience with firewall maintenance, upgrades, change management, and troubleshooting.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work across Security, OT, Infrastructure, and other technical teams.

Required Skills

• Strong hands-on experience with Palo Alto Networks firewalls, including security policy and rule-set design, NAT and security zones, GlobalProtect VPN, and site-to-site VPN configuration and routing.

This response is AI-generated, for reference only.