Firewall Network Engineer

The Firewall Network Engineer will be responsible for executing firewall rule remediation and optimization activities across the customer’s environment. This role will focus on identifying, analyzing, and correcting overly permissive, outdated, or misconfigured firewall rules to improve the organization’s overall security posture, using enterprise firewall platforms and policy-management tooling, including Palo Alto Networks and Tufin, to drive analysis and change execution. Responsibilities:

• Review existing firewall rule sets to identify overly permissive, redundant, unused, misconfigured, or undocumented access.
• Execute remediation activities, including rule cleanup and removal, rule modification and tightening of access, and consolidation and optimization of rule sets.
• Recommend and implement improvements to firewall rule structure and organization.
• Participate in potential top-to-bottom rule set redesign where appropriate.
• Ensure alignment with security best practices and internal standards.
• Implement approved firewall changes in accordance with change control processes.
• Validate changes after implementation to confirm that security objectives are achieved without unintended service disruption.
• Partner with security, networking, and application owners to understand application requirements and validate rule necessity and impact.
• Provide technical input into the prioritization of remediation efforts.
• Support development of a remediation backlog, including a firewall rule burn-down list.
• Provide updates on rules remediated, the complexity of remaining work, and risks or blockers.
• Maintain technical documentation of changes made.

• Strong hands-on experience with Palo Alto Networks firewall technologies, including rule administration and policy analysis.
• Deep understanding of network security principles, firewall rule design, and network segmentation.
• Experience performing firewall audits, rule cleanup, and optimization initiatives.
• Ability to work independently in a high-volume remediation environment.
• Strong analytical skills to assess rule risk and impact before change execution., * Firewall Platforms: Palo Alto Networks is required, including hands-on rule administration and policy analysis. Familiarity with Cisco ASA or Firepower, Check Point, or Fortinet is a plus.
• Firewall Policy and Change Automation: Tufin experience is highly preferred, including policy orchestration, rule lifecycle management, risk and impact analysis, and automated rule cleanup workflows. Familiarity with AlgoSec or Skybox is a plus.
• Network Security Fundamentals: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), routing and switching, Network Address Translation (NAT), virtual private networks (IPSec/SSL), network segmentation, zoning, and demilitarized zone (DMZ) architecture.
• Change Management and Documentation: Experience with IT service management (ITSM) and change control platforms, such as BMC Remedy, and network documentation tools.
• Scripting and Automation, a plus: Python or Bash for rule analysis, reporting, or bulk remediation tasks.
• Compliance and Frameworks: Familiarity with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) frameworks, or similar audit and compliance frameworks relevant to firewall governance.