Palo Alto Firewall Architect
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Job Location:
Santa Clarita, CA - USA
Monthly Salary:
Not Disclosed
Posted on:
10 hours ago
Vacancies:
1 Vacancy
Job Summary
Job Title: Palo Alto Firewall Architect
Location: San Clara CA (Onsite)
Primary Skill Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS security policies NAT VPN (IPSec/SSL) VLAN
Job Description
Operational Support & Troubleshooting
- Provide L3-level support for Palo Alto firewalls including incident response and change management.
- Perform advanced configuration rule base management and policy optimization.
- Monitor firewall health performance and logs; proactively identify and resolve issues.
- Conduct root cause analysis for recurring or complex firewall/network problems.
- Manage upgrades patches and firmware updates for Palo Alto devices.
- Collaborate with SOC and IT teams to analyze and respond to security incidents.
- Mentor and guide L1/L2 support teams.
Architecture & Policy Management
- Work with network architects to design secure network segmentation and DMZ architectures.
- Review and implement change requests ensuring compliance with security standards and ITIL processes.
- Maintain detailed documentation for configurations operational procedures and troubleshooting guides.
- Participate in audits and compliance activities related to network security.
Strategic Initiatives
- Device Group Hierarchy Implementation: Design and implement proper device group hierarchy across Palo Alto firewalls; eliminate redundant device groups (e.g. Internet and InternetSyslog) to improve efficiency and reduce risk; address object limit commit issues and external dynamic list object limit avoidance; deduplicate security policies across device groups.
- Firewall Hardware Rationalization: Decommission legacy firewalls (e.g. CCASJC34-LAMR-UTM-1 2 3 4) to reduce hardware footprint and cost; replace end-of-life PA-220 firewalls (3 units) to align with PAN-OS 11.1 standards; eliminate 25 IPS firewall devices and migrate IPS functionality to existing on-prem firewalls.
- Prisma Access Decommissioning: Plan and execute elimination of Prisma Access to reduce cost and complexity; implement India central VM firewall and coordinate with GIS team for network changes; transition internet access for sites currently using Prisma to on-prem solutions.
- Policy & Configuration Improvements: Analyze and recommend improvements for Internet Access Policies (workstations/servers) including on-prem and remote controls; address URL entry issues and provide analysis for a closed-door approach; fix vWire interface configurations to ensure VLAN inspection consistency.
- Operational Monitoring & Best Practices: Recommend enhancements for operational monitoring and alerting (implementation not in scope); conduct health checks and best practices assessment; provide remediation recommendations.
Required Skills & Experience
- 10 years of experience in network security operations with at least 8 years focused on Palo Alto firewall administration.
- Strong expertise in Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS security policies NAT VPN (IPSec/SSL) and threat prevention features.
- Proficient in troubleshooting complex firewall and network issues (routing connectivity performance).
- Experience with centralized management platforms (Panorama).
- Familiarity with integration of firewalls with SIEM IDS/IPS and other security tools.
- Solid understanding of TCP/IP VLANs DMZ and network segmentation.
- Knowledge of change management and ITIL processes.
- Relevant certifications (PCNSE PCNSA CISSP CCNP Security) preferred.
- Excellent communication and documentation skills.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelors degree in computer science Information Technology or related field (or equivalent experience).
- Proven experience in device group hierarchy design and policy optimization.
- Hands-on experience with firewall hardware lifecycle management and migration.
- Familiarity with Prisma Access and VM firewall deployment.
- Strong knowledge of PAN-OS security policies and object management.
- Understanding of VLAN configurations and virtual wire interfaces.
- Ability to analyze and recommend improvements for security posture and operational resilience.
Preferred Skills
- Palo Alto Networks certifications (PCNSE PCCSE).
- Experience with large-scale firewall deployments and global network environments.
- Strong troubleshooting and analytical skills.
Key Competencies
- Attention to detail and risk mitigation mindset.
- Ability to work collaboratively with cross-functional teams.
Key Skills
- APIs
- Pegasystems
- Spring
- SOAP
- .NET
- Hybris
- Solution Architecture
- Service-Oriented Architecture
- Adobe Experience Manager
- J2EE
- Java
- Oracle
