IT Security Analyst Senior

Ampcus Inc. is a certified global provider of a broad range of Technology and Business consulting services. We are in search of a highly motivated candidate to join our talented Team. Job Title: IT Security Analyst Senior Location: Atlanta, GA About the Role We are seeking a Security Engineer (WAF SME) to join a dynamic security operations function. In this role, you will lead day-to-day operations, tuning, and incident response for our Web Application Firewall (WAF) and broader Web Application & API Protection (WAAP) stack—Akamai (primary) and Cloudflare (secondary). You will maintain platform stability, drive false-positive reduction, improve protection efficacy against evolving threats, and ensure changes move safely through our standard change processes. You will collaborate closely with SOC/IR, App/Dev, SRE, and Network teams and participate in an on-call rotation for major incidents. Job Summary Performs all procedures necessary to ensure the safety of information systems assets and to protect systems from intentional or inadvertent access or destruction. Responds to information security-related questions and inquiries using established information security tools and procedures. Resolves and/or performs follow through to resolve all information security issues and questions. Implements and administers information security controls using software and vendor security systems. General Duties & Responsibilities Executes security controls to prevent hackers from infiltrating company information or jeopardizing programs. Researches attempted efforts to compromise security protocol and recommends solutions. Maintains security systems and administers security policies to control access to systems. Maintains the company’s firewall and utilizes applicable encryption methods. Creates information security documentation related to work area and completes requests in accordance with company requirements. Identifies opportunities and executes plans to improve workflow and understands and quantifies business impacts of those improvements for communication to management. Interfaces with user community to understand security needs and implements procedures to accommodate them. Ensures that user community understands and adheres to necessary procedures to maintain security. Provides status reports on security matters to develop security risk analysis scenarios and response procedures. Performs other related duties as assigned. Operational Support & Incident Handling Monitor and action WAF/edge security ticket queues; resolve incidents and service requests with clear, timely communication. Triage and respond to Layer 7 events (e.g., bot abuse, credential stuffing, API abuse, SQLi/RCE attempts, L7 DDoS), escalating as needed. Provide on‑call support for Sev 1/Sev 2 incidents; collaborate with SOC/IR, SRE, and application owners on containment and recovery. Platform Administration & Tuning Onboard, configure, tune, and optimize Akamai and Cloudflare WAF policies (managed & custom rules, rate limiting, geo/IP/ASN controls, mTLS, headers). Manage bot management controls (scoring, allowlists, challenges/JS, behavioral features where available). Implement policies for OWASP Top 10, API/WAAP protections, and business logic abuse mitigation. Balance security vs. latency/caching; measure impacts and roll out changes safely. Change, Hygiene & Governance Execute changes via standard change control (peer review, testing, staged rollout, rollback plans). Maintain certificate management, safe DNS/edge updates, and favor policy-as-code approaches where possible. Provide platform health/status reporting with recommendations to reduce incident volume and downtime. Monitoring, Telemetry & Reporting Integrate WAF/edge telemetry with SIEM; maintain dashboards for threat trends, false positive rates, coverage, and hygiene. Create actionable alerts and runbooks/SOPs to accelerate response and reduce recurrence. Collaboration & Enablement Partner with SOC/IR to enhance playbooks and Dev/App teams to align policies with application behavior. Contribute to internal knowledge base and continuous improvement of control efficacy and resiliency. Track emerging threats and vendor updates; recommend timely configuration changes and control enhancements. What You Need (Required Qualifications) Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering (or related field) or equivalent practical experience. 3‑6 years’ hands‑on experience operating in Network Security space for any enterprise environment. Must have at least 2 years of hands‑on experience with Akamai. Demonstrated expertise in policy tuning and incident response for web and API protections (blocking vs. challenge strategies, exception handling, FP reduction). Solid grasp of TLS/PKI, DNS, CDN caching/edge routing, and performance tradeoffs. Experience integrating WAF logs into SIEM and building actionable dashboards/alerts. Scripting/automation exposure (Terraform, bash, Python, Ansible or PowerShell), comfort with JSON/YAML and regex; API/CLI experience beneficial. Strong analytical troubleshooting, communication, and cross‑team collaboration skills. Willingness to participate in rotational on‑call. Nice To Have (Preferred) Certifications: Akamai ACA/ACP, Cloudflare, CISSP, Security, GIAC (GWAPT/GWEB/GCIH), PCI ISA, AZ 104/AZ 700, AWS SAA/SOAA. Familiarity with any of following: Cloudflare, Fastly, Imperva, F5 ASM/Advanced WAF, Azure Front Door, AWS CloudFront WAF. Vendor/platform depth: F5 iRules, Fastly VCL behaviors, or vendor policy DSLs. Broader security stack familiarity (e.g., DDoS scrubbing, SIEM/SOAR, CASB/CSPM, vuln management). DevSecOps experience including CI/CD integration for edge policy promotion/testing. Payments/financial services experience; working knowledge of PCI DSS, NIST CSF, ISO 27001. Must Have AKAMAI experience is an absolute must have as this will be the primary tool the contractor uses. Cloudflare is a secondary tool and will be a must have experience as well. Absolutely must have 3‑6 years of experience; will not be considered an entry level position. Prior Banking/Payments platform is not necessary. On‑Call: Participates in an on‑call rotation for high‑severity incidents. Educational Requirements Bachelor’s degree in computer science preferred or the equivalent combination of education, training, or work experience. General Knowledge, Skills & Abilities Knowledge of networks technologies (protocols, design concepts, access control). Knowledge of security technologies (encryption, data protection, design, privilege access, etc.). Knowledge of network design and engineering. Proficiency in time management, communications, decision making, presentation and organizational skills. Proficiency in planning, reporting, establishing goals and objectives, standards, priorities and schedules. Basic to intermediate decision‑making and problem solving skills. Basic to intermediate verbal and written communication skills to technical and non‑technical audiences of various levels in the organization. Experience establishing and maintaining effective working relationships with employees and/or clients. Ampcus is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identify, national origin, age, protected veterans or individuals with disabilities. #J-18808-Ljbffr Ampcus Inc