Network Security Administrator II - Palo Alto Firewall Specialist

Network Security Administrator II - Palo Alto Firewall Specialist

Tampa, Florida, United States

Digital Hands is an innovative Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) with a mission to protect customer data and make technology available, productive and secure with the strongest talent in the cyber industry. Members of the Digital Hands Team work with leading technologies and protect a dynamic set of enterprise-class customers including best-known brands in the hospitality, financial, manufacturing and communications industries. Digital Hands employees enjoy competitive compensation and benefits, training opportunities, personal skills development, and opportunities for professional advancement across the organization.

Digital Hands is comprised of innovators leading from the front, fueled by a desire to achieve, test new boundaries, and a determination to do whatever it takes to get there first every time. Ideal candidates believe in the mission and vision of the company and have a genuine love for what they do. At Digital Hands, we take ownership, obsess over our promises, anticipate our customers' needs and get ahead of every threat so that our customers can focus on their business with the peace of mind that only comes from knowing their cyberworld is secure.

This is an onsite, full-time position at our Tampa Headquarters.

Position Summary

Working within the Digital Hands' Security Operations Center (SOC), the Network Security Administrator II, Firewall Specialist, is responsible for a broad range of firewall management tasks, including daily administration, advanced support for systems and applications, handling of Move/Add/Change/Delete requests, perform installations and upgrades, and primary liaisons for vendor support on behalf of the customer.

This position is a technical role, requiring a high level of hands-on experience, including a thorough understanding of all aspects of computer, network, and application security, in a very fast-paced services organization. The right candidate must possess proven experience implementing and maintaining a variety of firewall technologies, specifically Palo Alto products.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Monitor, deploy changes, support, and handle day-to-day firewall rule deployments, and firewall hardware/software refresh activities.
• Analyze, recommend, and deploy firewall solutions based on analysis of issues and implications for the business and continuous improvements.
• Identify emerging issues and trends to inform decision-making.
• Conduct independent analysis and assessment to resolve strategic issues around firewall policies and hardware/software refresh.
• Participate in customer implementation/onboarding of related security controls monitoring and/or management.
• Monitor and track performance, and addresses any issues related to firewalls and rule policies.
• Provide end to end technology support including computer, applications, network and storage, and root-cause analysis etc.
• Participate in new technology releases as applicable to firewall.
• Attend internal and customer meetings as required to provide technical expertise and serves as a subject matter expert on network firewall-related matters.
• Analyze network security requirements and implement perimeter security changes.
• Collaborate with customers' IT and security departments.
• Collaborate with vendor support for security solutions.
• Collaborate with internal departments.
• Maintain health and performance of security solutions.
• Apply latest security patches and ensure proper defenses are implemented.
• Optimize customer network and security postures.
• Perform security assessments and vulnerability scans.
• Create alerts within solutions to trigger operational events or actions.
• Create alerts within monitoring solutions to trigger health and performance alerts.
• Create monthly security reports for customers.
• Create and maintain dashboards for monitoring solutions.
• Participate in business continuity planning and testing.
• Participate in the development and maintenance of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) associated with managed systems and applications.
• Participate in on-call rotation.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Education and Work Experience

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field; or equivalent experience.
• 2+ years of experience in Security Administration, preferably working within an MSSP.
• 5+ years hands-on experience with Web Application Firewalls; F5 and Zscaler.
• 5+ years of hands-on firewall experience, preferably with multiple firewall products such as Palo Alto, Fortinet, Check Point, Cisco, and Juniper.
• Must have proven experience implementing, maintaining and writing policies within firewall technologies.
• Extensive experience with policy management and rule deployment.
• Knowledge of firewall rule policy optimizations and remediations.
• Operating systems knowledge and systems administration skills for various versions of UNIX, LINUX, and Windows and Windows Server.
• Professional certifications such as CCSA, CCSE, CCNA, CCNP Security, PCNSA, PCNSE, NSE 4, NSE 5, Network+, Security+, are highly desired.
• Strong knowledge of policies, procedures, audits, and risk management.
• Deep understanding of network and security protocols (SSL, DNS, IPSEC, NAT, etc).
• Experience in information security, ideally in multi-platform environments preferred.
• Experience with analyzing security attacks and exploits.
• Experience with SDN and SASE.
• Experience with SDWAN Technologies.
• Basic understanding of programming concepts and code.
• Access Control Concepts, Methodologies, and Techniques.
• Experience in the evaluation of new technology and security threats as they arise.
• Familiarity with information security best practices.
• Demonstrated documentation skills including creation of project metric reports and the creation of communication plans and change control documents.

Knowledge, Skills and Characteristics Required

• High level of interest in security and the need for the Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability of information and information systems to be maintained.
• High level of integrity, judgment, and situational awareness.
• Promoter of cross-team collaboration and growth.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Excellent analytical reasoning, creative problem solving, problem sensitivity.
• Excellent presentation and listening skills.
• Excellent organizational and time-management skills and the ability to prioritize.
• Flexibility and adaptability to change.
• Excellent customer service skills.