Principal Cybersecurity Engineer – Firewall Platforms: Firewall Policy Operational Artific

This position requires office presence of a minimum of 5 days per week and is only located in the location(s) posted. No relocation is offered.

Join AT&T and reimagine the communications and technologies that connect the world. Our Chief Security Office ensures that our assets are safeguarded through truthful transparency, enforce accountability and master cybersecurity to stay ahead of threats. Bring your bold ideas and fearless risk-taking to redefine connectivity and transform how the world shares stories and experiences that matter. When you step into a career with AT&T, you won’t just imagine the future-you’ll create it.

We are hiring aPrincipal Cybersecurity Engineer (Firewall Platform) to join our high-performing cybersecurity Team. This is a hands-on keyboard, deeply technical, Engineering role for experts withreal-world Firewall Policy operations and management experience at the large-scale enterprise level. You will be responsible forhands-on-keyboards managing, operating, and optimizing Enterprise Firewall Platforms, drivingpolicy quality and consistency, and supporting troubleshooting and operational excellence across a complex, global environment.

Over time, you will also help apply

Operational Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve efficiency, reliability, and security.

• Own the end-to-end firewall policy lifecycle, including creation, review, implementation, optimization, monitoring/soak, and decommissioning of policy changes.
• Execute changes safely within defined change management processes, ensuring proper validation, documentation, and post-change verification to meet intended outcomes.
• Operate, maintain, and continuously tune firewall infrastructure to ensure compliance, performance, resiliency, and strong security posture.
• Troubleshoot connectivity and security policy issues in collaboration with architecture, engineering, and operations teams across enterprise environments.
• Progress from guided execution to full ownership of complex policy and operational activities, demonstrating increasing autonomy in managing enterprise-scale network security challenges.
• Deliver high-quality, secure changes at scale while effectively navigating enterprise systems, workflows, and operational frameworks.
• Support a 24x7 operational model, including participation in on-call rotations and coordination with the Global Technology Operations Center (GTOC).
• Identify and drive opportunities for automation and operational excellence, leveraging tools such as Copilot and ChatGPT to improve efficiency, reduce manual effort, and enhance accuracy.
• Contribute to continuous improvement by adopting AI-assisted capabilities and automation to increase throughput, reduce risk, and strengthen overall security effectiveness.
• Maintain high standards for documentation, repeatable processes, and operational readiness to ensure consistency and scalability.

This is a Principal Position requiring direct, recent experience implementing, validating, and troubleshooting Firewall Policies.

• 8+ years of hands-on experience operating, maintaining, and managing firewall platforms in large-scale enterprise environments.
• Demonstrated expertise in firewall policy lifecycle management, including rule creation, optimization, cleanup, recertification, and audit-ready documentation—particularly within Palo Alto environments.
• Strong technical knowledge of firewall constructs (App-, User-, Content-, NAT, zones, security policies, and service objects) and the ability to troubleshoot complex issues involving rule matching, routing impacts, decryption, and application behavior.
• Proven ability to troubleshoot network and security issues under time pressure, delivering consistent resolutions and minimizing incident recurrence.
• Deep operational discipline with enterprise change processes, including risk assessment, validation/testing, rollback planning, and post-change verification.
• Experience using centralized management tools (e.g., Panorama/SCM Pro), including device groups, templates, commits, and log analysis.
• Proficiency in analyzing traffic using logs (Traffic, Threat, URL) and…