Palo Alto ENGINEER - Hauppague, NY- Onsite

Palo Certified Engineer

MUST BE ABLE TO WORK ONSITE IN HAUPPAGUE, NY ON LONG ISLAND.

Our client is at the forefront of engineering and implementing leading-edge technological solutions to fuel growth, innovation and better customer service for government clients. We have been serving a variety of public and private sector businesses and organizations in efficient, effective digital transformation from design through development to maintenance.

We need a Palo certified engineer that can work 35 hours a week on site at Suffolk for Firewall management. This is going to be 6-12 month renewable contract.

• Monitor firewall and Panorama system health (CPU, memory, sessions, interfaces)
• Review system and threat logs for anomalies and critical alerts
• Validate High Availability (HA) status and synchronization
• Ensure successful log forwarding to SIEM/logging systems
• Review and respond to service requests and incident tickets

• Analyze traffic trends, application usage, and bandwidth consumption
• Review and tune firewall policies for optimization and security posture
• Validate content and signature updates (Threat, Apps, Wild Fire, URL filtering)
• Conduct rulebase hygiene (identify unused, redundant, or overly permissive rules)
• Provide weekly operational reporting

• Perform comprehensive firewall health and performance review
• Analyze threat trends and provide actionable recommendations
• Validate licensing and subscription status
• Review SSL decryption coverage and effectiveness
• Update documentation (runbooks, diagrams, configurations)
• Deliver monthly executive report and recommendations

• Implement firewall policy changes and configuration updates
• Support incident response and troubleshooting activities
• Perform packet capture and deep traffic analysis
• Participate in change management processes (CAB approvals)
• Assist with audit requests and compliance validation
• Provide recommendations for architecture improvements

The assigned engineer must demonstrate the following minimum experience and qualifications:

• Minimum 5+ years of hands-on experience with Palo Alto Networks NGFW
• Strong experience with Panorama centralized management
• Deep knowledge of:
• App-, User-, and Content-
• Security policies and NAT configurations
• Zone-based firewall architecture

• Experience analyzing:
• Threat logs (malware, exploits, C2 traffic)
• Wild Fire analysis and verdicts
• DNS Security and URL filtering events
• Understanding of:
• Network security principles
• Threat detection and response workflows

• Strong understanding of:
• TCP/IP, routing, switching, and VLANs
• VPN technologies (IPSec and Global Protect)
• Experience with:
• Packet capture tools
• CLI-based troubleshooting
• Session-level traffic analysis

• Experience working within:
• Change management processes (CAB)
• Incident management workflows
• ITSM/ticketing systems
• Ability to:
• Document configurations and procedures
• Produce operational and executive-level reports

• Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE) – Preferred
• Other relevant certifications (e.g., Security+, CISSP) – Beneficial

• Strong communication skills (technical and non-technical)
• Ability to work independently and within a team environment
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Ability to prioritize tasks in a dynamic operational environment
• Professional demeanor suitable for public sector engagement