Palo Alto Strata Engineer-Brookhaven, NY Suffolk County ONSITE ONLY-6–12-month renewable contract

Palo Alto Networks Engineer

The assigned Palo Alto Networks Engineer shall perform, at minimum, the following tasks:

• 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