Senior Network Security Engineer – Stellenbosch

• Network security architecture and engineering
• Firewall and secure connectivity strategy
• Network threat detection and response
• Perimeter and internal network hardening
• Technical leadership and mentoring

We are seeking an experienced Senior Network Security Engineer to join the Security Operations and Engineering team. You will own the design, implementation and continuous improvement of secure network environments, act as the technical authority on network security, and guide the Intermediate Specialists who support day-to-day operations.

The ideal candidate has deep, hands‑on experience with enterprise firewalls, VPN and Zero Trust architectures, IDS/IPS and network monitoring, and a strong grasp of network‑based threat detection and mitigation. You can design solutions as well as run them, and you can lead complex incidents.

• Security Operations (SOC)
• Infrastructure teams
• Cloud and endpoint teams
• Client stakeholders and technical leadership

• Define and strengthen network security posture
• Improve detection capabilities and reduce risk
• Lead incident response for network-related events
• Ensure stable, secure and scalable network services

• Design, deploy and manage enterprise firewall platforms (Fortinet, Palo Alto, Cisco ASA/Firepower), including HA, upgrades and migrations

• Architect and maintain:

• Network segmentation and micro‑segmentation models

• Access control policies and rulebase governance

• NAT, dynamic routing and secure rulesets

• IPSec and site‑to‑site connectivity at scale

• Own IDS/IPS strategy: deployment, tuning and continuous optimisation to improve fidelity and reduce false positives

• Review and approve network security designs, and provide security input on new projects and solutions

• Evaluate and recommend security tooling and vendors, and contribute to the network security roadmap

• Partner with the SOC to design, test and improve detection logic and alert tuning
• Analyse network telemetry (flow data, firewall, IDS/IPS and DNS logs) to identify threats and anomalous behaviour
• Support proactive threat hunting using network data sources
• Drive recommendations that close detection gaps

• Design and maintain secure VPN solutions (site‑to‑site and remote access)
• Lead the implementation of Zero Trust principles, including ZTNA and SASE‑aligned approaches where applicable
• Define and enforce secure remote access standards and policies
• Resolve complex connectivity, latency and performance issues with security implications

• Define and enforce secure baseline configurations for switches, routers and wireless networks
• Govern firmware and patch compliance, and manage vulnerability remediation for network assets
• Enforce secure protocols (SSH, HTTPS, SNMPv3) and strong management‑plane controls
• Design and secure cloud network environments (NSGs / Security Groups, routing controls, hybrid connectivity) across Azure and/or AWS

• Automate configuration, compliance checks and routine tasks (e.g. Python, Ansible, Terraform, vendor APIs)
• Introduce standards, templates and repeatable build patterns to improve consistency and reduce operational risk

• Act as L3 escalation point for complex network security incidents
• Lead triage, containment and recovery for network‑related incidents and breaches
• Perform root cause analysis on incidents and firewall or network misconfigurations, and drive remediation and lessons learned
• Contribut…