Palo Alto Cloud Engineer

Location
Columbia, SC

Experience Level
Senior Level (10+ years in network security; 5+ years of hands-on Palo Alto cloud firewall experience)

Role Overview
The Senior Palo Alto Cloud Engineer is a hands-on technical position focused on designing, deploying, and optimizing secure cloud infrastructure across public and hybrid environments. Collaborating closely with product owners, application owners, and network teams, this engineer will translate complex business requests into scalable cloud architectures and implement advanced zero-trust security controls. This is not a developer role; it requires active, hands-on involvement in the execution and delivery of security solutions utilizing deep expertise in Palo Alto firewalls, AWS, and Azure.

Key Responsibilities

Cloud Architecture & Security Design
• Design and deploy highly available, scalable, and secure cloud infrastructure with a primary focus on AWS and Azure.
• Architect and implement secure, zero-trust infrastructure controls using Palo Alto technology.
• Collaborate with cross-functional delivery teams to design optimal solutions for large-scale applications and infrastructure.
• Drive cloud security design, operations, and automation initiatives.

Firewall & Network Management
• Deploy, scale, upgrade, troubleshoot, and optimize VM-Series Palo Alto firewalls within AWS and Azure environments.
• Deploy, configure, and maintain F5 BIG-IP LTM and ASM in the cloud.
• Administer Panorama management, including templates and device groups.
• Configure and maintain Global Protect in the cloud, as well as High Availability (HA) VPN and traffic routing on VM-Series firewalls.
• Design security policies, tune threat prevention parameters, and perform advanced log analysis.

Operations, Compliance, & Troubleshooting
• Analyze and resolve complex configuration issues across development, test, and production environments.
• Build effective monitoring, logging, and auditing solutions to ensure production systems meet mandated compliance policies (e.g., ARC-AMP/MARS-E, NIST, HIPAA, PII, SOX, PCI, CMMC, CUI).
• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation covering security tools, deployment configurations, and incident reports.

Required Qualifications
• Education: Bachelor’s degree OR 10+ years of equivalent hands-on experience as a Palo Alto Cloud Engineer.
• Certifications: Must hold at least one active Palo Alto, AWS, or Azure certification.
• 10+ years of comprehensive experience in network security and engineering.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience designing, deploying, scaling, upgrading, and troubleshooting Palo Alto VM-Series firewalls in AWS and Azure.
• 5+ years of experience deploying, configuring, and maintaining BIG-IP F5 LTM.
• Demonstrated experience with Panorama management, security policy design, threat prevention tuning, and log analysis.
• Explicit hands-on experience with Global Protect in the cloud and HA VPN/traffic routing.

Preferred Qualifications
• Preferred Certifications: PCNSA, PCNSE, SC100 (Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect), or AWS Certified Cloud Solutions Architect.
• Experience with F5 ASM, F5 I-RULES, and BIG-IP F5 XC.
• Hands-on experience with supplementary security tools including Prisma Cloud, Cisco Umbrella, INFOBLOX DDI, FORESCOUT, and OPSWAT METADEFENDER/ICAP.
• Previous security engineering experience working with state and local government customers.

Core Skills & Attributes
• Exceptional consulting skills with the ability to accurately derive desired technical states from overarching customer requests.
• Strong self-starter mentality with the ability to take ownership of hands-on delivery.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for clear documentation and cross-team alignment.
• Highly collaborative mindset tailored to working smoothly with diverse product, application, and network delivery teams.