Palo Alto Networks Security Engineer

Arctiq; Montreal; Remote; CAD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Arctiq is seeking a highly analytical Palo Alto Networks Security Engineer to support the administration, optimization, and ongoing improvement of the organization’s network security environment, focusing on NGFW capabilities, App-ID, User-ID, and URL Filtering.

This remote contract role requires strong collaboration with IT and business teams, meticulous policy management, and proficiency with Cortex XDR. Availability 8am-5pm in the client’s business hours is required.

Qualifications

• Strong hands-on experience administering and optimizing Palo Alto Networks NGFW environments.
• Demonstrated proficiency with App-ID, User-ID, and URL Filtering.

Responsibilities

• Administer, analyze, and optimize Palo Alto Networks NGFW environments, including App-ID, User-ID, URL Filtering, security policies, traffic, logs, sessions, and security events.
• Investigate firewall policies and network traffic to identify source, purpose, risk, and ownership; trace traffic and gather evidence.
• Partner with system owners, application teams, network/infrastructure teams, and business stakeholders to validate traffic and determine security actions.
• Evaluate and optimize firewall rules through consolidation, modification, cleanup, and removal.
• Investigate complex application connectivity and security issues using traffic analysis and logs; adjust policies without weakening security.
• Support security audits by identifying overly permissive policies, documenting findings, coordinating remediation, and maintaining records.
• Support and administer Cortex XDR, including analysis of alerts and telemetry.
• Apply a security-first mindset and analytical judgment when assessing risks and policy changes.
• Follow ITIL, change management, and security governance processes; ensure changes are tested, documented, reviewed, and approved.
• Proactively identify opportunities to improve firewall security posture, performance, and automation using APIs, CLI, Python, or scripting.
• Work independently to investigate issues, develop solutions, and communicate with stakeholders.

Skills

Palo Alto Networks NGFW

App-ID

User-ID

URL Filtering

Job description

Arctiq is a global, intelligence-driven technology services company delivering professional and managed services across Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Networking & Connected Experiences, Cybersecurity, Data & AI, Autonomous Operations & Intelligence, and Enterprise Service Management. We help organizations operate, secure, and modernize complex environments by unifying infrastructure, networking, data, security, automation, and observability under a single, integrated operating model. Our work focuses on helping customers reduce operational friction, improve resilience, and make better, faster decisions as their environments evolve. Arctiq builds on decades of industry expertise and a customer-centric ethos to deliver exceptional value to clients across diverse industries.

We are seeking a highly analytical and experienced Palo Alto Networks Security Engineer to support the administration, optimization, and ongoing improvement of the organization’s network security environment. This role will focus heavily on Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) capabilities, including application and user identification, URL filtering, traffic analysis, security policy optimization, and Cortex XDR.

This role requires a security-focused professional who can investigate and resolve complex firewall policy and network traffic issues while working effectively across technical and business teams. The ideal candidate will be comfortable taking an investigative approach—identifying the policy and traffic involved, tracing activity back to the appropriate system or application, and partnering with the respective owner to validate business requirements and determine the appropriate action. The role will also support ongoing audit activities and requires a security-first mindset when evaluating and remediating permissive policies.

This is a remote contract opportunity with one of Arctiq's clients. This position requires strict 8am-5pm availability during the agreed-upon business hours.

Key Responsibilities

• Administer, analyze, and optimize Palo Alto Networks NGFW environments, including App-ID, User-ID, URL Filtering, security policies, traffic, logs, sessions, and security events.
• Investigate firewall policies and network traffic, including permissive or potentially unauthorized rules, to identify the source, purpose, risk, and appropriate business/system owner; trace traffic and gather supporting evidence when ownership or activity is disputed.
• Partner with system owners, application teams, network/infrastructure teams, and business stakeholders to validate traffic, understand business requirements, resolve ownership discrepancies, and determine appropriate security and policy actions.
• Evaluate and optimize firewall rules through consolidation, modification, cleanup, and removal, balancing security requirements and audit findings with potential operational impact to critical business applications.
• Investigate complex application connectivity and security issues using traffic analysis, logs, packet captures, and other diagnostic techniques, making appropriate policy adjustments without unnecessarily weakening security controls.
• Support security audits by identifying overly permissive policies, documenting findings, validating business justification, coordinating remediation, and maintaining accurate records of policies, testing, approvals, changes, and operational impact.
• Support and administer Cortex XDR, including analysis of alerts, endpoint security events, and associated telemetry.
• Apply a security-first mindset, strong analytical judgment, and business acumen when assessing security risks, policy changes, and their potential impact on business operations.
• Follow established ITIL, change management, and security governance processes, ensuring firewall and security policy changes are appropriately tested, documented, reviewed, and approved before implementation.
• Proactively identify opportunities to improve firewall security posture, performance, policy efficiency, and operational processes, including automation using APIs, CLI tools, Python, or other scripting languages.
• Work independently to investigate issues, develop solutions, and execute approved changes while maintaining effective communication and collaboration with technical and business stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• Strong hands-on experience administering and optimizing Palo Alto Networks NGFW environments.
• Demonstrated proficiency with:
  • App-ID
  • User-ID
  • URL Filtering