Manager - Network Security

Cognizant; Pune District; Hybrid; INR 3,500,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognizant is seeking a seasoned Manager, Network Security Engineering and Operations in Pune, India, to lead enterprise security services across firewalls, remote access, and Zero Trust implementations. The role requires strong leadership, architecture governance, and incident-management capabilities.

Based in a hybrid work model, you will drive strategy, design standards, and delivery across global teams while coordinating with security, IAM, cloud, and business stakeholders.

Qualifications

• 12–16 years of experience in enterprise networking or network security.
• Proven experience leading Network Security engineering or operations teams.
• Strong architectural governance and service management knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end lifecycle of enterprise Network Security services.
• Define roadmaps, security upgrades, and resilience plans.
• Lead P1/P2 incidents and cross-functional resolution efforts.
• Partner with security, IAM, Cloud, and vendor teams.

Skills

Network security leadership

Enterprise architecture governance

Zero Trust / ZTA

VPN / IPSec / RAVPN

Firewall platforms

Tools

Cisco ISE

Zscaler ZIA

Zscaler ZPA

VPN technologies

Job description

About Cognizant Corporate

Cognizant Corporate is a global community united by a shared purpose: to make a meaningful impact. We are committed to excellence and driven by outcomes that matter. Collaboration is at the heart of how we work, and our forward-thinking mindset fuels continuous learning, innovation, and growth.

At Cognizant, careers transcend titles. We empower our people to think strategically, inspire others, and lead with purpose – always guided by our core values. Join us in shaping future of business.

About the role

The Manager, Network Security Engineering and Operations will provide technical and operational leadership for enterprise network security services across traditional firewall, remote-access, identity-based access, and cloud-delivered Zero Trust technologies. 12 to 16 years of experience in enterprise networking or network security, including substantial experience in technical leadership or service management.

Demonstrated experience managing Network Security engineering or operations teams in a large, distributed enterprise

The role will be accountable for service strategy, architecture governance, engineering delivery, operational stability, security compliance, major-incident leadership, and team capability across:

• Enterprise firewalls, preferably Cisco ASA/FTD and Palo Alto Networks
• Remote Access VPN using Cisco Secure Client/AnyConnect
• Site-to-site IPSec VPN
• Cisco Identity Services Engine
• Zscaler Internet Access
• Zscaler Private Access
• Zero Trust Network Access and Secure Access Service Edge

In this role, you will:

1. Service Ownership and Leadership

• Own the end-to-end lifecycle of enterprise Network Security services, including strategy, architecture, engineering, transition, operations and optimisation
• Establish clear service ownership, operating procedures, escalation paths and accountability across internal technology teams.
• Define annual service roadmaps covering platform upgrades, security improvements, automation, technology refresh, resilience and legacy retirement.
• Manage service performance, capacity, availability, risks, dependencies, technical debt and operational readiness.
• Act as the management escalation point for significant service, delivery, stakeholder and vendor issues.
• Balance operational stability with security transformation and business delivery priorities.

2. Architecture and Design Governance

• Provide design authority for network security solutions across corporate environments, data centres, remote users, cloud platforms, business units, merged entities and isolated environments.
• Review and approve high-level and low-level designs, security patterns, traffic-flow diagrams, migration approaches, implementation plans and operational acceptance criteria.
• Govern technical standards for firewalls, RAVPN, IPSec tunnels, Cisco ISE, ZIA, ZPA, App Connectors, traffic forwarding and endpoint posture.
• Ensure architecture decisions align with Zero Trust, least privilege, segmentation and defence-in-depth principles.

3. Technology and Engineering Leadership

Maintain sufficient technical depth to guide engineering teams, challenge vendor recommendations, approve designs and support critical escalations across the following domains:

Firewalls

• Cisco ASA/FTD, Firewall Management Center, Palo Alto Networks and Panorama
• Security policies, ACLs, NAT, segmentation, routing and high availability
• IPS/IDS, URL filtering, SSL inspection and threat prevention
• Rule optimisation, recertification and removal of obsolete policies
• Platform lifecycle, patching and vulnerability remediation

Remote Access and IPSec VPN

• Cisco Secure Client/AnyConnect architecture
• SSL VPN, IKEv1/IKEv2 and site-to-site IPSec VPN
• Authentication, authorization, SAML, RADIUS and certificates
• Tunnel profiles, split tunnelling, routing, NAT and resiliency
• Migration from conventional VPN access to application-based Zero Trust access

Cisco ISE

• Authentication and authorization policies
• RADIUS, TACACS+, 802.1X, profiling and posture
• Certificate and identity integrations
• VPN posture, device compliance and access enforcement
• Node health, upgrades, high availability and disaster recovery

Zscaler ZIA and ZPA

• ZIA traffic forwarding through ZCC, GRE, IPSec, Cloud Connectors and service edges
• URL filtering, SSL inspection, DNS security, cloud firewall, threat prevention and DLP integration
• ZPA App Connectors, application segments, access policies, Browser Access, posture and identity integration
• Managed, unmanaged and isolated-device access patterns
• App Connector placement, capacity, application discovery and segmentation
• ZIA/ZPA policy governance, administrative access and logging

4. Operations, Delivery and Problem Management

• Ensure effective L3/L4 support for firewall, RAVPN, IPSec, ISE, ZIA and ZPA services.
• Lead or oversee P1/P2 incidents, technical war rooms and executive escalations.
• Coordinate troubleshooting across network, security, endpoint, identity, cloud, application, vendor and service-management teams.
• Ensure Network Security platforms comply with corporate security baselines, internal standards and applicable control frameworks.
• Partner with Corporate Security and Audit teams to provide evidence for firewall governance, endpoint posture, identity enforcement, vulnerability remediation and access controls.
• Support NIST, ISO, internal audit and regulatory evidence requirements as applicable.
• Lead security transformation programmes involving RAVPN-to-ZPA migration, firewall optimisation, application segmentation and cloud-security adoption.
• Lead, coach and develop a team of Network Security engineers and technical leads.
• Build effective relationships with Corporate Security, Architecture, IAM, Endpoint, Cloud, Network Operations, Service Management and business stakeholders.
• Translate technical issues and risks into clear business impact, decisions and investment requirements.
• Manage engineering and escalation relationships with Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Zscaler and implementation partners.
• Review vendor proposals, statements of work, architecture recommendations and product roadmaps.
• Hold vendors accountable for defect resolution, root-cause findings, security fixes, platform reliability and delivery commitments.
• Coordinate complex incidents and interoperability issues involving multiple providers.
• Ensure all material decisions, responsibilities and dependencies are captured through documented RACI and governance structures.

These will help you succeed

Preferred Certifications

• CCNP Security or equivalent Cisco security certification
• Palo Alto Networks PCNSE
• Zscaler ZIA/ZPA Administrator or Zscaler Digital Transformation certification
• ITIL Foundation or advanced IT service-management certification
• Relevant cloud certification in Azure, AWS or GCP

Work model –

We believe hybrid work is the way forward as we strive to provide flexibility wherever possible. Based on this role’s business requirements, this is a hybrid position requiring 2-3 days a week in a client or Cognizant office in Pune, Maharashtra. Regardless of your working arrangement, we are here to support a healthy work-life balance though our various wellbeing programs.