Network Security(Akamai WAF)

Cloudxtreme; Chennai District, Bengaluru; Hybrid; INR 900,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Job summary

Cloudxtreme is seeking a BAU Support Engineer for Akamai WAF services (KSD/AAP) based in Chennai. You will perform daily health checks, manage configurations, and coordinate with DevOps, SOC, and Network teams to ensure secure web and API protection.

You will tune policies, handle change requests, onboard new applications, and generate reports on attacks, false positives, and SLA metrics, while supporting incident investigations and rapid containment.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in WAF / web security operations or related field.
• Hands-on BAU support with Akamai WAF (Kona Site Defender and/or App & API Protector).
• Strong understanding of HTTP/HTTPS, TLS, APIs, and common web attacks.
• Experience with policy tuning, allowlists/denylists and exception governance.
• Familiar with ITIL processes and ticketing/change tools.

Responsibilities

• Perform daily health checks and monitor Akamai WAF configurations and security events.
• Manage access, roles, and workflows in Akamai Control Center.
• Handle BAU service requests and maintain SOPs/runbooks for repeatable work.
• Tune WAF policies to balance false positives and coverage of OWASP Top 10.
• Triage alerts, support investigations with SOC/IR, and coordinate containment actions.
• Onboard new apps/APIs, coordinate DNS changes, and validate changes post- implementation.
• Generate BAU reports and support audit evidence; drive continuous improvement.

Skills

WAF / Web Security

Akamai WAF (KSD/AAP)

Incident triage

SIEM / log analysis

Ticketing & ITIL

Tools

ServiceNow

Jira

Akamai Control Center

Splunk

QRadar

Job description

Role & responsibilities

Akamai WAF (Kona Site Defender / App & API Protector) | Akamai CDN Security | Bot & DDoS (as applicable)

Role Overview

The Web Application Firewall (WAF) BAU Support Engineer is responsible for business-as-usual (BAU) operations, monitoring, incident support, policy administration, and continuous optimization of Akamai WAF services, including Kona Site Defender (KSD) / App & API Protector (AAP) (as applicable). The role ensures stable, secure, and compliant protection of web and API applications by managing rule tuning, onboarding, change execution, alert triage, reporting, and stakeholder coordination with Application, DevOps, SOC, and Network teams.

Key Responsibilities

1. BAU Operations & Platform Administration

- Perform daily health checks and monitoring of Akamai WAF configurations, alerts, and security events. - Manage user access, roles, and operational workflows in Akamai Control Center (as per governance). - Handle BAU service requests (policy updates, exceptions, onboarding/offboarding, rule changes) within defined SLAs. - Maintain SOPs/runbooks, operational checklists, and knowledge articles for repeatable BAU execution.

2. Akamai WAF Policy Management (KSD / AAP)

- Administer and support WAF security configurations: protections, rule sets, attack groups, and threat intelligence controls. - Tune policies to reduce false positives while preserving coverage for OWASP Top 10 and common web attacks. - Manage allowlists/denylists, IP reputation actions, custom rules, and match targets (URLs, headers, cookies, parameters). - Support API protection use-cases (JSON/XML, endpoints, methods) including rule tuning and exception governance. - Validate changes in staging/testing and promote to production through controlled change processes.

3. Incident Triage & Security Operations Support

- Triage WAF alerts and incidents; analyze request logs, SIEM alerts, and Akamai security events for suspicious activity.

- Work with SOC/IR teams to support investigations by providing evidence (request samples, rule hits, attack timelines). - Support immediate containment actions (temporary blocks, rate controls, rule updates) following approval/workflow. - Coordinate with application owners to confirm legitimate traffic and implement safe mitigations.

4. Onboarding & Change Implementation

- Onboard new web applications/APIs into Akamai WAF: requirements gathering, match targets, policy selection, and baselining. - Coordinate DNS/Property changes with Akamai CDN teams where required (property manager alignment and versioning). - Execute changes: configuration updates, rule tuning, exception approvals, and controlled rollouts. - Perform post-change validation and monitoring to ensure no business impact and adequate protection.

5. Reporting, Compliance & Continuous Improvement

- Generate BAU reports: top attacks, blocked/allowed trends, false positive analysis, coverage status, and SLA metrics. - Support audit/compliance evidence requests (change records, configuration snapshots, exceptions, approvals). - Drive problem management by identifying recurring issues and improving baselines, automation, and documentation. - Recommend enhancements for posture improvement: rule upgrades, new protections, bot/DoS controls (if in scope).

6. Integration & Tooling (as applicable)

- Support integrations with SIEM/SOAR and ticketing tools (ServiceNow/Jira) for alert ingestion and workflow automation. - Monitor API-based integrations and log delivery pipelines; troubleshoot failures and performance issues. - Maintain tagging, dashboards, and operational alerts for proactive detection of configuration/traffic anomalies.

Required Skills & Experience

- 3 years of experience in WAF / Web Security Operations / Network Security or Cybersecurity Operations. - Hands-on BAU support experience with Akamai WAF (Kona Site Defender and/or App & API Protector). - Solid understanding of HTTP/HTTPS, TLS, web application architectures, APIs (REST), and common attack techniques. - Practical experience with WAF tuning: false positive reduction, allowlisting, custom rules, and exception governance.

- Experience with ITIL processes and ticketing/change tools (ServiceNow/Jira) and working within SLAs.

Preferred Skills

- Familiarity with Akamai Property Manager, origin behaviors, caching, and traffic routing basics. - Experience with bot management and DDoS mitigations (Akamai Bot Manager / Prolexic / rate controls) if in scope. - Log/SIEM skills (Splunk, Sentinel, QRadar) for correlation and investigations. - Scripting/automation exposure (Python/PowerShell) for reporting, IOC management, and workflow automation. - Security certifications (e.g., Security+, CEH) or vendor certifications; Akamai experience is a strong plus.

Behavioral / Soft Skills

- Strong troubleshooting, analytical skills, and attention to detail for rapid triage and accurate tuning. - Effective communication with application owners, SOC, DevOps, and business stakeholders. - Ability to work under pressure during incidents and execute changes with strong change discipline. - Documentation mindset to maintain runbooks and reduce repeat tickets through standardization.

Operational Details (Optional Include if relevant)

- Shift Model: 24x7 / 16x5 / 8x5 (as applicable) - On-call: Rotational (as applicable) - KPIs: SLA adherence, false positive reduction, time-to-mitigate, uptime/availability, change success rate, audit readiness

Preferred candidate profile