Data Security Analyst, Remote – Palo Alto Cortex Expert

GovCIO; Richmond (VA); Remote; USD 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Corporate Discounts

Learning & Development platform

Training, Education and Certification

Referral Bonus Program

Internal Mobility Program

Pet Insurance

Flexible Work Environment

Job summary

GovCIO seeks a Data Security Analyst — Master to lead design, implementation, operation, and continuous improvement of enterprise security controls that protect data, networks, applications, and cloud-enabled environments. This senior, hands-on role requires expertise with Palo Alto Networks portfolios—Panorama, Cortex, Strata—and strong Cisco networking and security capabilities.

This fully remote position in the United States will partner with Security Operations, Cloud, and Infrastructure

Qualifications

• 10+ years in cybersecurity, network security, security engineering, or security operations with hands-on firewall administration and incident response.
• Deep expertise administering Palo Alto Networks next-gen firewalls in complex enterprise environments.
• Advanced experience with Panorama including centralized policy admin, HA, logging, upgrades, governance.
• Strong knowledge of Strata security capabilities: App-ID, User-ID, Content-ID, decryption, segmentation, policy optimization.
• Experience with Cortex for detection, investigation, response, automation, and SOAR/EDR.
• Strong Cisco networking background: TCP/IP, DNS, VPNs, routing/switching, high availability, segmentation.
• Understanding of security frameworks (NIST, CIS, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA, SOX).
• Excellent written and verbal communication to explain risks to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Architect, deploy, administer, and optimize Palo Alto Networks firewalls across data center, campus, branch, cloud, and remote environments.
• Lead centralized firewall management using Panorama, including device groups, templates, and RBAC.
• Design and maintain security policies using least privilege, app-ID, User-ID, and threat prevention capabilities.
• Operationalize Cortex for security analytics, EDR, and incident response within the enterprise environment.
• Investigate alerts, malware activity, data exfiltration indicators, coordinate containment and recovery, and perform post‑incident reviews.
• Develop detections, dashboards, and playbooks; partner with SOC, Cloud, and Infrastructure teams on remediation plans.
• Maintain network segmentation architectures with zone-based design and microsegmentation principles.
• Review firewall changes, perform risk assessments, and ensure documentation and runbooks are up to date.

Skills

Palo Alto firewalls

Panorama

Cortex

Strata

Cisco networking

Zero trust

Threat prevention

Incident response

Security analytics

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Palo Alto Panorama

Palo Alto Cortex

Palo Alto Strata

Cisco Secure Firewall/Firepower

Cisco ISE

Job description

GovCIO seeks a Data Security Analyst — Master to lead design, implementation, operation, and continuous improvement of enterprise security controls that protect data, networks, applications, and cloud-enabled environments. This senior, hands-on role requires expertise with Palo Alto Networks portfolios—Panorama, Cortex, Strata—and strong Cisco networking and security capabilities.

This fully remote position in the United States will partner with Security Operations, Cloud, and Infrastructure