Firewall Engineer

Leidos LLC; Arlington (VA); On-site; USD 92,000 - 167,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and Wellness programs

Paid leave and retirement benefits

Job summary

Leidos is seeking a Firewall Engineer to support the CESO GSM-O II contract in Arlington, VA. This role requires 10+ years of hands-on experience in virtualized and cloud environments with deep Palo Alto and Cisco firewall expertise.

You will optimize firewall/load balancer configurations, provide Tier 3 support, and ensure compliance with DoD STIGs and JSIG. The position is 100% onsite in Arlington, with occasional travel in the DC area.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and 8+ years of directly relevant experience.
• 5+ years of hands-on Cisco / Palo Alto Firewall experience in both engineering and O&M.
• Active DoD Top Secret clearance or eligible for TS/SCI.
• Willing to obtain CI/Poly 8570 IAT Level II Baseline Certification.

Responsibilities

• Identify and remediate misconfigurations, security gaps, and optimize firewall configurations.
• Provide Tier 3 support to operations network administrations.
• Maintain hardware and software at vendor-supported levels.
• Support Continuity of Operations and security posture improvements.
• Produce monthly network device performance and traffic reports.

Skills

Palo Alto Firewall

Cisco Firewall

Firewall configuration

Panorama

Security best practices

Education

Bachelor's degree

Additional experience may be considered in lieu of degree

Tools

Palo Alto VM in AWS

PANORAMA

Job description

The DISA IT Operation within Leidos’ Digital Modernization Group is seeking a Firewall Engineer to support the Compartmented Enterprise Services Office (CESO) Task Order for the GIG Service Management – Operations II (GSM-O II) contract. This person should be a seasoned, self-motivated, professional with at least 10 years of hands‑on engineering and testing experience in virtualized and cloud environments. A skilled engineer knowledgeable and experienced in developing and implementing Firewall/Networking Security Solutions. With the CESO program, the Defense Information System Agency (DISA) is looking to transform the existing Secure Web Services (SWS) environment, used to provide secure information sharing to the community, into a more mature service offering to meet the DoD and IC community. As part of this task order, Leidos will manage the commercial cloud migration and fully automate the continuous development & continuous integration environment, fourth estate consolidation, professionalize services – ITIL/DevSecOps based processes, improve the customer experience 1st call resolution, and achieve development of a service catalog for Defense Working Capital Fund (DWCF) Model. This position is 100% onsite in Arlington, VA with occasional/situational travel within the Washington Metro Area.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Identify and remediate misconfigurations, conflicting rules, security gaps, firewall and load balancer security issues, optimize rule-sets, and enhance the overall security posture and performance of Firewalls and Load Balancers.
• Provide Tier 3 support to members of the operations network administrations.
• Maintain all HW and SW components at vendor supported levels.
• Support mission‑critical Continuity of Operations (COOP).
• Conduct a minimum of two (2) assessment of firewall each month on CESO and customer devices and generate assessment reports and provide recommendations for improvements.
• Support the creation of network device performance and traffic utilization monthly reports.
• Develop and/or participate in After Action Reports (AARs).
• Provide expert advice and direction regarding the management and operation of all Palo Alto devices in the DISA CESO enterprise architecture.
• Interact with the customer point of contact to set objectives/goals based on Palo Alto Networks technologies and available technology roadmap for architecture and design discussions.
• Evaluate current technologies and processes associated with DISA CESO to identify gaps.
• Provide requirements and strategies for future cybersecurity operations.
• Active participant in meetings with DISA CESO and mission partner working groups.
• Adhere to applicable DOD STIGs, DISA applicable orders, and JSIG policy, guidelines, and regulations.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree and 8+ years of directly relevant experience.
• Add'l experience may be considered in lieu of degree.
• 5+ years of hands‑on Cisco / Palo Alto Firewall experience in both engineering and Operations and maintenance roles.
• Strong knowledge of Palo Alto concepts and best practices: Panorama Installation Panorama HA Config Panorama Template and Template Stacks Panorama Policy creation and push to group of Firewalls and Verify Push Palo Alto Route configuration Palo Alto IPSec Site to Site VPN Config and Troubleshooting Palo Alto VM in AWS Palo Alto IPS Configuration Palo Alto Virtual Router / Systems Palo Alto Firewall HA.
• Experience working in a high op-temp, Top Secret environment.
• Candidate must possess an active DOD Top Secret level security clearance, and be eligible to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI.
• Candidate must be willing to take and maintain a CI/Poly 8570 IAT Level II Baseline Certification (e.g. CCNA Security, CySA+, GICSP, GSEC, Security+ CE, CND, SSCP).

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Prior experienced with DISA and DISA’s support to mission partners.

Original Posting: September 22, 2026 For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range: Pay Range $92,300.00 - $166,850.00 The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.

Pay and Benefits Pay and benefits are fundamental to any career decision. That's why we craft compensation packages that reflect the importance of the work we do for our customers. Employment benefits include competitive compensation, Health and Wellness programs, Income Protection, Paid Leave and Retirement. More details are available here. Securing Your Data Leidos will never ask you to provide payment‑related information at any part of the employment application process. And Leidos will communicate you only through emails that are sent from a Leidos.com email address. If you receive an email purporting to be from Leidos that asks for payment‑related information or any other personal information, please report the email to [e-mail].

Commitment and Diversity All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law. Leidos will also consider for employment qualified applicants with criminal histories consistent with relevant laws.

Leidos is an industry and technology leader serving government and commercial customers with smarter, more efficient digital and mission innovations. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, with 47,000 global employees, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $17.2 billion for the fiscal year ended January 2, 2026. For more information, visit www.Leidos.com.