Firewall Operations Engineer

SAIC; Beltsville (MD); Hybrid; USD 120,001 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

SAIC in Beltsville, MD, is seeking a Firewall Engineer to support the DoS Vanguard 2025 program. You will handle Tier 2 monitoring, configuration, and perimeter security for firewalls, proxies, and mail security appliances on-site with hybrid scheduling.

Responsibilities include implementing firewall rules, troubleshooting Palo Alto, FortiGate, and related devices, and coordinating with cross-agency teams. Active interim secret clearance required; Top Secret achievable.

Qualifications

• Bachelor degree with extensive IT experience; Master’s preferred.
• 9+ years of relevant IT/network engineering experience.
• 2–4 years of hands-on Palo Alto and Panorama experience to troubleshoot and configure firewall infrastructure.
• 3–5 years in IT customer support (Tier I/II) and network security operations.

Responsibilities

• Provide Tier 2 monitoring and configuration of firewall and perimeter devices.
• Manage firewall rules, incident tickets, and health checks across devices.
• Collaborate with DoS program teams to implement security changes.
• Draft SOPs, update architecture diagrams, and publish outage notices.

Skills

Palo Alto Firewalls

Panorama monitoring

TCP/IP networking

Firewall troubleshooting

Network monitoring tools

Email security appliances

Proxies and URL filtering

SOP documentation

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Tools

Palo Alto

Panorama

FortiGate

Azure Firewall

Cisco ESA

A10 Load Balancer

NeuralStar

VPN/DMZ tooling

Job description

Job ID 2614763
Location Beltsville, MD, US
Date Posted 2026-07-21
Category Information Technology
Subcategory Network Engineer
Schedule Full-Time
Shift Day Job
Travel No
Minimum Clearance Required Interim_Secret
Clearance Level Must Be Able to Obtain Top Secret
Potential for Remote Work ORA_HYBRID
Description
This is an opening for a Firewall Engineer to support a Department of State (DoS) Bureau of Diplomatic Technology (DT) program. This program provides transparent, interconnected systems and security supporting the DoS in successfully carrying out its U.S. foreign policy mission. DT provides enterprise architecture design, engineering, operations and maintenance support services for servers, networks, firewalls, and enterprise applications across the Department.
This is a firewall engineer position within the Vanguard 2025 program, providing general Tier 2 monitoring, configuration, and support to multiple firewalls and perimeter security systems. The position directly supports DoS on-site to provide perimeter security protection to over 80,000 customers globally.
This is a hybrid position based out of Beltsville, MD with ~3 days on-site. Shift is 700am-330pm, Tuesday-Saturday after training. During the ~6-8-week training period, it will be 5 days on-site Mon-Fri (700am-330pm).
Responsibilities Include

• Provides Tier 2 support in the monitoring, management, and troubleshooting of perimeter devices to include firewalls, proxies, and mail transport agents.
• Monitor Service Now application for Firewall Operations (FWOPS) incident and service requests.
• Implements firewall rules and policies, perform troubleshooting of firewalls (Palo Alto, Cloud Palo Alto, and FortiGate), CISCO Email Security Appliance (ESA), A10 (load balancer), Proxy platforms, URL filtering across platforms, and analyzing network traffic captures.
• Escalates issues as required to Tier 3 staff and monitors issues throughout a problem’s life cycle.
• Performs recurring maintenance activities such as device reboots and software upgrades on all devices underneath the Firewall Operations Team.
• Records and reports on firewall operations, utilization, and maintenance.
• Collaborate across Bureaus and Agencies to implement and repair network changes as they relate to perimeter security devices.
• Support Diplomatic Security Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) by implementing block requests for IP’s, Websites, and Email addresses.
• Update architecture diagrams using Visio.
• Monitor and perform health checks on multiple perimeter security devices.
• Draft, coordinate and publish outage notifications as required.
• Update shift logs and provide reports to leadership as needed.
• Maintain standard operating procedures (SOP), work instructions, and other working documents.
• Attend calls requiring a FWOPS team to attend, to include troubleshooting calls.

Qualifications
Required Education & Experience

• Bachelor degree with 9 years or more experience; Masters and 7 years or more experience; May accept additional experience in lieu of degree.
• 2-4 years of experience of in Depth experience using Palo Alto Firewalls and Panorama monitoring tools to troubleshoot and configure a Firewall infrastructure. Strong understanding of networking, proxy, and packet filtering technologies.
• Minimum 3-5 years of IT Customer Support experience (Tier I and/or Tier II).
• First-hand experience with supporting the monitoring and configuration of Firewall/DMZ infrastructure including Network and Application Firewall Packet Filtering technologies (Palo Alto, Palo Alto virtual FW (cloud), FortiGate, Azure Firewall, Cloudflare, Cisco Email Security Appliances (ESA), A10 (Load Balancer), and proxy devices.
• CLI experience preferred.
• Experienced in utilizing network monitoring tools such as NeuralStar.
• Experienced with TCP/IP network implementation and troubleshooting.

Required Clearance

• US Citizenship.
• Active interim secret clearance or higher with the ability to obtain a top secret clearance.

Target salary range $120,001 - $160,000. The estimate displayed represents the typical salary range for this position based on experience and other factors.