Firewall Operations Engineer

SkyePoint Decisions; Vansville (MD); Hybrid; USD 75,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Certification incentive program

PTO

Floating federal holidays

Health insurance options

401k matching

Job summary

SkyePoint Decisions in Beltsville, MD seeks a Firewall Engineer to support a Department of State program, providing monitoring, configuration, and maintenance for firewall and perimeter security across devices including Palo Alto, FortiGate, ESA, and A10. The role is hybrid with 3 days on-site after training.

The position emphasizes incident response, rule implementation, health checks, and collaborative network changes. U.S. citizenship and Interim Secret clearance required.

Qualifications

• BA degree or equivalent with 2–4 years of experience.
• Hands-on experience with Palo Alto Firewalls and Panorama.
• Experience supporting Firewall/DMZ infrastructure and related networking.

Responsibilities

• Monitor FWOPS incidents and service requests in Service Now.
• Implement firewall rules and troubleshoot devices (Palo Alto, FortiGate, ESA, A10).
• Escalate issues to Tier 3 and track through lifecycle.
• Perform routine maintenance (reboots, software upgrades) across firewall devices.
• Record and report firewall operations, utilization, and maintenance.
• Collaborate across Bureaus and Agencies on perimeter security changes.
• Support CIRT by blocking IPs, websites, and email addresses.
• Conduct health checks on perimeter devices and publish outage notices.
• Update shift logs and prepare leadership reports.
• Maintain SOPs and work instructions.
• Attend calls requiring FWOPS team troubleshooting.

Skills

Palo Alto Firewalls

Panorama

Firewall configuration

TCP/IP networking

CLI

NeuralStar

Education

BA degree

Tools

Azure Firewall

FortiGate

Cisco ESA

A10 Load Balancer

Job description

SkyePoint Decisions is a leading Cybersecurity Architecture and Engineering, Critical Infrastructure and Operations, and Applications Development and Maintenance IT service provider headquartered in Dulles, Virginia with operations across the U.S. We provide innovative enterprise-wide solutions as well as targeted services addressing the complex challenges faced by our federal government clients. Our focus is on enabling our clients to deliver their mission most efficiently and effectively - anytime, anywhere, securely. We combine technical expertise, mission awareness, and an empowered workforce to produce meaningful results.

SkyePoint Decisions is seeking aFirewall 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 provides 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 Day’s (7:00am-3:30pm), Tuesday-Saturday after training. During the 6-8-week training period, it will be 5 days on-site Mon-Fri (7:00am-3:30pm).

Responsibilities:

• 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.
• 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.

Required Qualifications:

• BA degree and 2-4 years of experience, may accept additional experience in lieu of degree.
• 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.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen.
• An Interim Secret clearance is required to start work and requires eligibility to obtain a Top-Secret clearance.

Compensation:

Salary Range: $75,000-$95,000

The SkyePoint Decisions salary range for this position is a general guideline only. It represents an estimated range for this position and is just one piece of our total compensation package.

Salary at SkyePoint is determined by various factors, including but not limited to location, work schedule, the candidate’s combination of education, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience, as well as contract-specific affordability, market data and business considerations.

In addition to a competitive salary, SkyePoint offers benefits including a certification incentive program, PTO, floating federal holiday options, several insurance options including HMO and High Deductible plans with Health Savings Accounts [HSAs], Flex Spending Accounts [FSAs], Full Dental Plans, Vision, ST/LT Disability, Life Insurance, and 401k matched.

What We Can Offer You:

• At SkyePoint, we go B.I.G. (beginning in GRATITUDE) by recognizing all we have and giving back to our employees, families, and communities. It instills a positive mindset that permeates all we do. By beginning in gratitude, SkyePoint can continue to spread living in gratitude each day.
• Great Benefits: Several insurance options including HMO and High Deductible plans with Health Savings Accounts [HSAs], Flex Spending Accounts [FSAs], Full Dental Plans, ST/LT Disability, Life Insurance, floating federal holiday options, and 401k matched
• Certificate Incentive Program: To promote professional development, we recognize and reward employees who obtain new certifications aligned with business needs.

SkyePoint Decisions is an established ISO 9001:2015 and ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified small business and appraised at CMMI Level 3 for Services and Development. We possess a common vision of excellence and foster a collaborative team culture built upon individual performance and accountability. We invest in our people and systems to create value for our clients. It is the SkyePoint Way. We are grateful for the opportunity to work with exceptional people and give back to the communities we serve. Our employees value the flexibility at SkyePoint that allows them to balance quality work and their personal lives.

SkyePoint Decisions is a participating E-Verify Employer.

U.S. Citizenship is required for most positions.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled.

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