Firewall Operations Engineer- Active Secret Clearance Required

Veterans Enterprise Technology Solutions Inc; Clarksville (VA); On-site; USD 142,000 - 174,000; Full time

Job summary

Staffing Pros, a division of VETS-inc, is recruiting for a full-time Firewall Operations Engineer. The role is on-site in Springfield, VA (hybrid ~3 days onsite) with Beltsville, MD as an alternative location. Active Secret clearance required, Top Secret possible.

Shift Tue-Sat 3:00PM-11:30PM; training is Mon-Fri 7:00AM-3:30PM for ~6-8 weeks. Responsibilities include monitoring and troubleshooting perimeter devices (Palo Alto/ Panorama, FortiGate, ESA, A10, proxies), configuring rules,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 5+ years (or Master's with 3+ years) of IT/security experience.
• Deep hands-on experience with Palo Alto, Panorama, and firewall policy management.
• 3–5 years IT customer support (Tier I/II) experience.
• US citizen with active interim Secret clearance or ability to obtain Top Secret.
• Strong TCP/IP, networking, proxy, and packet filtering knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Provides Tier 2 support in monitoring, management, and troubleshooting of perimeter devices (firewalls, proxies, MTA).
• Monitor Service Now for FWOPS incidents and service requests.
• Implement firewall rules and policies; troubleshoot Palo Alto, FortiGate, ESA, A10, proxies, and URL filtering.
• Escalate issues to Tier 3; track lifecycle of problems.
• Perform maintenance: reboots, software upgrades, health checks, and document SOPs.
• Collaborate across agencies to implement network changes related to perimeter security.
• Support CIRT with block requests for IPs, websites, and emails; update Visio diagrams.
• Publish outage notifications; maintain shift logs for leadership.

Skills

CLI experience

TCP/IP networking

Network monitoring

US citizenship

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Tools

Palo Alto Firewalls & Panorama

NeuralStar

A10 Load Balancer

FortiGate

Azure Firewall

Cisco ESA

Cloudflare

Job description

Firewall Operations Engineer- Active Secret Clearance Required

Springfield, Virginia

ID: j-2939

JOB TYPE: Direct Hire

REMOTE STATUS: On-Site

COMPENSATION: $158000 / yr

Staffing Pros, a division of VETS Inc., is recruiting for a full-time Firewall Operations Engineer.

This role offers a hybrid schedule (~3 days onsite) at the discretion of the customer. The role can be located in Beltsville, MD or Springfield, VA.

Shift is Tuesday - Saturday 3:00PM -11:30PM subject to mission priorities. During the ~6-8-week training period, it will be 5 days on-site Mon-Fri (7:00am-3:30pm).

Responsibilities:

• 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.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelors and five (5) years or more experience; Masters and three (3) years or more 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.
• Active interim Secret clearance with the ability to obtain a Top Secret clearance.

EEO Statement

Staffing Pros a division of VETS-inc is an Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities.

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information.

Equal employment opportunity, including veterans and individuals with disabilities.