Firewall Operations Engineer *Must hold active Clearance*

Belcan; Beltsville (MD); On-site; USD 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health care

Dental

Vision

Life insurance

401(k)

Education assistance

Paid time off

Job summary

Belcan is seeking a Firewall Operations Engineer in Beltsville, MD to monitor and manage firewall infrastructure across Palo Alto and other platforms. The role requires a bachelor’s degree and several years of related experience, with potential for TOP SECRET clearance in the future.

You will configure rules, monitor devices, and collaborate with multiple agencies on perimeter security changes, while supporting the CIRT block requests and incident response processes.

Qualifications

• Secret clearance with ability to obtain Top Secret.
• Bachelor's degree and 2-4 years of experience.
• 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).
• Hands-on experience supporting firewall/DMZ infrastructure including various devices and proxies.
• Experience with NeuralStar monitoring.
• TCP/IP network implementation and troubleshooting.

Responsibilities

• Monitor Service Now application for Firewall Operations (FWOPS) incidents and service requests.
• Implement firewall rules and policies, troubleshoot firewalls, proxies, and load balancers.
• Escalate issues to Tier 3 and monitor lifecycle until resolution.
• Perform maintenance activities like reboots and software upgrades.
• Record and report firewall operations, utilization, and maintenance.
• Collaborate across Bureaus and Agencies on network changes affecting perimeter security.
• Support Diplomatic Security CIRT by blocking IPs, websites, and emails.
• Monitor health of perimeter security devices and publish outage notices.
• Update shift logs and provide leadership reports.
• Maintain SOPs and working documents.
• Attend FWOPS troubleshooting calls.

Skills

Palo Alto Firewall

Panorama

FortiGate

Azure Firewall

Cisco ESA

A10 Load Balancer

URL Filtering

Network Troubleshooting

ServiceNow

Threat Monitoring

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

NeuralStar

Palo Alto

Panorama

FortiGate

Azure Firewall

Cisco ESA

A10

Job description

A Firewall Operations Engineer job in Beltsville, MD is currently available through Belcan at one of our key Federal Civilian clients. To be considered for this role, you will have a bachelor's degree and 4 years of relevant experience.

Job Duties:

• 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:

• Secret clearance with ability to obtain Top Secret clearance.
• Bachelor's degree and 2-4 years of experience.
• 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.
• Experienced in utilizing network monitoring tools such as NeuralStar.
• Experienced with TCP/IP network implementation and troubleshooting.

Preferred Qualifications & Skills:

• CLI experience preferred.

Compensation:

We provide a competitive pay and benefits package. This position is offering a salary range of $90,000 - $110,000. Belcan considers several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to education, experience, geographic location, and discipline. Benefits offered may include health care, dental, vision, life insurance; 401(k); education assistance; paid time off including PTO, holidays, and any other paid leave required by law.

www.belcan.com

Belcan is an equal opportunity employer. Your application and candidacy will not be considered based on race, color, sex, religion, creed, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.