Senior Cybersecurity Engineer

Akumen, Inc.; Washington (District of Columbia); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 185,000; Full time

Job summary

Akumen, Inc. seeks an experienced Senior Cybersecurity Engineer to design, implement, secure, and maintain enterprise firewall infrastructure for federal environments.

You will lead firewall architecture, policy management, security hardening, and incident response while ensuring compliance with NIST, RMF, and DISA STIGs. The role requires hands-on expertise with major firewall platforms and VPN technologies, network segmentation, Zero Trust, and cloud integration across Azure/AWS GovCloud as

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience administering enterprise firewall and network security technologies.
• Experience with enterprise firewall platforms and security policy management.
• Experience with NIST 800-53, RMF, DISA STIGs, or CIS Benchmarks.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, configure, and maintain enterprise firewall solutions in HA production environments.
• Manage firewall policies, ACLs, NATs, VPNs, and segmentation.
• Perform firewall rule reviews, policy cleanup, and change management.
• Support Zero Trust Architecture, micro-segmentation, and secure network access.
• Troubleshoot complex network connectivity and security issues across devices.
• Monitor firewall health, logging, and security events; respond to incidents.
• Conduct firewall security assessments, risk analyses, and configuration audits.
• Collaborate with cloud, infra, and app teams to secure integrations.
• Develop and maintain diagrams, docs, SOPs, and implementation guides.
• Support ATO activities and vulnerability remediation.

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field

Tools

Palo Alto

Cisco Firepower/ASA

Fortinet FortiGate

Check Point

Juniper SRX

Job description

Akumen, Inc. delivers mission-focused technology, cybersecurity, and cloud solutions that enable federal agencies to modernize infrastructure, strengthen security, and achieve operational excellence. We are seeking an experienced Senior Cybersecurity Engineer to design, implement, secure, and maintain enterprise firewall infrastructure supporting mission-critical federal environments.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on cybersecurity engineer with deep expertise in enterprise firewalls, network segmentation, VPN technologies, and Zero Trust security principles. This role will lead firewall architecture, policy management, security hardening, and incident response efforts while ensuring compliance with federal cybersecurity standards.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, implement, configure, and maintain enterprise firewall solutions in high-availability production environments.
• Develop, manage, and optimize firewall security policies, ACLs, NAT configurations, VPN tunnels, and network segmentation.
• Perform firewall rule reviews, policy cleanup, and change management while ensuring compliance with organizational security requirements.
• Support implementation of Zero Trust Architecture, micro-segmentation, and secure network access solutions.
• Troubleshoot complex network connectivity and security issues across firewalls, routers, switches, load balancers, and VPN technologies.
• Monitor firewall health, performance, logging, and security events while responding to incidents and vulnerabilities.
• Conduct firewall security assessments, risk analyses, and configuration audits in accordance with NIST, DISA STIGs, and agency security requirements.
• Collaborate with cloud, infrastructure, and application teams to securely integrate enterprise systems and cloud environments.
• Develop and maintain network diagrams, security documentation, standard operating procedures, and implementation guides.
• Support Authority to Operate (ATO) activities, vulnerability remediation, continuous monitoring, and cybersecurity compliance initiatives.

Minimum Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field. Relevant experience may be substituted for a degree.
• 7+ years of experience administering enterprise firewall and network security technologies.
• Hands-on experience with one or more enterprise firewall platforms, including Palo Alto, Cisco Firepower/ASA, Fortinet FortiGate, Check Point, or Juniper SRX.
• Strong understanding of TCP/IP, routing, switching, VLANs, VPNs (IPSec/SSL), NAT, ACLs, DNS, and network protocols.
• Experience implementing network segmentation and Zero Trust security architectures.
• Experience supporting security compliance frameworks such as NIST 800-53, RMF, DISA STIGs, or CIS Benchmarks.

Preferred Qualifications

• CISSP, PCNSE, CCNP Security, Fortinet NSE, CCIE Security, or equivalent cybersecurity certification.
• Experience securing Azure Government, AWS GovCloud, or hybrid cloud environments.
• Experience with IDS/IPS, web application firewalls (WAF), Secure Web Gateways, and network access control solutions.
• Experience with SIEM platforms such as Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel, or QRadar.
• Familiarity with automation using PowerShell, Python, Ansible, or REST APIs for firewall administration.

Experience supporting federal civilian or Department of Defense environments.

Clearance

A minimum of an active Secret security clearance is required

Salary Range
Minimum $150,000 - Maximum $185,000 annually

Akumen, Inc.'s current estimate of the expected compensation for this role at the time of posting. Actual compensation may vary based on a variety of factors, including a candidate's experience, education, certifications, technical skills, security clearance status, geographic location, and alignment with contract, labor category, and customer requirements. Compensation decisions may also be influenced by contract award status and available funding

Akumen, Inc. is an equal employment opportunity employer. All employment decisions are made based on qualifications, merit, and business needs, and without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law. We are committed to a respectful and inclusive workplace where all individuals have the opportunity to succeed. Akumen, Inc. maintains a drug-free workplace consistent with applicable local, state, and federal laws.