Senior Data Security Analyst - Palo Alto & Cortex Expert

GovCIO; Jackson (MS); Remote; USD 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Corporate Discounts

Learning & Development platform

Training, Education and Certification

Referral Bonus Program

Internal Mobility Program

Pet Insurance

Flexible Work Environment

Job summary

GovCIO seeks a Data Security Analyst — Master to lead enterprise security controls across data, networks, applications, and cloud environments. This senior role is hands-on with Palo Alto networks and Cisco tech, guiding architecture, policy, and incident response.

You will design, implement, and operate controls using Panorama, Cortex, and Strata to improve visibility, segmentation, and resilience. Strong communication and leadership are essential.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in cybersecurity with hands-on firewall admin and incident response.
• Deep expertise administering Palo Alto NGFW in complex environments.
• Advanced experience with Panorama centralized policy administration, device-group design, templates, and HA workflows.
• Strong knowledge of Palo Alto Strata capabilities (App-ID, User-ID, Content-ID, decryption, segmentation).
• Experience with Cortex for detection, investigation, IR, threat hunting, and automation.
• Investigate and resolve complex network-security issues using logs and telemetry.
• Strong Cisco networking background including TCP/IP, VPNs, routing, switching, and high-availability.
• Experience with Cisco Secure Firewall/Firepower, ISE, and Secure Network Analytics.
• Understanding of zero trust, least privilege, vulnerability management, and security controls.
• Familiarity with NIST/ISO/CIS/PCI/HIPAA/SOX controls and audit readiness.

Responsibilities

• Architect and deploy Palo Alto firewalls across data center, campus, cloud, and remote environments.
• Lead centralized firewall management with Panorama, including policy design and HA.
• Design and enforce least-privilege security policies with advanced threat protection.
• Lead operational use of Strata for posture, visibility, segmentation, and resilience.
• Deploy Cortex capabilities for security analytics, EDR/EDR, automation, and response.
• Investigate alerts, coordinate containment, eradication, recovery, and post-incident reviews.
• Develop detections, dashboards, investigations, and response playbooks.
• Maintain secure network segmentation and zone-based architecture.
• Collaborate with Cisco teams to integrate secure routing, VPN, and network controls.
• Review and document firewall changes per change-management processes.
• Maintain network diagrams, runbooks, and security-control validation.
• Mentor analysts and engineers; drive standards and root-cause analyses.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend roadmap improvements.

Skills

Firewall administration

Incident response

Security engineering

Threat detection & analytics

Security architecture

Cloud security

Zero trust

Education

Master’s degree in Cybersecurity or related field

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

Palo Alto Networks

Panorama

Cortex

Strata

Cisco ASA/Firepower

Cisco ISE

Job description

GovCIO seeks a Data Security Analyst — Master to lead enterprise security controls across data, networks, applications, and cloud environments. This senior role is hands-on with Palo Alto networks and Cisco tech, guiding architecture, policy, and incident response.

You will design, implement, and operate controls using Panorama, Cortex, and Strata to improve visibility, segmentation, and resilience. Strong communication and leadership are essential.