Job Summary:
The organization is seeking an expert-level Palo Alto Networks Security Engineer Consultant to support a Next-Generation Network initiative focused on expanding network capacity, enhancing security, and modernizing enterprise architecture to support scalable, cloud-ready operations. The role will focus on assessing, designing, migrating, configuring, and optimizing Palo Alto Networks security infrastructure, including Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW), Panorama, security policies, security profiles, and threat-prevention capabilities. The consultant will provide technical expertise in enterprise firewall architecture, cybersecurity assessments, high-availability deployments, centralized monitoring, and operational readiness. The role also includes technical documentation, knowledge transfer, and alignment with Palo Alto Networks and industry best practices.
Key Responsibilities:
• Conduct comprehensive assessments of existing and proposed Palo Alto Networks architectures and Next-Generation Firewall configurations.
• Assess Next-Generation Internet Edge designs and provide recommendations based on industry standards and Palo Alto Networks best practices.
• Validate hardware, software, and infrastructure readiness for deployment.
• Review Panorama and firewall baseline configurations, including interfaces, zones, routing, and system settings.
• Verify platform requirements, dependencies, and high-availability design considerations.
• Evaluate firewall architecture, security policies, security profiles, Advanced Threat Prevention (ATP), and operational processes.
• Identify configuration gaps, security risks, and opportunities for improvement, and provide documented remediation recommendations.
• Prepare assessment deliverables, including design review findings, firewall assessment reports, security architecture reviews, and gap and risk assessment reports.
• Develop migration and implementation strategies for Next-Generation Firewall environments.
• Review and clean up existing firewall configurations before migration.
• Configure Palo Alto Networks firewalls, Panorama, security services, and related components.
• Migrate existing firewall configurations and policies to Next-Generation environments.
• Implement and modify security zones, network segmentation, rules, profiles, and services as required.
• Configure high-availability features and perform failover validation.
• Develop and execute comprehensive testing procedures, including end-to-end functional, operational, failover, performance, and connectivity testing.
• Support firewall deployment, activation, and planned migration activities, including after-hours cutovers when required.
• Identify, troubleshoot, and resolve implementation and migration issues.
• Verify successful migration and operational readiness following implementation.
• Support change management processes and maintain required implementation documentation.
• Track and communicate project risks, issues, dependencies, and mitigation activities.
• Implement Palo Alto Networks security best practices and recommended design improvements, including security policy, security profile, and threat-prevention optimization.
• Design and configure centralized monitoring and reporting using native Palo Alto Networks capabilities, including Panorama and, where licensed, Strata Cloud Manager and Strata Logging Service.
• Configure operational dashboards, alerts, notifications, and reporting mechanisms within the Palo Alto Networks platform.
• Configure weekly and monthly operational and security reports.
• Enable historical trending and performance analysis capabilities.
• Recommend improvements to consolidate security visibility and reporting across the Palo Alto Networks environment.
• Provide technical guidance, troubleshooting assistance, and design consultation throughout the engagement.
• Participate in remediation planning for identified security risks and assessment findings.
• Address technical issues, dependencies, risks, and challenges related to the Palo Alto Networks environment.
• Provide recommendations to improve operational effectiveness, security posture, and system performance.
• Troubleshoot technical issues, manage support tickets, and escalate cases to Palo Alto Networks when required.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive project documentation throughout the engagement.
• Deliver as-built documentation reflecting the final implemented solution and configurations.
• Document recommended operational procedures and best practices, including the use of native Palo Alto Networks monitoring and reporting capabilities.
• Conduct structured knowledge-transfer sessions for designated staff covering configurations, operational processes, monitoring, reporting, and troubleshooting.
• Prepare and deliver standard operating procedures (SOPs), knowledge-transfer materials, session summaries, and final project documentation.
Required Qualifications:
• Minimum 10 years of expert-level experience with Palo Alto Networks technologies in large-scale enterprise environments.
• Experience designing, assessing, implementing, configuring, migrating, and providing operational support for Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) and Panorama security management solutions.
• Hands-on experience with high-availability configurations, security policy management, and ongoing operational support in complex enterprise environments.
• Experience with Palo Alto Networks PA-7500, PA-5450, PA-3000 series, or equivalent platforms.
• Expert-level hands-on experience with Palo Alto Networks architecture and deployment, including NGFW, Panorama centralized management, Prisma Access, and SD-WAN.
• Experience with SASE deployments and high-traffic environments involving firewalls with more than 10G throughput.
• Experience implementing high-availability deployments for failover.
• Experience managing multi-zone firewall environments with 1,000+ security policies.
• Experience supporting large-scale enterprise environments across a minimum of 5 physical locations and 20,000+ users.
• Minimum 10 years of experience conducting comprehensive cybersecurity assessments of enterprise network and security infrastructures.
• Experience reviewing firewall architecture and configurations, evaluating security policies, assessing threat-prevention effectiveness, and identifying security gaps, vulnerabilities, and risks.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate existing security controls, identify deficiencies, assess associated risks, and recommend improvements to strengthen security posture.
• Proven experience planning and executing large-scale firewall migrations involving a minimum of 5 firewall pairs (10 firewalls) within a single migration program or project.
• Experience with configuration assessment and cleanup, security policy translation and implementation, failover testing, end-to-end validation, troubleshooting, and production cutovers.
• Hands-on experience supporting project governance activities, including status reporting, change management coordination, and implementation planning in large or complex enterprise environments.
• Minimum 10 years of experience aligning Palo Alto Networks environments with vendor-recommended and industry-recognized security and operational best practices.
• Experience implementing and maintaining centralized monitoring, alerting, dashboards, operational reporting, and trending analysis using native Palo Alto Networks capabilities, including Panorama and associated logging and management tools.
• Experience evaluating existing configurations and operational practices, identifying security and performance gaps, providing technical advisory services, and recommending remediation measures.
• Experience using native Palo Alto Networks capabilities and associated tools for monitoring, reporting, and management rather than third-party monitoring platforms.
• Minimum 10 years of experience developing and maintaining technical documentation, operational procedures, and as-built deliverables for enterprise network and security environments.
• Experience documenting system architectures, configurations, implementation details, operational processes, and troubleshooting procedures.
• Experience conducting knowledge-transfer sessions and delivering technical training to network engineering and operations teams to support system administration, ongoing operations, troubleshooting, and knowledge retention.
• Minimum 3 years of experience working with advanced Palo Alto Networks security services and solutions, including Advanced Threat Prevention (ATP), Prisma Access, Prisma Cloud, and associated security management and reporting capabilities.
• Experience implementing, configuring, assessing, managing, or supporting these technologies to enhance threat prevention, secure network access, cloud security posture, and centralized security visibility.
Preferred Qualifications:
• Experience with Strata Cloud Manager and Strata Logging Service.
• Experience with advanced Palo Alto Networks security services, including Advanced Threat Prevention, Prisma Access, and Prisma Cloud.
• Familiarity with industry-recognized cybersecurity and network security best practices.
• Experience developing centralized monitoring dashboards, alerting frameworks, operational reports, and historical trending analytics.
• Experience preparing technical advisory documents, migration strategies, implementation plans, and comprehensive security architecture documentation.
