Manager, Firewall Infrastructure Engineering

Centene Corporation • Remote-MO, MO

2d • $102,900 - $190,500

About The Position

The Manager, Firewall Infrastructure Engineering provides operational leadership, delivery execution, workforce management, and capability advancement for the Firewall Infrastructure Engineering function. The manager ensures the enterprise firewall ecosystem remains reliable, scalable, secure, measurable, and aligned with business and cybersecurity objectives. The role leads the engineering team responsible for firewall infrastructure, hardware lifecycle management, software currency, platform capacity, operational support, monitoring, resiliency, and continuous improvement.

The role is accountable for the operational health, supportability, lifecycle management, and scalability of the firewall ecosystem. It does not own firewall policy governance, firewall rule implementation, or security architecture decisions, except where infrastructure requirements affect platform availability, performance, or supportability. The manager also leads firewall infrastructure projects and strategic initiatives; coordinates work across partner teams and vendors; supports governance, risk, audit, and compliance activities; and provides reporting on lifecycle and capacity needs.

A bachelor's degree and at least five years of related experience are required, or equivalent experience acquired through applicable knowledge, duties, scope, and skill. Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future employment-based visa sponsorship. The stated pay range is $102,900 to $190,500 per year. Centene describes its work as supporting access to healthcare and improving the health of individuals, families, and communities.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree and 5+ years of related experience, or equivalent experience acquired through applicable knowledge, duties, scope, and skill.
• Strong people leadership and team development skills; ability to lead and manage others.
• Execution-focused management approach and ability to balance operational support with strategic improvements.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Experience managing multiple concurrent security initiatives.
• Risk-based decision-making capability.
• Ability to translate technical issues into business impact discussions.
• Collaboration and team-building skills.
• Ability to coach effectively and deliver constructive feedback.
• Ability to instill commitment to organizational goals.
• Ability to communicate and make recommendations to upper management.
• Effective conflict management skills.
• Ability to develop and deliver effective presentations.
• Demonstrated negotiation skills.
• Authorization to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future; sponsorship is not available for the opportunity.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of firewall infrastructure engineers; set priorities, sprint objectives, and operational work plans.
• Manage performance, career development, coaching, and mentoring; develop succession plans and reduce key-person dependency risks.
• Build a sustainable operating model that distributes ownership across the team.
• Ensure reliable operation of enterprise firewall infrastructure and supporting services.
• Maintain operational readiness, support models, escalation paths, and runbooks.
• Manage engineering backlogs and technical debt initiatives; monitor platform health, performance, availability, and operational metrics.
• Drive consistent execution of firewall engineering processes and standards and maintain operational support requirements across firewall platforms.
• Advance firewall infrastructure capabilities in resiliency, scalability, observability, and automation.
• Partner with Capability Stewards on multi-year technology and lifecycle roadmaps, prioritizing work by risk reduction, operational efficiency, capacity needs, and business value.
• Ensure new capabilities transition successfully into production operations.
• Provide operational leadership for enterprise firewall platforms, hardware lifecycle management, software and code upgrades, capacity planning, high availability and resiliency, disaster recovery, performance monitoring, health reporting, monitoring and alerting, asset inventory and technology currency, infrastructure automation and orchestration, support and escalation management, vendor hardware maintenance, and data center and cloud connectivity.
• Develop and maintain multi-year firewall hardware refresh strategies and manage technology currency and end-of-life/end-of-support planning.
• Forecast platform growth and capacity needs; establish capacity thresholds and expansion triggers; align infrastructure investments with future demand.
• Track capacity utilization and provide executive reporting on lifecycle and expansion requirements.
• Lead firewall infrastructure projects and strategic initiatives; coordinate resources, timelines, dependencies, and stakeholder communications.
• Partner with architecture, network engineering, cloud engineering, security operations, and infrastructure teams to achieve measurable business and operational outcomes.
• Track infrastructure risks and control effectiveness; escalate matters requiring risk acceptance or executive decisions.
• Support audit, compliance, and control validation activities; maintain documented standards, procedures, and engineering practices; keep lifecycle and supportability risks visible and actively managed.
• Manage relationships with firewall vendors and service providers; hold them accountable to contracted deliverables and service-level commitments.
• Review vendor support effectiveness, hardware roadmaps, and maintenance requirements; drive continuous improvement through vendor partnerships.
• Participate in platform selection, renewal, and lifecycle planning activities.
• Perform other duties as assigned and comply with all policies and standards.

Benefits

• Competitive pay
• Health insurance
• 401K plan
• Stock purchase plan
• Tuition reimbursement
• Paid time off
• Paid holidays
• Flexible approach to work, with remote, hybrid, field, or office schedules
• Additional forms of incentives may be included in total compensation, subject to applicable factors and eligibility.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager