Senior Network Engineer – Load Balancer / Firewall Specialist

Peraton•Orlando, FL

25d•$135,000 - $216,000•Onsite

About The Position

Peraton is seeking an experienced Senior Network Engineer specializing in load balancing and firewall technologies to support enterprise network infrastructure and security operations. The role serves as a subject matter expert in application delivery, traffic management, and network security, with a primary focus on Palo Alto Networks firewalls and enterprise load balancing solutions. The engineer leads the design, deployment, administration, and optimization of these technologies to provide secure, reliable, high-performing network services across distributed and hybrid cloud environments. The position requires hands-on experience with Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls and F5 BIG-IP or comparable application delivery platforms, strong networking fundamentals, security policy management, and advanced troubleshooting skills. It requires full-time, on-site presence in Ashburn, Virginia; Springfield, Virginia; or Orlando, Florida. The engineer participates in a 24/7 on-call rotation for critical infrastructure.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree and 8 years of experience, master's degree and 6 years of experience, associate's degree and 10 years of experience, or high school diploma or equivalent and 12 years of experience.
Must be a U.S. citizen and eligible to obtain the required DHS CBP clearance.
At least 5 years of hands-on network engineering experience, including at least 2 years dedicated to load balancing, firewall administration, or both.
Hands-on experience administering and troubleshooting Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS firewalls and F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) or a comparable application delivery controller.
Experience configuring firewall security policies, NAT, application-aware controls, and centralized firewall management using Palo Alto Panorama or equivalent tools.
Strong understanding of load balancing, application delivery, SSL/TLS termination, health monitoring, and high-availability configurations.
Solid networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, HTTP/S, DNS, routing protocols, and network address translation.
Experience analyzing network traffic, troubleshooting complex connectivity issues, and resolving problems across OSI Layers 3 through 7.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting federal government, defense, or other regulated environments.
An active DHS Public Trust or Top Secret security clearance or higher.
Active Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certification; CCNP Security is preferred, and CCNP Enterprise is acceptable.
Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE) or F5 BIG-IP certification.
Experience with Palo Alto GlobalProtect, Panorama, App-ID, User-ID, Content-ID, and WildFire.
Experience with Palo Alto Prisma Access, Prisma SD-WAN, VM-Series firewalls, or other cloud-delivered security solutions.
Experience with cloud security services across AWS, Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
Familiarity with WAF technologies, including F5 Application Security Manager (ASM), and application security best practices.
Experience with network security automation using Python, Ansible, Terraform, or vendor-specific APIs.
Knowledge of security monitoring and SIEM integrations, including Splunk, IBM QRadar, or Microsoft Sentinel.
Familiarity with security and compliance frameworks, including NIST SP 800-53, FedRAMP, PCI DSS, HIPAA, or DoD Security Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs).
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, Network Engineering, or a related field; equivalent combinations of education, training, and professional certifications will be considered.
Additional certifications such as CCIE Security, Palo Alto security certifications, Fortinet NSE certifications, Check Point CCSE, CompTIA Security+, or AWS and Azure security certifications.

Responsibilities

Architect, deploy, and manage enterprise load balancing platforms, including F5 BIG-IP, Citrix ADC (NetScaler), HAProxy, NGINX, and AWS or Azure load balancers.
Design and maintain next-generation firewall infrastructure, primarily using Palo Alto Networks PAN-OS, as well as other supported firewall platforms.
Develop and enforce firewall rulesets, security policies, NAT configurations, and zone-based access controls; centrally manage policies using Palo Alto Panorama or equivalent tools.
Configure and manage Palo Alto security features, including App-ID, User-ID, Content-ID, security profiles, and GlobalProtect remote-access VPN.
Configure and optimize load-balancing algorithms, health monitors, persistence profiles, SSL offloading, and iRules or policies.
Manage SSL/TLS certificate lifecycles, including termination, re-encryption, and certificate management.
Implement and maintain WAF policies to protect against OWASP Top 10 and application-layer threats.
Manage Panorama templates, device groups, and log forwarding across multi-site deployments.
Support high-availability architectures, including active/active and active/passive clustering for firewalls and load balancers.
Integrate load-balancing and firewall solutions with hybrid and multi-cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Audit, clean up, and optimize firewall rule bases to reduce the attack surface.
Analyze traffic and perform packet captures to diagnose complex application and connectivity issues.
Collaborate with application, DevOps, and security teams to onboard services and define traffic policies.
Lead incident response for firewall- and load-balancer-related outages and security events.
Participate in an on-call rotation to provide 24/7 support for critical infrastructure.
Mentor junior and mid-level engineers on firewall and ADC architecture and operations.
Maintain topology diagrams, rule justifications, runbooks, and change records.