Senior Network Engineer – Load Balancer / Firewall Specialist

Peraton•Ashburn, VA

24d•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 full-time, on-site presence at one of the designated locations: Ashburn, Virginia; Springfield, Virginia; or Orlando, Florida. The engineer participates in an on-call rotation providing 24/7 support for critical infrastructure and may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus, depending on the position.

Requirements

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 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.
One of the stated education and experience combinations: bachelor's degree and 8 years of experience; master's degree and 6 years; associate's degree and 10 years; or high school diploma or equivalent and 12 years.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting federal government, defense, or other regulated environments.
Active DHS Public Trust or Top Secret security clearance or higher.
Active Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certification; CCNP Security preferred, with CCNP Enterprise 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 web application firewall technologies, including F5 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, 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 using Palo Alto Panorama or equivalent tools.
Configure and manage Palo Alto security features, including App-ID, User-ID, Content-ID, security profiles, and related threat-protection features.
Deploy and manage Palo Alto GlobalProtect for remote-access VPN and mobile workforce security.
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 platforms.
Implement and maintain web application firewall policies, including Palo Alto Prisma Cloud and F5 ASM, to address OWASP Top 10 and application-layer threats.
Manage Palo Alto Panorama templates, device groups, and log forwarding across multisite 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 multicloud environments, including AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Audit, clean up, and optimize firewall rule bases to reduce the attack surface.
Analyze traffic and capture packets 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 providing 24/7 support for critical infrastructure.
Mentor junior and mid-level engineers in firewall and application delivery controller architecture and operations.
Maintain topology diagrams, rule justifications, runbooks, and change records.