Sr. Technical Support Engineer, Strata, US Government

Palo Alto Networks Public Sector•Reston, TX

1d•Onsite

About The Position

This role involves providing advanced-level technical assistance to U.S. federal government customers, supporting their complex post-sales concerns. The engineer will analyze situations, evaluate factors, and use critical thinking to understand methods and techniques for obtaining results. Networking with key contacts outside their area of expertise and explaining complex technical issues to both technical and non-technical professionals are key aspects. As part of the U.S. Government (USG) team, the engineer will act as a designated customer advocate, providing tailored support, weekly reviews, root cause analysis for critical issues, release reviews, upgrade planning, and quarterly business reviews. The role requires becoming deeply familiar with the customer's implementation and business priorities, proactively driving best practices to improve their security posture. Regular participation in technical discussions with cross-functional teams is expected to foster transparency, leading to better products, stronger partnerships, and enhanced cybersecurity outcomes. Quick thinking and proactive support are essential to provide fast assistance to Public Sector clients in high-pressure situations to keep their environments secure.

Requirements

Minimum of 5 years of network security experience, with a preference for experience supporting government or public sector clients.
Expertise in TCP/IP, advanced knowledge of LAN/WAN technologies, and general routing/switching.
Understanding of packet flow across multiple OSI layers.
Extensive experience troubleshooting Remote Access VPN solutions.
Ability to independently debug broad, complex, and unique networks with mixed media and protocols.
Proficiency with network troubleshooting tools.
Consistently maintains rigorous case management practices, ensuring thorough documentation and timely updates.
Experience interfacing with firewalls and firewall technology.
U.S. citizenship is required for this position to comply with U.S. federal government requirements.

Nice To Haves

Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) experience preferred.
Experience working with U.S. government, federal, state, or local agencies.
Virtualization experience (AWS, Azure, VMware, OpenStack).
Experience with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux (debugging, editing registries, plist, etc.).
Multi-vendor interoperability exposure.
Authentication protocols – LDAP, TACACS+, Radius, SAML.
BS in computer science, information technology, computer architecture, electrical engineering, mathematics, or related experience—or equivalent military experience.

Responsibilities

Offer advanced-level technical assistance to our Public Sector customers, ensuring prompt resolution of complex issues and providing tailored solutions to optimize their security infrastructure.
Effectively communicate technical solutions to technical and executive stakeholders, fostering trust and credibility within government agencies and organizations.
Provide tailored troubleshooting, configuration guidance, and best practices, with an understanding of government compliance and security requirements.
Take ownership of support cases from initiation to resolution, ensuring meticulous documentation of all troubleshooting steps, timely updates, and comprehensive closure summaries in the ticketing system.
Conduct multi-vendor troubleshooting on complex customer engagements, ensuring a seamless experience for public sector partners.
Utilize fault isolation and root cause analysis skills to provide post-sales technical support, configuration, troubleshooting, and industry best practices to customers.
Be a subject matter expert on core technologies of Palo Alto Networks product line, particularly in environments relevant to public sector customers.
Identify product defects (code, environment) via lab replication using network simulation, lab automation, performance testing, and validation tools.
File bug reports with the engineering team and develop test plans and best practices with Quality Assurance teams to improve overall software and hardware quality per release cycle.
Author Technical Support Bulletins and technical documentation in the Knowledge Base for training materials, marketing collateral, manuals, and problem-solving guides.
Travel to customer sites in the event of a critical situation to expedite resolution as required.
Provide support that includes mandatory weekend, holiday shift work and on-call support. Support includes a blend of as-needed and rotational coverage, which is subject to change.