Palo Alto Networks Security Engineer

Arctiq is a global, intelligence-driven technology services company delivering professional and managed services across Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Networking & Connected Experiences, Cybersecurity, Data & AI, Autonomous Operations & Intelligence, and Enterprise Service Management. We help organizations operate, secure, and modernize complex environments by unifying infrastructure, networking, data, security, automation, and observability under a single, integrated operating model. Our work focuses on helping customers reduce operational friction, improve resilience, and make better, faster decisions as their environments evolve. Arctiq builds on decades of industry expertise and a customer-centric ethos to deliver exceptional value to clients across diverse industries.

We are seeking a highly analytical and experienced Palo Alto Networks Security Engineer to support the administration, optimization, and ongoing improvement of the organization’s network security environment. This role will focus heavily on Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW) capabilities, including application and user identification, URL filtering, traffic analysis, security policy optimization, and Cortex XDR.

The ideal candidate combines strong technical expertise with sound security judgment and a disciplined approach to change management. This individual must be able to evaluate existing security rules and traffic patterns, identify opportunities to strengthen the security posture, and balance those improvements against the potential operational impact to critical business applications.

This role requires strict adherence to established ITIL and change control processes, as well as the ability to work both independently and collaboratively with the broader security and infrastructure teams.

This is a remote contract opportunity with one of Arctiq's clients. This position requires strict 8am-5pm availability during the agreed-upon business hours.

Key Responsibilities

• Administer, analyze, and optimize Palo Alto Networks NGFW environments and security policies.
• Leverage advanced Palo Alto capabilities, including App-ID, User-ID, URL Filtering, and related security controls.
• Analyze firewall traffic, logs, sessions, and security events to identify threats, policy inefficiencies, and opportunities for security improvement.
• Evaluate existing firewall rules to identify opportunities for rule consolidation, modification, cleanup, and removal while maintaining appropriate security controls.
• Apply strong analytical judgment when determining whether tightening a security rule provides sufficient security benefit relative to the potential operational impact on critical business applications.
• Investigate application traffic and connectivity issues and determine appropriate firewall policy adjustments without unnecessarily weakening security controls.
• Support and administer Cortex XDR, including analysis of alerts, endpoint security events, and associated telemetry.
• Follow established ITIL, change management, and security governance processes for all firewall and security policy changes.
• Ensure rule deletions, consolidations, and modifications are thoroughly tested, documented, reviewed, and approved prior to implementation.
• Maintain accurate documentation of security policies, changes, testing results, and operational impacts.
• Proactively identify opportunities to improve firewall performance, security posture, policy efficiency, and operational processes.
• Develop and utilize APIs, CLI tools, Python, or other scripting languages to automate repetitive security and firewall administration workflows.
• Troubleshoot complex network and security issues using traffic analysis, logs, packet captures, and other diagnostic techniques.
• Collaborate effectively with network, infrastructure, application, and security teams to understand business requirements and resolve technical issues.
• Work independently to investigate issues, develop solutions, and execute approved changes while maintaining appropriate communication with stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• Strong hands-on experience administering and optimizing Palo Alto Networks NGFW environments.
• Demonstrated proficiency with:
  • App-ID
  • User-ID
  • URL Filtering
  • Security policies and rule optimization
  • Firewall traffic and log analysis
• Experience with Cortex XDR and endpoint/security event analysis.
• Strong understanding of network security concepts, firewall architectures, application traffic, and security policy design.
• Advanced analytical and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to interpret complex traffic and log data.
• Demonstrated ability to assess security improvements while considering potential business and application impacts.
• Strong understanding of ITIL and formal change control processes.
• Experience making security policy changes in environments where service availability and operational stability are critical.
• Ability to document, test, and validate changes before implementation.
• Experience with Palo Alto APIs, CLI tools, Python, or other scripting/automation technologies.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work effectively as part of a team while also independently managing assigned technical responsibilities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Palo Alto Networks certifications such as PCNSA, PCNSE, or PCCET.
• Experience with large-scale or enterprise Palo Alto firewall environments.
• Experience with firewall rulebase cleanup, optimization, and security policy remediation projects.
• Experience with network packet analysis and tools such as Wireshark.
• Familiarity with SIEM, SOAR, or other security monitoring and automation platforms.
• Experience automating firewall administration and security operations using Python or REST APIs.

Work Availability Requirement

• This position requires strict 8x5 availability during the agreed-upon business hours.
• The selected candidate must be fully dedicated to this engagement during those hours.
• Candidates must be able to maintain consistent availability and responsiveness throughout the designated business hours.

Arctiq is an equal opportunity employer. If you need any accommodations or adjustments throughout the interview process and beyond, please let us know. We celebrate our inclusive work environment and welcome members of all backgrounds and perspectives to apply.

We thank you for your interest in joining the Arctiq team! While we welcome all applicants, only those who are selected for an interview will be contacted.