WAF Engineer Specialist

Position: Cyber Security Engineer (WAF SME)
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Duration: Contract
Job ID: 174350

Job Overview:
We are seeking a skilled Cyber Security Engineer (WAF SME) to join a dynamic security operations team. In this role, you will lead the day-to-day operations, tuning, and incident response for Web Application Firewall (WAF) and the broader Web Application & API Protection (WAAP) stack, primarily using Akamai and secondarily Cloudflare. You will ensure platform stability, reduce false positives, enhance protection against evolving threats, and collaborate with various teams to maintain a secure and efficient environment.

Responsibilities:

• Monitor and manage WAF/edge security ticket queues, resolving incidents and service requests promptly.
• Triage and respond to Layer 7 events such as bot abuse, credential stuffing, API abuse, SQLi/RCE attempts, and L7 DDoS attacks.
• Provide on-call support for high-severity incidents and collaborate with SOC/IR, SRE, and application teams for containment and recovery.
• Onboard, configure, tune, and optimize Akamai and Cloudflare WAF policies, including managed and custom rules, rate limiting, and geo/IP/ASN controls.
• Implement policies for OWASP Top 10, API/WAAP protections, and business logic abuse mitigation.
• Execute changes via standard change control processes, including peer reviews, testing, and staged rollouts.
• Maintain certificate management, safe DNS/edge updates, and adopt policy-as-code approaches where feasible.
• Integrate WAF/edge telemetry with SIEM and maintain dashboards for threat trends, false positive rates, and platform health.
• Collaborate with SOC/IR and Dev/App teams to enhance playbooks and align policies with application behavior.
• Track emerging threats and vendor updates, recommending timely configuration changes and control enhancements.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 3 to 6+ years of hands-on experience in network security within an enterprise environment.
• At least 2 years of hands-on experience with Akamai WAF.
• Expertise in policy tuning and incident response for web and API protections.
• Strong understanding of HTTP/S, TLS/PKI, DNS, CDN caching/edge routing, and performance tradeoffs.
• Experience integrating WAF logs into SIEM and building actionable dashboards and alerts.
• Proficiency in scripting/automation tools such as Terraform, bash, Python, Ansible, or PowerShell, and familiarity with JSON/YAML and regex.
• Strong analytical troubleshooting, communication, and cross-team collaboration skills.
• Willingness to participate in rotational on-call support.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Certifications such as Akamai ACA/ACP, Cloudflare, CISSP, Security+, GIAC (GWAPT/GWEBIH), PCI ISA, AZ 104/AZ 700, AWS SAA/SOAA.
• Familiarity with platforms like Cloudflare, Fastly, Imperva, F5 ASM/Advanced WAF, Azure Front Door, AWS CloudFront + WAF.
• Experience with broader security stacks, including DDoS scrubbing, SIEM/SOAR, CASB/CSPM, and vulnerability management.
• DevSecOps experience, including CI/CD integration for edge policy promotion and testing.
• Payments/financial services experience and knowledge of PCI DSS, NIST CSF, and ISO 27001.

About PTR Global: PTR Global is a leading provider of information technology and workforce solutions. PTR Global has become one of the largest providers in its industry, with over 5000 professionals providing services across the U.S. and Canada. For more information visit ;br>
At PTR Global, we understand the importance of your privacy and security. We NEVER ASK job applicants to:

• Pay any fee to be considered for, submitted to, or selected for any opportunity.
• Purchase any product, service, or gift cards from us or for us as part of an application, interview, or selection process.
• Provide sensitive financial information such as credit card numbers or banking information. Successfully placed or hired candidates would only be asked for banking details after accepting an offer from us during our official onboarding processes as part of payroll setup.

Pay Range: $50- $65/hour on W2

The specific compensation for this position will be determined by several factors, including the scope, complexity, and location of the role, as well as the cost of labor in the market; the skills, education, training, credentials, and experience of the candidate; and other conditions of employment. Our full-time consultants have access to benefits, including medical, dental, vision, and 401K contributions, as well as PTO, sick leave, and other benefits mandated by applicable state or localities where you reside or work.

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