Palo Alto / Cloudflare Network Security Engineer

Role: Senior Network Security Engineer (Palo Alto / Cloudflare)

Work Location: Plano, TX (2-3 days onsite per week in Client office)

LOCAL CANDIDATES ONLY

Position Overview

The customer is seeking a highly experienced Senior Network Security Engineer to support a strategic initiative involving the encryption and decryption optimization of approximately 80 Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) utilizing Palo Alto Networks technology. The engineer will be responsible for implementing Palo Alto recommended best practices and configuration changes while collaborating closely with internal engineering resources.

This role requires strong expertise in Palo Alto firewall administration, SSL/TLS decryption policies, network security architecture, troubleshooting, and integration with Cloudflare and load balancing environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead implementation of Palo Alto recommended changes across approximately 80 NGFW firewalls.
• Design, configure, and optimize SSL/TLS encryption and decryption policies.
• Perform firewall rule analysis, policy tuning, and security hardening.
• Collaborate with engineering teams on architecture, deployment planning, and operational readiness.
• Work alongside Cloudflare and load balancer infrastructure teams to ensure secure and optimized traffic flow.
• Troubleshoot complex networking and security issues involving encrypted traffic inspection.
• Validate firewall performance, stability, and security compliance after implementation changes.
• Develop implementation documentation, operational procedures, and knowledge transfer materials.
• Mentor and support the junior engineer assigned to the project.
• Assist in transition and operational handoff to the designated customer engineer being groomed for long-term ownership.

Required Qualifications

• 7+ years of hands-on network security engineering experience.
• Strong expertise with Palo Alto Networks NGFW platforms.
• Deep understanding of SSL/TLS decryption technologies and best practices.
• Experience implementing Palo Alto recommended security architecture and policy changes.
• Hands-on experience with Palo Alto Panorama, Security policies and NAT, Threat Prevention, URL Filtering, SSL Forward Proxy / Inbound Inspection.
• Experience integrating security controls with Cloudflare environments.
• Strong understanding of load balancer technologies and traffic flow concepts.
• Excellent troubleshooting and analytical skills.
• Strong documentation and communication abilities.

Preferred Qualifications

• Palo Alto certifications (PCNSE preferred).
• Experience in large enterprise firewall environments.
• Familiarity with Zero Trust and modern security architectures.
• Experience working in staff augmentation or consulting engagements