Palo Alto Network SME

Pay Rates: $120 130/hr

Job Title: Palo Alto Network SME

Start Date: 9/9/2025

Duration: 9/9/2025 12/31/2025

Part Time: 30 hours per week

Location: NYC - Hybrid: Resource will need to be onsite approximately 2 times per week at various client locations across NYC. In addition, there will be night and weekend work to support the implementation.

Travel: Requires periodic on-site visits to client's locations across NYC.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide subject matter expertise (SME) in Palo Alto firewall technologies, including Panorama, App-ID, User-ID, threat prevention, and global protect VPN.

• Review, configure and validate firewall configurations, security policies, NAT rules, and routing across various locations.

• Design and implement optimized Palo Alto firewall policies aligned with security best practices and institutional requirements.

• Collaborate with network leads at the various locations to plan and execute firewall migrations, including cutover planning and rollback procedures.

• Analyze and translate existing firewall rulesets to Palo Alto syntax and logic.

• Conduct pre-migration assessments, gap analysis, and post-migration validation and testing.

• Assist in developing and refining Method of Procedures (MOPs), migration playbooks, and standard operating procedures (SOPs).

• Participate in HANDS-ON troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and resolution of complex network or firewall-related issues.

• Support knowledge transfer and mentoring of internal technical staff.

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years of experience in enterprise network engineering and firewall administration.

• 5+ years of hands-on experience with Palo Alto Networks firewalls, including centralized management with Panorama.

• Proven experience in complex firewall migrations, security policy design, and rule base optimization.

• Strong background in Layer 2/3 networking, VLANs, routing protocols (OSPF, BGP), NAT, VPNs, and high availability configurations.

• Familiarity with security best practices (NIST, CIS Benchmarks) and modern threat prevention mechanisms.

• Experience with packet capture analysis, log correlation, and advanced troubleshooting techniques.

• Excellent communication, documentation, and collaboration skills.

• Palo Alto certifications preferred (PCNSE, PSE, or equivalent).

Additional requirements:

• Requires a process-driven professional with meticulous attention to detail in configuration, deployment, and troubleshooting.

• Demonstrated ability to architect and support resilient Palo Alto firewall deployments with automated failover.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's degree.

• A minimum of 15+ years of related experience.

• 2+ years of management experience OR 5+ years of program/project management experience.