Senior Infrastructure Security Engineer 3 - Palo Alto & NGFW

Location - Navi Mumbai, India

Position Summary

We are seeking an experienced and proactive Senior Infrastructure Security Engineer with strong expertise in Palo Alto Networks NGFW and Panorama administration. The candidate will be deployed at the client site and will serve as the primary technical point of contact for all Palo Alto-related operations and support activities. The role involves managing firewall infrastructure, leading L2 support operations, handling escalations, mentoring junior engineers, and ensuring high availability and security compliance across the client’s network environment. The ideal candidate should possess strong troubleshooting skills, client-handling experience, and the ability to work independently in a managed services environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead L2/L3 support for Palo Alto Networks NGFW (PA-Series) infrastructure across the client environment.
• Manage and troubleshoot security policies, NAT rules, routing, zones, and VPN configurations.
• Monitor firewall health, traffic logs, threat prevention dashboards, and perform proactive remediation.
• Perform firmware upgrades, hotfix deployments, and HA failover testing with minimal downtime.
• Administer Panorama for centralized firewall policy and configuration management.
• Configure and manage device groups, templates, template stacks, shared objects, and log collectors in Panorama.
• Handle log collection, reporting, and forwarding profiles through Panorama.
• Act as the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) for all Palo Alto-related operational issues at the client site.
• Coordinate with Palo Alto TAC, internal support teams, and stakeholders for escalations and issue resolution.
• Mentor junior engineers and review configuration changes and operational activities.
• Manage incident, problem, and change management activities aligned with SLA requirements.
• Conduct RCA (Root Cause Analysis) and maintain operational documentation including SOPs, runbooks, and handover notes.
• Prepare MIS reports, operational dashboards, and client status reports.

Technical Skills

• Hands-on experience with Palo Alto Networks NGFW (PA-54K to PA-5K series)
• Strong expertise in PAN-OS administration and troubleshooting
• Deep understanding of Panorama administration including device groups, templates, and log collectors
• Experience with App-ID, User-ID, Content-ID, Threat Prevention, URL Filtering, and WildFire
• Knowledge of HA configurations (Active/Passive and Active/Active)
• Experience with GlobalProtect VPN, IPSec VPN, and SSL-VPN
• Good understanding of networking concepts including BGP, OSPF, VLANs, routing, and SD-WAN basics
• Familiarity with ITSM processes including Incident, Problem, and Change Management
• Experience with firmware upgrades, policy optimization, and firewall performance monitoring

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field
• 5–8 years of hands-on experience in Palo Alto Networks support and administration
• Strong client-facing experience in managed services or consulting environments
• Excellent troubleshooting, analytical, and communication skills
• Ability to work independently at client site with minimal supervision
• Experience in stakeholder management and mentoring junior engineers
• Mandatory Certification:
• PCNSE (Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer)
• Palo Alto Network Security Professional

Preferred Qualifications

• PCNSA (Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Administrator)
• ITIL Foundation v3/v4 certification
• CCNP Security or equivalent networking certification
• Experience working in enterprise or client-site deployment environments
• Strong documentation and operational reporting skills
• Exposure to security operations and enterprise network security architecture