HYBRID ROLE in Charlotte, CONTRACT TO HIRE- ONLY w-2 UNABLE TO SPONSOR NOW OR IN THE FUTURE FOR THIS ROLE
About the Role
Our client's Cybersecurity Engineering Team is seeking a Senior Cybersecurity Systems Engineering Analyst to support, engineer, and optimize enterprise Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solutions, with a primary focus on Palo Alto Prisma Access . This is a highly technical engineering role responsible for designing, implementing, and supporting cloud-delivered security services while maintaining integration with legacy inspection zone technologies such as F5 BIG-IP , secure web gateways, and proxy environments.
The ideal candidate will have deep hands-on experience with Prisma Access , Zero Trust architectures, Security Service Edge (SSE) technologies, and enterprise-scale cybersecurity operations. This position will collaborate closely with Cybersecurity, Network Engineering, Incident Response, and Infrastructure teams to strengthen security posture and support modernization initiatives.
What You Will Do
- Implement, support, and manage Palo Alto Prisma Access and SASE environments
- Engineer and optimize cloud-delivered security controls including SWG, CASB, ZTNA, and DNS Security
- Design secure connectivity utilizing BGP, IPSec, routing, NAT, and traffic engineering principles
- Integrate Prisma Access with on-premise inspection zone technologies including F5 BIG-IP and proxy infrastructure
- Drive policy enforcement, telemetry integration, security monitoring, and threat detection capabilities
- Support incident response, threat hunting, and proactive security initiatives
- Perform system hardening, resilience engineering, and high-availability design
- Lead security modernization initiatives including migration from legacy security platforms to SASE
- Develop operational and security performance metrics for leadership reporting
- Partner with cross-functional teams to align security architecture with business objectives
- Support security operations within a 24x7 Cybersecurity Operations Center (CSOC) environment
Required Skills
- 6+ years of Cybersecurity and/or IT experience
- 4+ years of hands-on cybersecurity engineering experience
- Deep experience with Palo Alto Networks Prisma Access (not simply administration)
- Strong experience implementing and supporting SASE/SSE architectures
- Experience with:
- Secure Web Gateway (SWG)
- CASB
- Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)
- DNS Security
- GlobalProtect remote access and VPN technologies
- Strong networking knowledge including:
- BGP
- IPSec
- Routing
- NAT
- Experience designing and implementing Zero Trust architectures
- Security monitoring, telemetry integration, and policy enforcement
- Experience supporting large enterprise environments
- Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills
- Experience collaborating across security, infrastructure, and networking teams
Preferred Skills
- Palo Alto Strata Cloud Manager
- F5 BIG-IP
- Legacy Proxy and Inspection Zone technologies
- Palo Alto Threat Prevention
- WildFire
- Advanced Threat Prevention
- URL Filtering
- Hybrid cloud security architecture
- Python scripting
- Terraform
- API integrations and automation
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- Threat hunting and incident response experience
- NIST, CIS, and Zero Trust Framework expertise
- Security platform migration experience
Ideal Candidate
- Hands-on Prisma Access engineer rather than a security administrator
- Comfortable operating in large enterprise cybersecurity environments
- Strong understanding of modern Zero Trust security architectures
- Able to communicate effectively with technical and business stakeholders
- Experience supporting highly available and mission-critical environments
- Passionate about cybersecurity modernization and cloud-delivered security solutions
- Collaborative team player capable of working across multiple technology disciplines
Logistics
- Contract-to-Hire
- Target conversion to full-time employee at approximately 6 months
- Hybrid work arrangement
- Travel: 5%–10%
- Bachelor's degree preferred in Cybersecurity, Information Security, Computer Science, MIS, or related discipline
- Equivalent military or professional experience considered in lieu of degree
Why This Role
This opportunity allows an experienced security engineer to play a key role in a major enterprise SASE transformation initiative. The selected candidate will have the opportunity to influence enterprise security architecture, drive Zero Trust adoption, and contribute directly to the modernization of critical cybersecurity platforms while positioning themselves for long-term conversion to a full-time role.