Firewall Administrator

Employment Type: Contract (12 Months)

Location: Greater Tampa, FL (Lutz, Zip Code 33549)

Work Arrangement: Hybrid, 3+ days onsite per week

Schedule: Standard business hours with occasional after-hours implementation work

Our client, a leading energy and utilities organization, is seeking an experienced Firewall Administrator to support and maintain its network security environment. This role will focus on firewall administration, VPN implementation and troubleshooting, firewall upgrades, and responding to security and network-related tickets and investigations.

The ideal candidate will have hands-on experience deploying, upgrading, and implementing firewalls, along with strong VPN knowledge and experience working in a regulated or compliance-driven environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Administer, configure, troubleshoot, and maintain enterprise firewall environments.
• Deploy and implement new firewalls and support large-scale firewall upgrade initiatives.
• Create, modify, and troubleshoot firewall rules based on business and security requirements.
• Respond to firewall-related tickets, incidents, and investigations.
• Create, configure, implement, and troubleshoot VPN connections.
• Support multiple firewall upgrade and network security implementation projects.
• Collaborate with network, security, infrastructure, and application teams to troubleshoot connectivity and security issues.
• Participate in planned after-hours implementation and maintenance activities.
• Follow established security, change management, and compliance procedures.
• Maintain accurate documentation related to firewall configurations, VPNs, rules, and network changes.

Required Qualifications

• 3+ years of hands-on experience upgrading, deploying, implementing, and administering firewalls.
• Strong knowledge of VPN creation, configuration, and troubleshooting.
• Understanding of Industrial Control System (ICS) protocols, including Modbus and CIP.
• Experience working within a regulated or compliance-driven business environment, such as environments subject to NERC CIP, SOX, or similar regulatory requirements.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work onsite in the Tampa area at least 3 days per week.
• Ability to participate in occasional after-hours implementation work, typically during evening maintenance windows.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience administering Check Point firewalls.
• Fundamental understanding of routing and switching.
• Experience supporting large-scale firewall upgrades or network security implementations.
• Experience working in environments with strict regulatory, security, and change-control requirements.

Work Environment

This is a hands-on role supporting a large enterprise network security environment. The position requires regular onsite collaboration and participation in scheduled implementation windows. After-hours work should be expected approximately once per week, typically during evening maintenance windows.

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