Lead Sr. Network Operations Engineer (Network Security - Palo Alto/Zscaler) Engineer

The Lead Senior Network Operations Center (NOC) Engineer (Tier 3) serves as the highest technical escalation point within the global NOC organization. This role delivers advanced troubleshooting expertise, architecture-level insight, and deep subject matter knowledge across complex, multi‑vendor network environments. The Tier 3 Engineer leads root‑cause analysis efforts, oversees major incident response, influences network design standards, and partners closely with engineering teams to drive network stability, scalability, and operational excellence.

Responsibilities

• Acts as the final escalation point for all high‑severity network incidents, performing advanced packet analysis, protocol decoding, and cross‑platform correlation.
• Leads deep‑diving root cause analysis (RCA), producing engineering‑quality post‑incident reports and recommending long‑term corrective and preventive actions.
• Directs network recovery efforts during major outages involving routing instability, security incidents, hardware failures, or cloud connectivity disruptions.
• Demonstrates expert proficiency with Palo Alto firewalls, Palo Alto Cloud Security, and Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange services, including troubleshooting complex, multi‑tier network and security architectures.
• Applies strong knowledge of security automation, API‑driven provisioning, and lifecycle management within large‑scale environments, including experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) pipelines.
• Provides expert‑level support for Cisco ASA, Palo Alto NGFW, IPSec architectures, segmentation policies, and enterprise security posture validation.
• Proactively validates, enforces, and improves security architectures and industry best practices.
• Defines and governs Zero Trust access architectures using Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) and Zscaler Private Access (ZPA), enabling secure user‑to‑application connectivity without traditional network‑based trust models.
• Demonstrates mastery of packet analysis and monitoring tools, including BlueCat, SolarWinds, APCON, Wireshark, and NetFlow/sFlow platforms.
• Develops and maintains automation scripts to support configuration validation, monitoring, and incident response workflows.
• Evaluates, integrates, and optimizes new operational tools and observability platforms to enhance network visibility and reliability.
• Partners with Network Engineering teams to validate new designs, perform pre‑deployment testing, and influence architectural and operational standards.
• Mentors junior and mid‑level NOC engineers through technical coaching, lab guidance, and development of training materials.
• Engages directly with vendors on escalated TAC cases, hardware issues, and architectural reviews.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of enterprise network operations or engineering experience supporting large‑scale, mission‑critical environments.
• Expert‑level knowledge of network security architecture, with deep expertise in Palo Alto and Zscaler platforms.
• Extensive hands‑on experience with Cisco, Juniper, Brocade, Palo Alto, Aruba, and F5 technologies.
• Proven ability to lead major incidents under pressure with clear communication and strong technical leadership.
• Preferred Certifications; CCNP, CCIE, JNCIP/JNCIE, PCNSE, F5 Certified Admin or Engineer, AWS Advanced Networking

Special Requirements

• Participation in a 24x7 Tier 3 on‑call escalation rotation.
• Availability to support after‑hours change execution and major incident coverage as needed.

Sponsorship

Vanguard is not offering visa sponsorship for this position.