Firewall Analyst Deputy Manager

Role Overview: You are an experienced Firewall Analyst Deputy Manager responsible for supporting ongoing firewall assessments, rulebase reviews, and policy exception evaluations. Your role involves analyzing network access requests, identifying security and risk impacts, and validating firewall configuration changes. Collaboration with security, risk, operations, and networking teams is essential to ensure firewall exceptions and rule modifications comply with organizational security standards. Key Responsibilities: - Review and assess firewall policy exception requests to determine security, network, and risk impact. - Analyze requested traffic flows and evaluate feasibility, justification, and alignment with internal security standards. - Perform firewall configuration assessments involving rule changes, NAT updates, and policy modifications. - Provide risk-based recommendations for approving, rejecting, or modifying exception and access requests. - Conduct impact analysis for proposed changes on existing firewall policies, segmentation, and security posture. - Coordinate with requestors to validate business requirements and advise on compensating controls. - Support ongoing firewall assessments by identifying misconfigurations, rule violations, unused rules, and optimization opportunities. - Document assessment findings, risk ratings, and remediation recommendations with clear rationale. - Collaborate with Network, SOC, and Risk teams to ensure complete visibility and alignment across stakeholders. - Maintain awareness of industry best practices including NIST, CIS Benchmarks, Zero Trust principles, and firewall governance standards. Required Skills & Experience: - Minimum 4+ years of hands-on experience in Firewall Administration, Network Security Engineering, or Security Operations. - Strong understanding of firewall rule analysis, exception review workflows, and risk assessment. - Practical experience working with major firewall technologies such as Checkpoint, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet FortiGate. - Proficiency in analyzing traffic flows (TCP/UDP ports, protocols, DMZ, VPN, routing basics, NAT concepts). - Good understanding of segmentation principles, security policy frameworks, and risk-based access validation. - Ability to translate business requirements into secure and compliant technical controls. - Familiarity with firewall assessment methodologies and configuration review tools. - Strong communication, documentation, and stakeholder management skills. Preferred Skills: - Experience with firewall compliance audits and rulebase optimization. - Understanding of SIEM/SOAR workflows related to firewall activity monitoring. - Exposure to cloud network security (AWS/Azure/GCP) is an added advantage. - Relevant certifications such as CCSA/CCSE, PCNSA/PCNSE, NSE4, Network+, Security+, or equivalent. Education: - Bachelors degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).,