Principal Technical Consultant - Network Security at Thinkahead

Job description

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation. At AHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging, where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD. We are an equal opportunity employer, and do not discriminate based on an individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived. We embrace all candidates that will contribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas and perspectives at AHEAD. We are seeking a Principal Technical Consultant to serve as the senior technical leader for network security engagements across four core pillars: next-generation firewall design and deployment (Palo Alto Networks, Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet), Cisco ISE-based network access control and identity services, load balancing and application delivery (F5 BIG-IP, including web application firewall and global server load balancing), and SASE and Zero Trust architectures (Zscaler, Palo Alto Prisma Access). Principal Technical Consultants design, deploy, and troubleshoot highly complex environments spanning multiple networking and security domains. They lead large, multi-technology projects, guide cross-functional delivery teams, and act as trusted advisors to client technical staff and executive leadership. This role owns end-to-end delivery from discovery and architecture through implementation, testing, cutover, and knowledge transfer, while also mentoring engineers across the organization, supporting sales campaigns as a subject matter expert, and building the reusable assets and industry content that advance the practice. Key Responsibilities - Firewall: Design and deploy Palo Alto Networks next-generation firewalls running PAN-OS, including App-ID, User-ID, and Content-ID enforcement, security profiles (Antivirus, Anti-Spyware, Vulnerability Protection, WildFire), SSL/TLS decryption, and centralized management through Panorama or Strata Cloud Manager. Design and deploy Fortinet FortiGate firewalls running FortiOS, including security profiles and inspection modes, virtual domains (VDOMs), centralized policy management through FortiManager, and logging and reporting through FortiAnalyzer. Design and deploy Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) managed by on-premises Firewall Management Center or cloud-delivered Firewall Management Center through Cisco Security Cloud Control, including Snort 3 intrusion policies, malware defense, URL filtering, and high-availability pairs. Lead firewall migration programs including legacy Cisco ASA to FTD conversions and cross-vendor migrations to Palo Alto, Fortinet, or Cisco platforms, owning policy translation, rule base optimization, phased cutover, and rollback planning. Design network segmentation architectures using firewall zones, virtual routers, VDOMs, VRFs, and policy-based routing to enforce least-privilege north-south and east-west traffic controls. Implement firewall high availability designs including active/standby failover, active/active clustering, multi-context and multi-VDOM deployments, and state synchronization for large enterprise and service provider environments. Deploy cloud-native and virtual firewall solutions including Palo Alto Cloud NGFW for AWS and Azure, FortiGate virtual appliances across AWS, Azure, and GCP, and Cisco Secure Firewall Threat Defense Virtual for hybrid and cloud workload environments. Design and deploy site-to-site IPsec VPN and remote access VPN architectures using GlobalProtect, FortiClient, and Cisco Secure Client, including route-based and policy-based tunnel selection a