[Hiring] Principal Technical Consultant - Network Security @Ahead

Role Description

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)
• 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.

Qualifications

• 10 or more years of network security, infrastructure security, or security engineering experience, with at least 4 years in a consulting, professional services, or client-facing delivery role.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience designing and deploying next-generation firewalls in enterprise production environments on at least two of the following platforms: Palo Alto Networks (PAN-OS and Panorama), Cisco Secure Firewall (FTD and FMC), and Fortinet (FortiGate and FortiManager).
• Production experience deploying Cisco ISE for 802.1X authentication, TACACS+ device administration, and network access policy enforcement across wired, wireless, and VPN environments, including distributed node deployments.
• Production experience with F5 BIG-IP application delivery, including Local Traffic Manager and at least one of BIG-IP DNS for global server load balancing or BIG-IP Advanced WAF.
• Production experience with at least one SASE platform, Zscaler (ZIA and ZPA) or Palo Alto Prisma Access, including secure web gateway, CASB, and ZTNA policy configuration and connector or traffic forwarding design.
• Strong understanding of routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP), VPN technologies (IPsec, SSL/TLS), network segmentation, DNS, and Zero Trust architecture principles.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS VPC, Azure VNet, GCP VPC) including security groups, cloud firewalls, cloud-native load balancing, and hybrid connectivity architectures.
• Experience with identity and access management platforms (Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, SAML 2.0, SCIM) and their integration with firewall, network access control, application delivery, and SASE solutions.
• Experience integrating security platforms with SIEM (Splunk, Microsoft Sentinel) and syslog infrastructure, and automating deployment with Terraform, Ansible, and vendor REST APIs.
• Demonstrated record of independently leading large, multi-technology projects and cross-practice engagements, including directing the work of other technical resources.
• Executive-level written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce client-ready deliverables at varying levels of technical detail.
• Ability to travel at least 25 percent.

Requirements

• CCIE Security, or an equivalent expert-level certification in a core focus area.
• Palo Alto PCNSE or PCNSC; Fortinet NSE 7 or NSE 8; F5 Certified Technology Specialist (LTM, DNS, or ASM) or F5 Certified Solution Expert; Zscaler ZCCA or ZCCP; CCNP Security.
• CISSP or an equivalent industry security certification.
• Firewall migration experience including ASA to FTD conversions and cross-vendor platform migrations with rule translation and optimization.
• Microsegmentation exposure through Akamai Guardicore, VMware NSX distributed firewall and vDefend, or Cisco ACI contract-based segmentation.
• Experience with additional SSE platforms including Cisco Secure Access or Netskope.
• Experience with enterprise or regulated environments (healthcare, finance, government) including compliance frameworks such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA, NIST 800-53, and SOC 2.
• Multi-cloud and hybrid architecture experience spanning AWS, Azure, and GCP with infrastructure-as-code tooling (Terraform, Ansible, CloudFormation) and CI/CD pipeline integration.
• Prior consulting, professional services, or managed services background with experience scoping engagements, writing statements of work, and managing client delivery timelines and margin.
• Demonstrated experience mentoring engineers and authoring practice enablement or public-facing technical content.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401(k)
• Paid company holidays
• Paid time off
• Paid parental and caregiver leave
• Plus more! See benefits here for additional details.

Expectations

• Recognized as a technical authority and industry leader within the network security practice.
• Operates independently on highly complex, multi-technology problems with minimal supervision.
• Owns the overall technical outcome of assigned engagements, including quality, documentation, and client satisfaction.
• Leads cross-functional and cross-practice delivery teams, delegating workstreams to Senior Technical Consultants and Technical Consultants.
• Drives strategic technical conversations with client architects, security leadership, and executives, and connects technical decisions to business objectives.
• Contributes materially to sales campaigns as a subject matter expert and supports the transition from sales to services.
• Identifies out-of-scope client requests and escalates to the project manager or account team before delivery impact occurs.
• Carries a 60 percent target utilization, with remaining capacity directed to pre-sales support, mentorship, practice development, and thought leadership.