Network Security/Firewall Operations Engineer (contract)

Hilton is seeking a highly skilled network security professional to join their enterprise security operations team. The role focuses on maintaining the integrity and governance of firewall operations in a large environment, requiring collaboration with internal teams and vendors to ensure secure network connectivity.

Responsibilities:

• Review firewall and network security requests through ServiceNow to validate business requirements, technical scope, source/destination/port details, environment information, and required supporting documentation
• Review firewall and security-related change records to confirm implementation plans, validation steps, backout plans, risk level, affected systems, approval status, and operational readiness
• Support the review, creation, and maintenance of firewall connectivity templates for approved business solutions, ensuring requirements are clearly translated into actionable firewall rules and implementation guidance
• Track and manage firewall and security ticket backlogs by reviewing ticket status, identifying stale or pending items, preparing summaries, and coordinating follow-up with stakeholders, vendors, and support teams
• Support Cisco firewall management platforms and secure device connector operations, including platform health checks, connector configuration, credential updates, maintenance tasks, upgrade support, and operational troubleshooting
• Assist with firewall device migration, synchronization issues, credential failures, and platform visibility problems to help maintain accurate and reliable firewall management
• Troubleshoot firewall connectivity issues using firewall management tools, packet-tracer analysis, firewall policy review, Splunk, and firewall log data to identify allowed, denied, or misrouted traffic
• Coordinate with internal teams, Cisco, managed service providers, and other vendors to resolve security platform issues, unreachable connector problems, access issues, and operational blockers
• Support security platform access and SSO discussions, including role requirements, SAML attributes, AD group mapping, and access control expectations
• Maintain operational documentation, process notes, review standards, and troubleshooting procedures to improve consistency, reduce repeat issues, and support knowledge sharing across the team

Requirements:

• 5+ years experience supporting enterprise network security operations, with a focus on firewall request review, firewall rule validation, and security change management
• 3+ years hands-on experience with Cisco firewall technologies and Cisco security management platforms such as Cisco Defense Orchestrator and Secure Device Connector, or similar centralized firewall management solutions
• 3+ years experience reviewing firewall and security changes in ServiceNow or a similar ITSM platform, including request review, change review, approval validation, risk review, implementation planning, and backout planning
• Strong understanding of enterprise firewall operations, network segmentation, secure connectivity, remote access considerations, and managed firewall support models
• Ability to translate business connectivity requirements into clear firewall rule requirements, including source, destination, protocol, port, directionality, and supporting documentation
• Experience troubleshooting firewall access issues using firewall logs, packet-tracer tools, Splunk, and other observability or log analysis platforms
• Ability to manage backlog items, track ticket status, prepare operational summaries, and drive follow-up actions across multiple teams
• Strong documentation skills, with the ability to create and maintain operational procedures, firewall review guidance, and troubleshooting runbooks
• Strong analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to support both daily operations and continuous improvement of firewall and security processes
• Experience coordinating with vendors, managed service providers, internal engineering teams, and business stakeholders to resolve firewall and security platform issues
• Experience in cloud security is highly desirable and will be considered a strong differentiator