Senior Cloud Network & Security Engineer – GCP / Palo Alto

Job Description

Job Title

Senior Cloud Network & Security Engineer – GCP / Palo Alto

Experience: 10+ Years

Job Summary

We are looking for a Senior Cloud Network & Security Engineer with 10+ years of overall experience in network engineering, cloud networking, and security. The candidate should have strong hands-on experience with GCP networking, GKE networking, Palo Alto Networks firewalls/VM-Series, VPN, Cloudflare, cloud gateways, automation, and hybrid connectivity.

The role will be responsible for designing, implementing, securing, troubleshooting, and maintaining highly available cloud network infrastructure and security solutions.

Key Responsibilities

GCP & GKE Networking

• Design, implement, and manage GCP network infrastructure, including VPC, Shared VPC, subnets, routing, Cloud Router, Cloud NAT, Cloud VPN, VPC Peering, Private Service Connect, and Load Balancing.
  
• Strong hands-on experience with GKE networking, including VPC-native clusters, Pod/Service networking, Alias IPs, Network Policies, Ingress, DNS, firewall rules, Private GKE, and GKE connectivity.
  
• Troubleshoot GCP/GKE connectivity, routing, DNS, ingress/egress, and performance issues.
  
• Design secure connectivity between GCP, GKE, on-premises, and other cloud environments.
  

Palo Alto Networks

• Design, deploy, configure, and manage Palo Alto VM-Series firewalls on GCP.
  
• Manage firewall policies, NAT, routing, security zones, application controls, threat prevention, URL filtering, and logging.
  
• Design and manage Primary/Secondary or Active-Passive Palo Alto HA configurations, including synchronization and failover.
  
• Configure and troubleshoot IPsec Site-to-Site VPN and GlobalProtect VPN.
  
• Manage Palo Alto PAN-OS upgrades/updates, licensing, subscriptions, configuration backup/restore, and license-related issues.
  
• Perform firewall rule optimization, troubleshooting, and security monitoring.
  

Cloudflare & Cloud Gateway

• Manage Cloudflare DNS, WAF, CDN, DDoS protection, SSL/TLS, Zero Trust, and traffic management.
  
• Design and manage secure cloud gateway / internet gateway architectures, including ingress/egress traffic, NAT, routing, and centralized security inspection.
  
• Integrate Cloudflare, Palo Alto, GCP Load Balancing, and application environments.
  

Cloud Security

• Implement network security, segmentation, IAM, Zero Trust, encryption, firewall controls, and secure ingress/egress.
  
• Collaborate with Security and DevSecOps teams to implement security best practices and controls.
  
• Support security incidents, root-cause analysis, and remediation activities.
  

Automation & Operations

• Automate infrastructure using Terraform, Ansible, and GitOps practices.
  
• Develop automation/scripts using Python, Bash, or PowerShell.
  
• Use Datadog and GCP/Palo Alto monitoring and logging for performance monitoring and troubleshooting.
  
• Maintain architecture diagrams, configuration standards, and operational documentation.
  
• Provide technical guidance and collaborate with Cloud, DevOps, Security, and Development teams.
  

Required Skills & Experience

• 10+ years of overall experience in Network Engineering, Cloud Networking, Infrastructure, or Cloud Security.
  
• 5+ years of hands-on GCP networking experience.
  
• Strong hands-on experience with GKE networking, architecture, operations, and troubleshooting.
  
• Strong experience with Palo Alto Networks firewalls, preferably VM-Series on GCP.
  
• Experience with Palo Alto Primary/Secondary or Active-Passive HA.
  
• Strong experience with Palo Alto firewall policies, NAT, routing, security zones, and security profiles.
  
• Hands-on experience with IPsec VPN and GlobalProtect.
  
• Experience with Palo Alto licensing, subscriptions, PAN-OS upgrades/updates, and troubleshooting.
  
• Hands-on experience with Cloudflare DNS, WAF, CDN, DDoS, SSL/TLS, and Zero Trust.
  
• Strong knowledge of TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, BGP, OSPF, IPsec, and HTTP/HTTPS.
  
• Experience with Terraform/IaC, Ansible, GitOps, and CI/CD.
  
• Scripting experience in Python, Bash, or PowerShell.
  
• Experience with Datadog and cloud monitoring/logging.
  
• Strong understanding of cloud security, network segmentation, IAM, Zero Trust, and DevSecOps.
  
• Experience with hybrid cloud and on-premises connectivity.
  

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field.
  
• Strong communication, analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills.
  
• Ability to work independently and provide technical leadership to engineering teams.
  

Preferred Certifications

• Google Cloud Professional Cloud Network Engineer
  
• Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect
  
• Palo Alto PCNSA / PCNSE or equivalent hands-on expertise.
  

Key Technology Stack

GCP | GKE | Palo Alto VM-Series | PAN-OS | GlobalProtect | Cloudflare | VPN | VPC | Cloud Router | Cloud NAT | Load Balancing | Terraform | Ansible | GitOps | Datadog | Python/Bash | DevSecOps

Ideal Candidate

A 10+ year senior cloud network/security professional with strong hands-on expertise in GCP + GKE Networking + Palo Alto VM-Series + Palo Alto HA + VPN + Cloudflare + Cloud Gateway + Security + Terraform, capable of independently handling enterprise cloud networking, security architecture, production troubleshooting, and automation.