Palo Alto Cyber Specialist Lead Technologist

Job Description

Job Title: Palo Alto Cyber Specialist Lead Technologist

Posting Start Date: 2/20/26

Job Description:

Job Information

Salary Range: $101,490 - $130,380

The base salary range represents a good faith salary range for this position. This position is eligible for annual incentive pay and has the opportunity for continued salary growth. If you are hired at American Water your base salary compensation will be determined based on factors such as market, geography, skills, education and/or experience. At American Water, we are committed to pay equity. In addition to compensation, you will be offered a comprehensive benefits package including 401(k), Defined Contribution Plan, Employee Stock Purchase Plan, medical, prescription, dental and vision coverage, plus disability, paid time off, life insurance, voluntary benefits, health and wellness programs and much more!

American Water is also proud to offer employees learning opportunities and work experiences to grow professionally!

Primary Role

The Lead Technologist Palo Alto Cyber Specialist will be responsible for Palo Alto Firewall and SASE implementation, and management of our organization's Palo Alto Cyber security systems. This role involves monitoring, analyzing performance, and responding to requests and incidents, ensuring the protection of our network infrastructure and sensitive data. The ideal candidate has a strong background in cybersecurity, hands on experience with Palo Alto Firewalls, SASE, Strata Cloud Manager, XDR, and Zero-Trust principles.

- Configure, maintain, and optimize Palo Alto Network Security technologies, including but not limited to VPN, SASE, SSPM, DLP, physical and Cloud Firewalls.

- Develop and refine security rules, dashboards, and reports for proactive threat and error detection.

- Deploy firewall and SASE technologies, configure for industry best practices.

- Plan, implement, and maintain EDR policies and deployments, in coordination with cyber investigation and IT operations teams. Regularly assess the effectiveness of network and endpoint security solutions and suggest improvements.

- Develop and maintain documentation for Cyber processes, procedures, and configurations.

- Conduct periodic security assessments and audits using the Palo Alto Strata and Cortex Platforms.

- Assist response teams with cybersecurity investigations.

Key Accountabilities

- Monitor the status of network and endpoint security systems to include:

- rule effectiveness and efficiency

- device performance

- Firewall and endpoint metrics

- Create and Enhance security documentation related to the Strata, Prisma and Cortex XDR platforms at American Water.

- Act as a technology direction lead for the Strata, Prisma, and Cortex XDR platforms, which includes providing detailed information and advice as necessary in that specialization in order to achieve business outcomes.

- Develop and/or promote technical solutions which support the business requirements. Be accountable for specific deliverables in relation Firewall and Endpoint Metrics, and technology effectiveness.

- Engage closely with stakeholders to understand what business objectives they want to accomplish through the network security platform and then work with the various technology teams to ensure the resiliency and disaster recovery needs are met.

Knowledge/Skills

- Excellent decision-making ability, balancing what is right with what is realistic

- Flexibility to adjust to multiple demands, shifting priorities, ambiguity, and rapid change

- Demonstrated ability to lead through influence and to deliver results through others while overcoming obstacles to success

- Possesses a high energy level, sense of urgency, decisiveness, and an ability to work well under pressure

- Strong knowledge of IT infrastructure, networking, and security principles.

- Strong knowledge of cybersecurity principles, threat hunting, and incident response.

- Managing security systems across geographically diverse and hybrid-cloud environments.

- Strong verbal and written communication skills for a wide variety of audiences including proven ability to deliver conference presentations Creative approach to problem-solving with the ability to focus on details while simultaneously maintaining the "big picture" view

- Experience with network security, firewalls, IDS/IPS, VPN, and endpoint protection solutions.

- Experience developing and maintaining DLP policies. Familiarity with Cloud architectures and technologies.

- Familiarity with log analysis, data normalization, and event correlation

Experience/Education

- Bachelors' degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, relevant field of Engineering or similar technology field.

- 5+ years of hands-on experience with Network Security Devices, Palo Alto Networks platform and Strata Cloud Manager Preferred

- Experience with SASE security implementations and coordination of policies between SASE components.

- Experience managing EDR deployments across varying OS and device types, with direct Cortex XDR experience preferred.

Travel Requirements

- As necessary, up to 10%

Work Environment

- Primarily in an office environment

Competencies

Champions safety

Customer obsessed

Cultivates innovation

Nimble learning

Drives Results

Collaborates