Network Security Engineer

$130,000 - $135,000/Yr

University of Southern California - Los Angeles, CA

Full-time - Entry Level

Los Angeles, CA

10,001+ employees

Educational Services

About the position

The University of Southern California (USC) is seeking a talented Network Security Engineer to join its Information Technology Services team. This role is crucial for the Firewall Services team, where the engineer will collaborate with a diverse group of professionals to tackle complex information technology challenges, enhance customer experiences, and deliver value to various campus stakeholders. The Network Security Engineer will be responsible for managing support requests related to firewalls, VPN connectivity, load balancer environments, cloud engineering, and DNS requests. This includes everything from registering computers on the wired network to providing extensive support for creating secure environments for researchers both in data centers and on campus. In this position, the Network Security Engineer will support the planning, design, optimization, implementation, auditing, and troubleshooting of network security systems. The goal is to improve the overall security posture of the university and its assets. The engineer will work closely with other teams, including security operations, governance, and system administrators, to design and deploy necessary solutions that enhance the security of university platforms. The role requires a commitment to USC's values of integrity, excellence, diversity, equity, inclusion, well-being, open communication, and accountability. The successful candidate will engage actively with customers to resolve network issues and act as a consultant to campus departments regarding the suitability and capability of devices connecting to the campus network. They will also be responsible for ensuring compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements regarding information access, security, and privacy. The engineer will maintain network security systems, apply software updates and patches, and respond to network-related incidents promptly. Additionally, they will be expected to stay current with new technologies and best practices, contributing to process improvement efforts within the team and across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Support planning, design, optimization, implementation, audit, and troubleshooting of network security systems.
• Collaborate with key stakeholders within ITS and other campus departments to deliver reliable and secure network services.
• Create and maintain detailed written documentation of network security processes and incidents.
• Communicate and report network security incidents to university and ITS leaders.
• Develop and implement solutions to protect the network infrastructure from threats.
• Ensure compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements regarding information access and security.
• Engage with customers to resolve network issues and provide consultancy on device connectivity.
• Evaluate, recommend, and perform new firewall implementations and configuration changes.
• Maintain network security systems and apply software updates and patches as needed.
• Build and maintain collaborative relationships with diverse team members and stakeholders.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Computer Information Systems, or related fields, or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
• Experience with Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), intrusion detection, proxies, firewalls, packet capture, and/or data loss prevention.
• Experience designing and implementing security measures within public cloud environments (e.g., AWS, Azure).
• Experience troubleshooting and deploying solutions involving certificates and public key infrastructures (802.1X or SSL decryption and offloading).
• Experience performing packet and flow analysis with various toolsets including in-line taps, firewall/IPS appliances, network routers, and hosts.
• Experience working with network access control platforms and writing shell scripts using Python or Bash.
• Experience designing and working with firewall and intrusion prevention systems.
• Ability to generate reports, create presentations, and present to appropriate stakeholders.
• Ability to contribute expertise to design discussions and support the development of network solutions.

Nice-to-haves

• More than four years of experience in information technology, network engineering, or network security.
• Experience designing and working with firewall and intrusion prevention systems focusing on Fortinet and Palo Alto security platforms.
• Experience working with WAF and CDN providers.
• Experience working with Cisco VPN Solutions for Remote Access.
• Relevant certifications such as CCIE Security, CCNA Security, CCNP Security, Fortinet NSE4, OSCP, CISSP, and/or CEH.

Benefits

• Excellent benefits including various well-being programs designed to help individuals achieve work-life balance.