Sr. Palo Alto Cloud Engineer # 26-17515
US Tech Solutions · Columbia, SC
$80–$82.75/hrfrom the description
Jul 20, 2026
Columbia, SC
Jul 22, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level, hands-on cloud network security engineering role focused on designing, deploying, and managing Palo Alto VM-Series firewalls and F5 BIG-IP appliances across AWS and hybrid cloud environments. The work involves zero-trust architecture, security policy design, compliance framework adherence, and infrastructure troubleshooting. It suits an experienced network security engineer with deep Palo Alto and cloud infrastructure expertise, ideally with state or local government background.
Senior level · 10+ years · Columbia, SC · Contract
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 1 people in the Columbia, SC area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (information security analysts). range 1–1
Applicant volume Light — Few people clear these requirements, so an application that does clear them gets looked at. Worth applying to even if you miss a nice-to-have.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $103,558 (middle half $80,860–$131,888). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The posting repeatedly references 'Clienture Cloud' as a cloud platform alongside AWS. This appears to be a masked/anonymized name for a specific cloud environment (possibly Azure or a state government private cloud). It has been treated as a required platform given its prominence in the required skills section, but cannot be mapped to a canonical technology name.
The degree requirement states 'College degree OR 10+ years of equivalent experience as a Palo Alto cloud engineer' — since equivalent experience is explicitly accepted in lieu of a degree, the degree requirement is set to None.
Compliance frameworks (NIST, HIPAA, PCI, SOX, CMMC, CUI, ARC-AMP) are listed in the required job functions section. NIST, HIPAA, and PCI are captured as representative hard gates; SOX, CMMC, CUI, and ARC-AMP are additional frameworks mentioned in the same context.
The 10-year overall experience requirement is for Network Security and Engineering broadly; the 5-year requirement is specifically for Palo Alto VM-Series Firewalls and F5 BIG-IP LTM respectively.
Certifications required: candidate must hold at least one of Palo Alto, AWS, or Clienture certification. Preferred certifications include PCNSA, PCNSE, SC-100 (Microsoft Cybersecurity Architect), and AWS Certified Solutions Architect — these are not captured as skills per extraction rules but are noted here.
The role is hybrid (2 days in office, 3 days remote) in Columbia, SC; candidates must be residents of NC, GA, or SC and willing to relocate to SC at their own expense. Remote is set to false as on-site presence is required.
The alt SOC 15-1244 (Network and Computer Systems Administrators) is a plausible runner-up given the heavy network/firewall infrastructure focus, but the security design, zero-trust architecture, and compliance mandate make 15-1212 the better primary fit.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): Palo Alto VM-Series Firewalls, F5 BIG-IP LTM.
Posting is for a contract engagement — the market benchmarks below price full-time roles, so read the comp comparison with that in mind.
Read the full posting
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