Columbia, SC

Salary
Posted
Jul 20, 2026
Location
Columbia, SC
Last confirmed open
Jul 29, 2026

What this job asks for AI summary

A 12-month contract role focused on designing, deploying, and managing secure cloud infrastructure across AWS and Azure. Day-to-day work centers on Palo Alto VM-Series Firewalls, Panorama, and F5 BIG-IP, along with building Zero Trust architectures and maintaining security policies, threat prevention, and compliance. Suited to a seasoned network security engineer with deep hands-on firewall and cloud experience.

Senior level · 10+ years · Columbia, SC · Contract

Must have (5)
AWSAzurePanoramaF5 ASMZero Trust
Nice to have (10)
F5 iRulesInfoblox DDIForescoutOPSWAT MetaDefenderF5 XCPrisma CloudCisco UmbrellaPCNSA or PcnseMicrosoft SC-100AWS Certified Solutions Architect

“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.

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.

What gives you an edge
Panorama1%Zero Trust3%

Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.

What the occupation pays Median $103,558 (middle half $80,860–$131,888).

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 (10)

This is a 12-month contract engagement, hybrid (2 days on-site in Columbia, SC; 3 days remote). Candidates must already reside in NC, GA, or SC and be willing to relocate to SC at their own expense before starting.

The posting lists 'Palo Alto Firewalls' and 'F5 BIG-IP LTM' again under the Preferred Skills section, but these are clearly hard-gated in the Required Skills section (5+ years each); they are marked required accordingly.

F5 ASM appears in both the Required Skills narrative (as a named technology the candidate must 'configure and support') and the Preferred Skills list. Given the explicit mention in the responsibilities/required section, it is marked required.

Zero Trust architecture design is explicitly called out in both responsibilities and required skills, but names no specific product — it is retained as a required skill representing a concrete security methodology gate.

The posting requires holding at least one Palo Alto, AWS, or Azure certification as a hard gate, but does not specify which one. The preferred certifications (PCNSA/PCNSE, SC-100, AWS CSA) are listed under Preferred Skills and are marked preferred.

SOC classification is Medium confidence: the role is primarily cloud security engineering (firewall deployment, Zero Trust, security policy), which maps best to 15-1212 (Information Security Analysts), but the heavy hands-on infrastructure/networking work also has affinity with 15-1244 (Network and Computer Systems Administrators).

No compensation figures were provided in the posting.

A Bachelor's degree in a related field is listed, but the posting explicitly accepts 10+ years of equivalent professional experience in lieu of a degree — degree requirement is therefore treated as None.

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.

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