Senior IT Security Specialist

About the role

We are hiring a Senior IT Security Specialist to protect our networks, endpoints, applications and cloud environments, and to keep us compliant with the frameworks our business and clients depend on. You will own day-to-day security operations across firewalls, intrusion prevention, wireless, email and endpoint protection, while leading our vulnerability testing and compliance programs.

This is a hands-on senior role. You will configure and tune security controls yourself, guide junior staff, and advise leadership on risk.

What You'll Do

Network and perimeter security

• Deploy, manage and tune next-generation firewalls, including rule reviews, segmentation and change control.
• Operate and tune intrusion prevention systems (IPS), investigate alerts and reduce false positives.
• Secure enterprise WiFi, including WPA3/802.1X authentication, rogue access point detection and guest network isolation.

Endpoint, email and data protection

• Administer antivirus and endpoint protection (EPP/EDR) across servers and workstations, and respond to detections.
• Manage anti-spam and email security controls, including phishing filtering, SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
• Own data loss prevention (DLP) policies across email, endpoints and cloud storage, and handle policy incidents.
• Run two-factor and multi-factor authentication (2FA/MFA) rollout, enforcement and exception management.

Application security and testing

• Plan and conduct penetration tests, and coordinate and scope third-party pen tests.
• Integrate static (SAST) and dynamic (DAST) application security testing into development pipelines.
• Triage findings with development teams, track remediation and verify fixes.

Compliance and risk

• Maintain controls and evidence for frameworks such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST CSF, PCI DSS and applicable privacy laws.
• Prepare for and support internal and external audits, client security questionnaires and risk assessments.
• Write and update security policies, standards and procedures.

Operations and leadership

• Participate in incident response, including investigation, containment and post-incident reviews.
• Mentor junior team members and deliver security awareness training.
• Report on security posture, metrics and risks to IT leadership.

What You'll Bring

• 5 to 10 plus years of experience in IT security, with significant time in security and compliance roles.

• Hands-on experience configuring and managing enterprise firewalls and intrusion prevention systems.
• Practical experience securing enterprise WiFi networks.
• Experience administering DLP, antivirus/endpoint protection and anti-spam/email security platforms.
• Experience deploying and supporting 2FA/MFA solutions.
• Proven ability to perform penetration testing and to run SAST and DAST tools, interpret results and drive remediation.
• Working knowledge of compliance frameworks (for example ISO 27001, SOC 2, NIST CSF or PCI DSS) and audit preparation.
• Solid understanding of TCP/IP, routing, VPNs, Active Directory/identity management and Windows and Linux systems.
• Clear written and verbal communication, including explaining risk to non-technical audiences.

Nice to Haves

• Experience with Palo Alto Networks firewalls managed through Panorama, including device groups, templates, security policy and threat prevention profiles.

• Cloud security knowledge in AWS, Azure or Google Cloud: identity and access management, network security groups, logging and cloud security posture management (CSPM).

• Experience with ITIL change management standards.

• Familiarity with SIEM platforms and log correlation.

• Experience with DevSecOps practices and embedding security in CI/CD pipelines.
• Exposure to zero trust architecture and secure remote access.

Education and Certifications

• Degree or diploma in Computer Science, Information Security or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• One or more certifications is an asset: CISSP, CISM, CompTIA Security+, OSCP, CEH, PCNSE (Palo Alto), or a cloud security certification such as AWS Security Specialty, Azure Security Engineer (AZ-500) or CCSP.