Hamid Akhtar
Network Security Engineer
New Delhi,UP
Summary
- PCNSE and CCNP certified Senior Network Security Engineer with 8+ years of firewall experience, including 3 years in Palo Alto Networks TAC (Tier-2/Tier-3).
- Strong expertise in Palo Alto NGFW, Panorama, PAN-OS, GlobalProtect, Prisma Access, and advanced threat-prevention technologies.
- Proven experience in greenfield deployments and large-scale firewall migrations, supporting PA-200, PA-800, PA-3K, PA-5K, PA-7K platforms and all PAN-OS.
- Hands-on experience with OSPF, BGP, and Static routing, including troubleshooting routing convergence, peering, and traffic flow issues.
- Hands-on experience with F5 BIG-IP LTM and WAF, managing virtual servers, pools, health monitors, SSL profiles, and performing WAF policy tuning to enhance application security.
- Experience with virtual firewalls (VM-100/VM-300) on VMware ESXi and Microsoft Azure environments.
- Solid knowledge of AWS core services including EC2, S3, IAM, and VPC, with exposure to cloud security integrations.
- Experience with Qualys, SD-WAN (VeloCloud), LSVPN, MFA,TACACS, LDAP
Overview
12
12
years of professional experience
4
4
Certification
Work History
Infrastructure and Security Lead
LTIMINDTREE
07.2023 - Current
- Led enterprise-scale network security architecture and operations, designing high-availability, fault-tolerant, and scalable infrastructures aligned with zero-trust and defense-in-depth frameworks.
- Owned advanced Palo Alto NGFW engineering across PA-3410/3430, PA-1410, PA-850, implementing HA (A/P), zone-based policies, App-ID/User-ID, NAT (SNAT/DNAT), SSL decryption, QoS, and centralized management via Panorama (GUI/CLI).
- Engineered and optimized Security Profiles (IPS, Antivirus, Anti-Spyware, URL Filtering, WildFire) with custom tuning to mitigate zero-day exploits, high-severity CVEs, and advanced persistent threats.
- Architected and operated F5 BIG-IP LTM and WAF, configuring virtual servers, iRules, persistence, SSL offload, certificate lifecycle management, and tuning WAF policies to protect against OWASP Top 10, bot traffic, and application-layer attacks while preserving performance.
- Led enterprise vulnerability management and telemetry correlation using Qualys (SIEM) and SolarWinds, integrating firewall, network, and application data for proactive risk reduction and compliance readiness.
- Designed and supported L2/L3 network architecture across Cisco Catalyst 9200/9300, Nexus 7000, and Aruba 6200/6400/5400, implementing OSPF area design, BGP peering with route-maps, STP/RSTP, LACP, VLAN segmentation, and trunking.
- Engineered hybrid cloud connectivity on AWS, including VPC architecture, route tables, IGW/NAT gateways, security groups, EC2 provisioning, and automated backups using CloudFormation and Former2.
- Served as the final escalation authority for complex network and security incidents, performing deep PCAP analysis, session-level inspection, routing asymmetry diagnosis, and MTU troubleshooting, while mentoring engineers on advanced troubleshooting methodologies.
Sr. Security Engineer (Escalations T3)
iOPEX Technologies
06.2021 - 06.2023
- Provided frontline Tier-2/Tier-3 TAC support to diagnose and resolve complex network security issues across enterprise environments.
- Delivered advanced support for Palo Alto NGFW, Panorama, GlobalProtect, and cloud security solutions.
- Troubleshot Layer 3–Layer 7 issues including traffic drops, App-ID misclassification, NAT failures, VPN instability, and HA synchronization problems.
- Performed deep packet analysis (PCAP) using Wireshark/TCPDump to identify routing asymmetry, MTU issues, and application behavior anomalies.
- Supported customers through PAN-OS upgrades, hotfixes, and migration activities, ensuring stability and minimal downtime.
- Worked closely with Engineering and Escalation teams for bug validation, root cause analysis, and permanent fixes.
- Configured and troubleshot GlobalProtect, IPsec VPNs, User-ID integrations, and security policies.
- Tracked and managed cases using Jira, Salesforce, and internal TAC tools (PANTS, PPGraph), ensuring timely resolution.
- Mentored and trained new TAC engineers on advanced troubleshooting methodologies, log analysis, and case handling best practices.
Network Engineer L2
DMAS (Delhi Management and Services)
08.2018 - 06.2021
Network Engineer L2
FCS Technologies Ltd
12.2017 - 07.2018
- Client: DuPont Chemicals
Network Engineer L1
HCL BPO Technologies Ltd
11.2007 - 03.2010
- Client: BT (British Telecom)
Education
Bachelor of Engineering - Electronics & Communication
Visveswaraya Technological University
05-2005
Skills
Network & Security Technologies:
Palo Alto NGFW (NAT, Security Policies, GlobalProtect, Security Profiles) Panorama Prisma Access
Routing & Switching:
Cisco Routing & Switching (OSPF, BGP, Static Routing) VLAN, VTP, STP/RSTP, LACP
Cloud & AWS Security:
AWS WAF CloudFormation VPC EC2 IAM
Load Balancing & Application Security:
F5 BIG-IP (LTM, WAF, AFM, APM) Load Balancing SSL/TLS Offloading
Protocols:
TCP/IP OSPF BGP VPN (SSL, IPsec) HSRP LACP VTP VLAN NAT ACL STP DHCP DNS SMTP FTP SNMP
Hardware Platforms:
Palo Alto Firewalls (PA-200, PA-800, PA-3000, PA-5000, PA-7000 series) Cisco Switches (5000, 7000, Catalyst 9300) HP/Aruba Switches (5800, 6200, 6400) Cisco Routers (3700, 4200 C83Kseries)
Monitoring & Tools:
SolarWinds ServiceDesk Wireshark Shell Scripting iPerf
Certification
• PCNSE 10.1 : Q33VNDRCBMEQ153V
• Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP): CSCO12056927
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA): CSCO12056927
• AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (Completed)
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Security
• F5-BIG-IP (Completed)
• Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP): CSCO12056927
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA): CSCO12056927
• AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (Completed)
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Security
• F5-BIG-IP (Completed)
Personal Information
Websites
Timeline
Infrastructure and Security Lead
LTIMINDTREE
07.2023 - Current
Sr. Security Engineer (Escalations T3)
iOPEX Technologies
06.2021 - 06.2023
Network Engineer L2
DMAS (Delhi Management and Services)
08.2018 - 06.2021
Network Engineer L2
FCS Technologies Ltd
12.2017 - 07.2018
Network Engineer L1
HCL BPO Technologies Ltd
11.2007 - 03.2010
Bachelor of Engineering - Electronics & Communication
Visveswaraya Technological University