WAF Engineer

Apply now: WAF Engineer, location is Hybrid (Atlanta, GA). The start date is ASAP for this Contract-to-Hire position.

Job Title: WAF Engineer
Location-Type: Hybrid (Atlanta, GA – 3 days onsite)
Start Date Is: ASAP
Duration: Contract-to-Hire
Compensation Range: $85/hr – $105/hr
Benefits : Eligible for Health, Dental, Vision, 401K
Not eligible for visa sponsorship

Job Description:
Hands-on security engineer responsible for implementing, tuning, and scaling Web Application Firewall (WAF) protections across cloud-based web and API environments.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities:

• Implement, operate, and maintain WAF protections across web and API applications
• Write and optimize WAF rules (custom rules, bot controls, rate limiting, managed rules)
• Monitor logs and alerts to identify threats and reduce false positives
• Apply WAF protections to endpoints, hostnames, and API gateways
• Partner with IR/SOC teams to support incident triage and mitigation
• Collaborate with engineering teams to embed WAF into architecture and SDLC
• Integrate WAF controls into CI/CD pipelines
• Build automation using Python or Go
• Manage AWS services such as CloudFront, ALB, and API Gateway
• Maintain documentation (runbooks, playbooks, procedures)
• Participate in on-call rotation for production security issues

Requirements:

• Must-Haves:
  • 2–4 years of experience in application or network security with hands-on WAF ownership
  • Experience with AWS WAF (or similar platforms like Akamai, Cloudflare, Fastly)
  • Strong understanding of web fundamentals, and OWASP Top 10
  • Experience securing APIs and web applications in AWS environments
  • Ability to analyze logs using tools like Splunk or similar observability platforms
  • Scripting experience in Python or Go (Bash acceptable)
  • Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, or Ansible)
  • Knowledge of AWS networking (CloudFront, ALB, API Gateway) and WAF integrations
  • Experience supporting incident response (triage, not command leadership)
  • Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines and Git-based workflows (GitHub required)
  • Ability to identify misconfigurations (e.g., overly permissive S3 bucket policies)
  • Strong communication and collaboration skills across engineering and security teams
• Nice-to-Haves:
  • Experience automating WAF configurations at scale
  • Familiarity with CDN integrations and performance considerations (latency with WAF)
  • Experience with GitHub Actions and Lambda
  • Security certifications (GIAC, GWAPT, CISSP, CSSLP)
  • Exposure to GCP or Azure security tools (Cloud Armor, Front Door)