Security Engineer – Edge & Cloud Security (Akamai / AWS) [214103]

In this contract role, you will help protect the application layer while an enterprise environment migrates to AWS. As a Senior Security Engineer focused on Akamai Edge Security, you will own the day-to-day configuration and operational health of Akamai App & API Protector (WAF) and Bot Manager Premier (BMP), including Tier-3 incident response and threat mitigation.

You will work across hybrid edge and cloud routing, tuning controls for real traffic risk profiles, aligning policy behavior during migration cutovers, and turning security telemetry into actionable reporting for engineering and leadership.

What you will do

• Design, optimize, and maintain Akamai WAF rulesets, rate-limiting policies, and custom bot detection conditions based on application risk profiles.
• Partner with AWS migration teams to plan routing cutovers, ensure policy parity between on-prem and cloud workloads, and safeguard endpoints during transitional states.
• Act as the Tier-3 escalation point for active Layer 7 attacks, automated scraping, credential stuffing, and zero-day exploit attempts; perform rapid triage and conduct post-incident root cause analyses (RCA).
• Define baseline evaluation approaches for new rule updates, staging deployments, and proactive false-positive suppression.
• Integrate Akamai log streams (DataStream, SIEM integration) with central logging solutions such as Splunk and Datadog to produce threat dashboards and executive reporting.
• Maintain accurate architectural diagrams, runbooks, and policy documentation to support operational handoffs and engineering teams.

Core must-haves

• 5+ years hands-on Akamai Edge Security: expertise deploying, managing, and tuning Akamai Web Application Firewall (Kona / App & API Protector) and Bot Manager Premier (BMP) in high-traffic, multi-tenant enterprise architectures.
• Incident response and bot tuning: proven ability tuning behavioral bot detections, mitigating Layer 7 DDoS and credential stuffing, and reducing false positives without harming user experience.
• AppSec fundamentals: deep understanding of OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, API security risks, HTTP/S protocol behaviors, and edge threat mitigation.
• Cloud and hybrid networking: working knowledge of AWS networking and application architectures such as ALBs, CloudFront, Route 53, and VPCs, plus how edge proxies integrate into hybrid routing.

Additional requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Cybersecurity, or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years directly configuring and troubleshooting Akamai WAF and Bot Manager Premier.
• Strong proficiency with network analysis and debugging tools, including Wireshark, cURL, Fiddler, and Postman, plus browser inspection for payload debugging.
• Experience with enterprise log analysis and SIEM tooling such as Splunk, Elastic, or Sentinel.
• Excellent verbal and written technical communication skills, with comfort advising software engineers and senior leadership during active incidents.

Technologies you will work with

• Akamai App & API Protector, Akamai Web Application Firewall (Kona / App & API Protector), Akamai Bot Manager Premier (BMP)
• OWASP Top 10, AWS, ALBs, CloudFront, Route 53, VPCs, HTTP/S
• DataStream, SIEM integration, Splunk, Datadog, Elastic, Sentinel
• Wireshark, cURL, Fiddler, Postman
• Infrastructure as Code, Terraform, Akamai CLI, Akamai APIs
• Google Web Application Penetration Testing (GWAPT), GIAC (GCIH, GWAPT)

Preferred qualifications

• Experience managing edge security via Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Akamai CLI / APIs).
• Security engineering experience in financial services, e-commerce, or other regulated enterprise environments.
• Active security or cloud certifications such as Akamai Certified Specialist, AWS Certified Security – Specialty, CCSP, or GIAC (GWAPT, GCIH).

Location: Remote (remote). Job type: contract. Compensation: USD 107 - 110 per hour. Experience level: 5+ years.