Practice Lead, Network Security - Southeast region

General Description

The Practice Lead, Network Security is responsible for leading and growing the organization's Network Security consulting practice. This leadership role combines deep technical expertise with business leadership, customer engagement, and team development. The Practice Lead serves as the strategic advisor for clients, oversees the successful delivery of complex network security engagements, develops service offerings, mentors engineering teams, and partners with sales to drive revenue growth.

The ideal candidate has extensive experience delivering enterprise network security solutions within a consulting or professional services environment and possesses strong leadership skills with a passion for building high-performing teams and trusted client relationships.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Lead and develop the Network Security Practice, including strategy, service offerings, team growth, and overall performance management.
• Build, mentor, and manage a team of Network Security Engineers through coaching, technical guidance, career development, and performance evaluations.
• Establish and maintain technical standards, implementation methodologies, documentation requirements, and best practices across all network security engagements.
• Serve as trusted advisor and executive consultant to enterprise customers, leading architecture workshops, security assessments, and strategic planning sessions.
• Oversee delivery of complex network security projects, ensuring quality, consistency, customer satisfaction, and serving as escalation point for technical challenges.
• Partner with Sales teams throughout the pre-sales process, leading technical discovery, solution design, SOW development, and customer presentations.
• Provide architectural leadership across enterprise security technologies, including SASE platforms, next-generation firewalls, SD-WAN, cloud security (AWS, Azure, GCP), and Zero Trust architectures.
• Design and review comprehensive security documentation, including network architectures, implementation plans, runbooks, security standards, and executive recommendations.
• Evaluate and integrate emerging security technologies to expand the organization's service portfolio and meet evolving client requirements.
• Collaborate with executive leadership to establish practice goals, utilization targets, revenue objectives, and strategic growth initiatives.
• Embraces emerging technologies, including AI tools, to work smarter, solve problems, and drive better business outcomes.
• Other related duties as needed.

Required Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or similar field.
• 8+ years of enterprise Network Security experience.
• 3+ years leading technical teams, consulting practices, or engineering organizations.
• Experience within a consulting, professional services, systems integrator, or Value-Added Reseller (VAR) environment.
• Deep experience designing and implementing enterprise network security solutions.
• Strong expertise with one or more SASE platforms, including Netskope (preferred), Zscaler, Palo Alto Prisma Access, or similar technologies.
• Extensive experience with Next-Generation Firewalls including Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, Check Point, and Cisco.
• Experience securing public cloud environments including AWS, Azure, and GCP.
• Strong understanding of Zero Trust architectures, SD-WAN, cloud networking, routing, switching, VPN technologies, and enterprise network design.
• Proven ability to lead multiple concurrent customer engagements.
• Excellent executive communication, presentation, and consulting skills.
• Strong project leadership and organizational abilities.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Netskope Certified Professional or equivalent SASE certifications.
• Palo Alto Networks certifications (PCNSE).
• Fortinet NSE certifications.
• Cisco CCNP or CCIE.
• CISSP, CCSP, or comparable industry certifications.
• Experience building or scaling consulting practices.
• Experience managing project financials, utilization, forecasting, and resource planning.

Travel Requirements:

• Up to 25% travel required.

Physical Requirements:

• Sedentary work
• Substantial movement of the wrists, hands, and/or fingers for a minimum of 8 hours a day
• Required to have close visual acuity to view computer terminal and/or extensive reading