Associate - Network & Security Engineer

|Associate: Network and Security Engineer

Al Etihad Payments empowers employees to work in an environment that best promotes their productivity and well-being, while providing high-quality workplace and fantastic professional experience.

|Get to Know Us

Al Etihad Payments is the UAE’s designated retail payments entity, dedicated to developing and operating world-class infrastructure, standards, and solutions for the UAE Economy. Al Etihad Payments is a subsidiary of the Central Bank of the UAE, strongly supported by the UAE Government.

Our employees are committed to work with licensed financial institutions and other payment service providers to foster innovation and deliver excellent financial services to all in the UAE, efficiently and without friction.

Al Etihad Payments supports the government’s objectives of a cashless society, national digitization, and the Central Bank of the UAE objective of being a top ten central bank globally.

|Our Culture

We are a collaborative, diverse and passionate group of individuals that works as one team. We support one another, make impactful contributions to the organization, and develop and nurture meaningful connections across the payment’s ecosystem!

|About the role

The Network & Security Engineer is responsible for the design, implementation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of the organization's network infrastructure and security systems. This role ensures the high availability, performance, and security of network services, protecting sensitive data and systems from evolving cyber threats. The engineer will play a key role in developing and enforcing security policies, managing network devices, and responding to security incidents to safeguard the company's digital assets.

|What You’ll Do

• Design, implement, configure, and maintain LANs, WANs, WLANs, and other network segments.
• Configure and manage network devices including routers, switches, firewalls load balancers, IDS/IPS, and VPN appliances.
• Develop, implement, and enforce network security policies, standards, and procedures in line with industry best practices and regulatory requirements.
• Monitor network performance and security events, analyze logs, and respond to incidents, alerts, and security breaches promptly and effectively.
• Implement and manage access control systems, identity management solutions, and MFA.
• Perform regular network and security configuration reviews to ensure compliance and identify areas for improvement.
• Collaborate with IT teams to integrate network and security solutions with existing systems and applications.
• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation for network configurations, security policies, and incident response procedures.
• Participate in troubleshooting and resolving critical network and security incidents, if required.
• Stay up to date with the latest network technologies, security trends, threats, and vulnerabilities.

|Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, Cybersecurity, or a related field.
• Relevant industry certifications (e.g., CCNA, CCNP Security, CompTIA Security+, CISSP, PCNSE) are highly desirable.
• A minimum of 5 years of progressive experience in network engineering and/or cybersecurity roles.

|Technical and Behavioral Skills

• Strong understanding of TCP/IP, routing protocols (e.g., OSPF, BGP, EIGRP), and switching technologies (VLANs, STP, EtherChannel).
• Proficiency with network equipment (routers, switches, load balancers).
• Experience with wireless network design and management.
• Knowledge of network segmentation and virtualization (e.g., VMware NSX).
• In-depth knowledge of firewall technologies, especially Palo Alto Networks and Fortinet (configuration, policy management, troubleshooting).
• Experience with IDS/IPS systems.
• Understanding of VPN technologies (IPsec, SSL VPN).
• Familiarity with EDR solutions.
• Knowledge of SIEM platforms for log analysis and incident response.
• Understanding of access control mechanisms (e.g., AAA, RADIUS, TACACS+).
• Familiarity with security frameworks (e.g., NIST, ISO 27001).
• Strong understanding of common cyber-attacks (e.g., phishing, DDoS, malware) and mitigation strategies.

|Preferred Qualifications

• Regional experience in the UAE is preferred.
• Proficiency in written and spoken Arabic is considered a strong asset.

|What you can expect from us

• Modern work environment with level of flexibility.
• Dynamic and motivated team of colleagues working towards achieving UAE National Objectives.
• Competitive compensation package, including annual bonus and additional benefits like child educational allowance and annual flight tickets (where eligible);
• Comprehensive health insurance coverage;