Akamai Lead Analyst

Ampcus Inc. is a certified global provider of a broad range of Technology and Business consulting services. We are in search of a highly motivated candidate to join our talented Team.

Job Title: Akamai Lead Analyst

Location(s): Chicago, IL
(Remote)

Role Overview
We are seeking an experienced Akamai Lead Analyst to manage and optimize Akamai delivery, performance, and security configurations in a high-traffic retail environment. The role combines CDN engineering, performance analytics (mPulse), WAF tuning, bot mitigation, and real-time attack response.

The ideal candidate will have strong hands-on expertise in Akamai ION, WAF, mPulse (RUM), Edge Logic, and observability tools such as Splunk.
Key Responsibilities
1. Traffic Analysis & CDN Management

• Act as the primary investigator for global traffic patterns.
• Differentiate between organic users, legitimate crawlers, and malicious actors.
• Monitor Akamai Edge alerts (high volumetric traffic, denied triggers) and lead investigations.
• Implement configuration changes including:
  • 301 redirects
  • SSL certificate implementations
  • DNS changes
  • Site Shield modifications
  • Image optimization requests

2. Configuration & Validation (Akamai ION & WAF)

• Manage the end-to-end lifecycle of Akamai ION (Delivery) and WAF configurations.
• Configure and deploy changes to Akamai Staging.
• Conduct regression testing to ensure critical functionalities (e.g., Buy button, Store Locator) remain unaffected.
• Execute Change Requests (CRs) and coordinate with Akamai support teams for deployments.
• Perform validation testing post-deployment.

3. Edge Logic & Performance Optimization

• Develop and implement Edge Logic rules.
• Configure edge-side redirects and advanced caching strategies.
• Optimize caching during peak retail promotions to reduce origin load.
• Improve content delivery efficiency and latency performance.

• Analyze Real User Monitoring (RUM) data using Akamai mPulse.
• Move beyond basic "up/down" monitoring to actionable performance insights.
• Identify site speed impact on user behavior and business KPIs.

• Investigate long-tail latency issues.
• Identify root causes such as:
  • Third-party marketing tags
  • Slow API calls
  • Unoptimized image assets
  • Backend performance issues

• Translate technical performance metrics into business-friendly dashboards and reports.
• Provide performance improvement recommendations to stakeholders.

• Continuously tune WAF rules to block:
  • SQL Injection
  • Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
  • OWASP Top 10 threats
  • Minimize false positives impacting legitimate users.

• Lead bot management strategy in a retail environment.
• Prevent advanced bots from causing site instability or inventory abuse.
• Implement custom rate-limiting and blocking rules.

• Act as first responder during DDoS or application-layer attacks.
• Collaborate with:
  • Akamai Managed Security Team
  • Akamai SOC
  • Analyze Akamai Security Monitor logs.
  • Implement real-time mitigation measures.

• Analyze request logs using tools such as Splunk.
• Correlate CDN, WAF, and backend logs for root cause analysis.
• Generate actionable insights from traffic and security data.

• Strong hands-on experience with:
  • Akamai ION
  • Akamai WAF
  • Edge Logic
  • mPulse (RUM Analytics)
• Experience with:
  • DNS and SSL implementations
  • Site Shield
  • CDN caching strategies
  • Bot Manager
• Strong knowledge of:
  • HTTP/HTTPS
  • Web performance optimization
  • OWASP security standards
• Log analysis experience using Splunk or similar tools.
• Experience in high-traffic retail/eCommerce environments preferred.

Ampcus is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, protected veterans or individuals with disabilities.