Network Engineer, Senior

The Network Engineer, Senior designs, implements, and optimizes complex enterprise network infrastructures that support mission‑critical systems in highly regulated government environments. The role leads architecture and deployment of LAN, WAN, and wireless solutions to ensure resilient, scalable, and secure connectivity across data centers, cloud environments, and remote sites. It oversees advanced troubleshooting and performance tuning for multi‑vendor network hardware and software, resolving issues escalated beyond lower tiers of support. The engineer partners with security, systems, and application teams to align network design with zero‑trust principles, monitoring strategies, and compliance requirements. This position also provides technical leadership on network roadmaps, technology selection, and major upgrade or migration initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect end‑to‑end network infrastructure, including routing, switching, wireless, VPN, and inter‑site connectivity across campus, data center, and cloud environments.

• Configure and maintain enterprise‑class routers, switches, firewalls, and load balancers from major vendors, using best practices for segmentation, redundancy, and quality of service.

• Monitor network performance and integrity using flow analysis, SNMP, and packet capture tools, tuning capacity and paths to meet stringent availability and latency targets.

• Implement and oversee network security controls such as access control lists, network access control, VPNs, and integration with identity and logging platforms within a highly regulated environment.

• Lead resolution of complex, escalated incidents by performing deep protocol‑level analysis, coordinating cross‑team troubleshooting, and documenting permanent corrective actions.

• Design and automate network configuration and change workflows using infrastructure‑as‑code, templates, and scripting to improve consistency and reduce operational risk.

• Mentor junior and mid‑level network engineers, reviewing designs and changes, and establishing standards for documentation, monitoring, and change control.

• Align network architectures with modern patterns such as SD‑WAN, network virtualization, and software‑defined networking, and plan migrations from legacy designs.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science, Network Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.

• Minimum of 8 years of experience in network engineering or a closely related role supporting enterprise networks.

• Excellent understanding of network principles and prior hands‑on experience with major network equipment vendors (for example, Cisco, Juniper).

• Proficiency in configuration and troubleshooting methods, processes, and tools such as packet analyzers, with experience in SDN architectures, network assessments, automated configurations, and documentation development.

• Strong problem‑solving, analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to manage multiple complex tasks effectively.

• Familiarity with current industry trends and requirements in network engineering and data security best practices.

Preferred Qualifications

• Professional network certifications such as CCNA, CCNP, or equivalent advanced vendor credentials.

• Experience supporting large multi‑site networks for defense, intelligence, or other highly regulated government organizations.

• Background designing and optimizing network architectures that support real‑time voice, video, and high‑throughput data workloads.