Sr. Network Engineer/architect SME

Sr. Network Engineer/Architect

Leidos is seeking a Sr. Network Engineer/Architect with subject matter expertise to support medium to large scale operations supporting the Department of War. The I3TS program provides enterprise-wide IT support to enable DTRA’s Information Management & Technology Directorate (ITD) to consolidate, modernize, and continuously innovate the delivery of IT services and mission capabilities to DTRA’s internal and external mission partners operating in CONUS and OCONUS locations. The Network Engineer/Architect SME supports operation and maintenance of current and modernized capabilities for DTRA. This role will be responsible for technical requirement definition, implementations plans, as well as diagnosing and troubleshooting outages, monitoring networks, infrastructure and systems, and proving proactive mitigation strategies. This position is on-site at Albuquerque, New Mexico with the possibility of limited remote work. Anticipated Starting Salary Range: $185,000 to $205,000.

Primary Responsibilities

• Execute Tier 2 & 3 network operations functions to ensure network stability & DoD security guidance compliance.
• Conduct real-time monitoring of global enterprise networks using DoD-approved tools (e.g., SolarWinds, Cisco Identity Services Engine, vendor-related GUIs).
• Develop and enforce operational procedures, incident response workflows, and escalation protocols.
• Act as the senior technical point of contact for major outages, network events, or cybersecurity incidents.
• Ensure all network changes follow Configuration Management and DoD Change Advisory Board procedures.
• Design and implement secure network solutions to consolidate connectivity services under an enterprise service.
• Collect, investigate, and identify network optimization strategies and techniques to meet capacity and performance standards.
• Identify legacy service paths (i.e. dataflow, firewall rulesets, and ACLs) and develop strategies and designs for the to-be enterprise service capability to meet requirements while balancing security, sustainability, and maintainability.
• Ensure network compliance with DoD Security Technical Implementation Guidance.

Minimum Requirements

• Active Top Secret / SCI clearance
• Active DoD IAT Level II (e.g. Security+) certification
• Active CCNA certification

Basic Qualifications

• STEM Bachelor’s degree with minimum 10-12 years of applicable Network Engineer experience. (Additional years of experience accepted in lieu of degree)
• Must have broad exposure to common IT infrastructure networking in the areas of LAN, WAN, TCP/UDP, Dual stack IPv4/IPv6, IPSec, VPN, and Firewall Micro-segmentation.
• Must have experience in working with two or more of the following vendor network technologies: Cisco, Juniper, F5, Aruba, Palo Alto, Dell, and Brocade.
• Experience with SD-WAN solutions, with Dell Versa preferred.
• Experience working with AAA servers, specifically Cisco ISE, and endpoint posturing.
• Familiarity with Type 1 encryptors.
• Experience documenting logical or physical designs using drawing tools (e.g. Visio, PowerPoint) to depict systems, subsystems, interfaces, components, and communications of IT applications and infrastructure.
• Experienced and comfortable with conducting technical troubleshooting to resolve Tier 2 & 3 network issues.
• Experience conducting site surveys or analyzing data obtained from site surveys.
• Experience creating or executing a migration plan to move circuits, network traffic, services, applications, or data between environments or to a commercial cloud provider. Alternatively, experience planning or executing a technology refresh or lifecycle refresh of network devices (i.e. collection routers, internal distribution switches, etc.).
• Demonstrate experience in designing and implementing medium to large network infrastructure and producing corresponding technical documentation.
• Must be able to work as part of a team to troubleshoot and resolve complex network issues.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Work with information assurance teams to ensure compliance to DoD standards to assist with providing accreditation artifacts.
• Must be able to present designs and plans to technical leadership personnel and boards for approvals.
• Demonstrated experience in system hardening of network infrastructure to include DoD STIG implementation.
• Demonstrated experience in one or more of the following enterprise network management tools such as SolarWinds, Cisco Catalyst Center, Ansible, Cisco ISE.
• Hands on experience with WAN, LAN, Dual Stack IPv4/IPv6, BGP, OSPF, EVPN, SDWAN, telecommunications and circuits.
• Demonstrated expertise in design and improvement of complex and geographically enterprise networks.
• Experience providing technical leadership to junior, intermediate, and senior Engineers.

Preferred Qualifications

• STEM Master’s degree with 10 years of applicable Network Engineering experience.
• CCIE-level knowledge base.
• Experience with DataCenter Cisco Nexus VXLAN.
• Experience working with automation tools, such as Ansible and Python scripting to build an Infrastructure as Code framework.

At Leidos, we don’t want someone who “fits the mold”—we want someone who melts it down and builds something better. This is a role for the restless, the over-caffeinated, the ones who ask, “what’s next?” before the dust settles on “what’s now.” If you’re already scheming step 20 while everyone else is still debating step 2… good. You’ll fit right in.