Network Automation Engineer

Quantum Sky•Chantilly, VA

8d•$120,000 - $140,000•Onsite

About The Position

Quantum Sky is seeking a Network Automation Engineer to support an Intel customer in Chantilly, Virginia. The role supports the performance, stability, and scalability of next-generation networks for enterprise IT workloads. The engineer will work with software and platform engineers and collaborate across organizational teams to design, deploy, maintain, and scale network infrastructure. The position focuses on automating the deployment and support of critical network infrastructure, including direct interaction with switches, routers, firewalls, and software-defined control planes. Work includes network and systems operations, deployments, scaling, technology refresh, sustaining engineering, optimization, customer interactions, and technical documentation. This is an on-site position and requires an active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility.

Requirements

Extensive experience designing, deploying, and troubleshooting large-scale enterprise WAN architectures using BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, MPLS, and overlay networks across geographically distributed sites.
Hands-on experience configuring and managing enterprise Software-Defined WAN platforms, such as Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN/Viptela, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, VMware Velocloud, or Silver Peak, including centralized policy enforcement, zero-touch provisioning, and dynamic path selection.
Proficiency developing production automation scripts and configuration frameworks using Python and Ansible.
Practical experience consuming network REST APIs, NETCONF/RESTCONF, and working with JSON, YAML, and XML.
Experience implementing secure transport connectivity across WAN boundaries, including IPsec site-to-site tunnels, MACsec, Next-Generation Firewall policies, and QoS traffic shaping for latency-sensitive application traffic.
Proficiency in Python or Go.
Experience with networking protocols and APIs, ideally Open vSwitch and/or RESTful APIs for network devices and services.
Proficiency with network topologies and architecture, including VLAN, LAN, and WAN.
Experience with automation frameworks, specifically Ansible, for scripting and automating network configurations.
Experience with SONiC and Cumulus Network Operating System.
Experience in rail-optimized technology.
Experience with key Kubernetes networking concepts and using Kubernetes CNI to interact with network plugins and manage pod networking.
Familiarity with configuring, deploying, and maintaining the MetalLB Operator for traffic load balancing on bare-metal clusters.
Ability to communicate effectively with team members, vendors, and customers to understand requirements and implement solutions.
Time-management skills to prioritize tasks and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
Active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility.

Nice To Haves

Experience using Terraform to declare network state alongside version-controlled GitOps workflows, such as GitLab CI or GitHub Actions, to automate change validation, linting, and continuous network deployment.
Practical experience with model-driven telemetry, including gRPC, gNMI, and YANG data modeling, and streaming observability pipelines such as Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch, or ThousandEyes for proactive latency, jitter, and loss analytics.
Experience integrating enterprise SD-WAN topologies with public clouds, including AWS Transit Gateway/Direct Connect or Azure Virtual WAN/ExpressRoute, and Secure Access Service.

Responsibilities

Create and implement changes through automation.
Deliver simple, sustainable, and repeatable solutions and processes.
Operate and troubleshoot network routing, interconnectivity, platforms, performance, and configuration issues, including low-level application interaction, Linux systems, and next-generation networking software tools.
Maintain standards across the networking toolset and ensure compliance with standards and policies.
Drive and support innovation from Top of Rack to the Network Border.
Work with the Network Architect to support timely rollouts of new designs and products, and assist with deployment and sustaining of network infrastructure and tooling.
Design, deploy, maintain, operate, scale, refresh, and optimize network infrastructure.
Produce appropriate technical documentation and interact with internal and external customers.