Principal Network Engineer – Routing and Switching

JCS Solutions LLC•Fort Meade, MD

3d•$104,000 - $149,000•Onsite

About The Position

JCS Solutions is seeking a Principal Network Engineer specializing in Routing and Switching to serve as the senior technical authority for a large-scale enterprise network supporting a Department of Defense environment. This role is responsible for advancing network innovation through strategic design, modernization, and implementation efforts that improve network security, scalability, resiliency, and performance. The successful candidate will provide architectural leadership across core, distribution, access, WAN, and data center environments while defining enterprise standards for routing, switching, segmentation, resiliency, and network modernization initiatives. This individual will serve as the final technical escalation point for complex networking challenges and will provide oversight and direction to engineering teams executing enterprise network initiatives. This role requires deep technical expertise, strong leadership skills, and the ability to communicate complex architectural decisions and implementation strategies to government stakeholders, technical leadership, and approval boards.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience with 12+ years of relevant experience, or Master's degree with 10+ years of experience.
Specific experience, education, and training may be considered in lieu of a degree.
Active DoD Secret security clearance.
Current DoD 8140/8570 IAT Level II certification or higher.
Significant experience designing and implementing network security architecture in complex, large-scale enterprise environments.
Experience serving as a senior technical lead directing network and security engineers, administrators, analysts, or implementation teams.
Experience leading security engineering projects from planning through implementation.
Hands-on engineering experience with: Next-generation firewalls, Intrusion detection and prevention systems, Proxies and TLS inspection solutions, VPN and encryption services, Network access control platforms.
Experience with network segmentation and secure connectivity initiatives.
Experience with data-flow analysis, firewall policy reviews, ACL management, security-zone design, stakeholder coordination, and implementation planning.
Strong knowledge of: TCP/IP, Routing protocols, Switching, VLANs, DNS/DHCP/IPAM, NAT, QoS, Software-defined networking, Cloud-connected environments.
Hands-on experience with two or more of the following technologies: Palo Alto, Cisco, Aruba, Dell, Infoblox, Brocade.
Working knowledge of: NIST, FedRAMP, FISMA, RMF, DISA STIGs, DoD cybersecurity requirements.
Demonstrated ability to manage competing priorities and deliver complex technical initiatives.
Experience documenting network and security architectures using Visio, PowerPoint, Cameo, or similar tools.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Experience briefing senior leadership, cybersecurity authorities, stakeholders, and approval boards.
Experience with wireless security and authentication, including WPA2/WPA3, 802.1X, RADIUS, and enterprise NAC platforms.
Experience integrating wireless infrastructure with enterprise networking services, including DNS, DHCP, NTP, routing, and monitoring platforms.
Experience developing and executing engineering designs, implementation plans, migration procedures, test plans, and production deployments.
Strong troubleshooting and analytical skills with the ability to resolve complex wireless connectivity, authentication, and network performance issues.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Experience providing technical guidance and developing engineering documentation.
Must meet applicable cybersecurity workforce qualification requirements for the assigned position.

Nice To Haves

Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Enterprise, CCIE, or equivalent certification.
Experience leading enterprise network innovation initiatives, including: Network segmentation, Enterprise Wi-Fi modernization, IPv6 transition, Network automation, Software-defined networking, Cloud connectivity, Zero-trust-aligned networking, Security-stack modernization.
Experience with SD-WAN, SD-Access, Cisco Catalyst Center (DNA Center), or similar controller-based networking architectures.
Experience with network automation and infrastructure-as-code using Python, Ansible, REST APIs, or similar technologies.
Experience integrating enterprise networking with cloud infrastructure, including hybrid connectivity, cloud routing, and secure interconnects.
Experience developing repeatable engineering frameworks, implementation playbooks, migration runbooks, technical standards, and risk-reduction methodologies.
Experience using Jira, Confluence, or similar collaboration and knowledge-management tools.
Understanding of federal cybersecurity and compliance frameworks, including: NIST, FedRAMP, FISMA, RMF, DoD cybersecurity requirements.

Responsibilities

Own the enterprise routing and switching architecture, including core, distribution, access, WAN edge, and data center interconnect designs.
Define routing architecture and policy standards across BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, and static routing environments.
Develop addressing strategies, route filtering and summarization standards, redistribution boundaries, convergence targets, and path-selection policies.
Define Layer 2 and high-availability architectures, including VLAN strategy, spanning-tree design, link aggregation, VRFs, multicast, segmentation, redundancy models, and QoS policies.
Evaluate current network architectures and identify opportunities to improve performance, scalability, resiliency, and operational efficiency.
Establish and enforce network design standards, configuration baselines, and architectural patterns.
Lead network engineering projects from planning through implementation.
Perform architecture reviews, requirements analysis, dependency identification, implementation planning, execution oversight, validation, and operational transition activities.
Develop implementation plans, schedules, cutover procedures, rollback plans, contingency procedures, and validation methodologies.
Lead network modernization initiatives involving segmentation, IPv4/IPv6 transition, network optimization, lifecycle replacement, connectivity consolidation, automation, and software-defined networking adoption.
Coordinate maintenance windows, testing events, deployment activities, and rollback execution for mission-critical network changes.
Collaborate with network architects, cybersecurity teams, operations personnel, project managers, and technical subject matter experts to deliver complex infrastructure initiatives.
Serve as the final escalation point for complex routing, switching, transport, convergence, and network performance issues.
Provide technical direction, mentoring, and day-to-day guidance to network engineers, administrators, and analysts.
Review engineering designs and implementation activities to ensure technical quality and architectural compliance.
Manage competing priorities and concurrent engineering efforts while maintaining accountability for successful delivery.
Improve engineering processes, implementation playbooks, runbooks, technical standards, documentation practices, and operational transition procedures.
Develop and maintain logical and physical network architecture diagrams.
Create routing standards, policy documentation, address plans, and configuration baselines.
Develop implementation plans, testing procedures, validation criteria, and rollback documentation.
Maintain risk assessments, decision registers, dependency tracking documents, technical standards, and runbooks.
Produce as-built documentation and operational transition packages.