Principal Network Engineer--Routing & Switching

P W Communications Inc•Fort Meade, MD

4d•$86,000 - $92,000•Hybrid

About The Position

PW Communications is seeking a Principal Network Engineer specializing in routing and switching to support the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Defense Enclave Services (DES) contract. The DES team develops and deploys operational capabilities in an integrated, modernized enterprise environment supporting DISA and Fourth Estate Agencies. The position is based in Fort Meade, Maryland, and is full-time with a hybrid telework option. U.S. citizenship and an active DoD Secret clearance are required. The engineer serves as the senior technical authority for the routed and switched enterprise, setting technical direction and owning enterprise routing and switching architecture across core, distribution, access, WAN edge, and data center interconnects. The role advances network security, scalability, resiliency, and performance through strategic design and implementation. It includes evaluating existing architecture, identifying gaps, estimating effort and risk, recommending technologies, conducting needs assessments, and directing network infrastructure installation, modification, testing, and servicing. The successful candidate defines architecture and configuration standards, resolves complex technical issues, leads strategic engineering projects from concept through operational transition, and directs and mentors other technical staff. The role requires presenting architecture recommendations, plans, risks, dependencies, and status to technical leadership, stakeholders, and approval boards, as well as producing and maintaining detailed engineering and operational documentation.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience and 12 or more years of relevant experience, or a master's degree with 10 or more years of experience; specific experience, education, and training may be considered in lieu of a degree.
Expert-level hands-on experience designing, engineering, and troubleshooting enterprise routing and switching infrastructure in large, complex environments.
Deep knowledge of TCP/IP, BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, route policy and redistribution, VLANs, spanning tree, link aggregation, VRFs, MPLS, multicast, QoS, NAT, and high-availability design.
Experience evaluating enterprise network architectures and developing improvement plans across LAN, WAN, WLAN, routing, switching, firewalls, VPN, proxies, software-defined networking, and cloud-connected environments.
Experience leading network engineering projects from planning through implementation, including requirements analysis, dependency management, risk reduction, contingency planning, execution oversight, validation, and operational transition.
Experience as a senior technical lead directing other network engineers, administrators, or analysts.
Hands-on experience with at least two of Cisco, Aruba, Palo Alto, Dell, Infoblox, and Brocade.
Experience documenting network designs, implementation plans, risks, dependencies, decision points, and technical recommendations using Visio, PowerPoint, Cameo, or similar tools.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including presenting recommendations, plans, risks, and status to technical leadership, stakeholders, and approval boards.
Current IAT Level II or higher certification, such as Security+ or CISSP.
Active DoD Secret clearance.
U.S. citizenship.

Nice To Haves

CCNP Enterprise, CCIE, or equivalent certification.
Experience leading enterprise network innovation, such as segmentation, enterprise Wi-Fi modernization, IPv6 transition, automation, SDN, cloud connectivity, zero-trust-aligned networking, or security stack modernization.
Experience with SD-WAN, SD-Access, Cisco Catalyst Center (DNA Center), or similar controller-based network architectures.
Experience with network automation and infrastructure as code using Python, Ansible, REST APIs, or similar.
Experience integrating enterprise networking with cloud infrastructure, including hybrid connectivity, cloud routing, and secure interconnects.
Experience developing repeatable engineering execution frameworks, implementation playbooks, migration runbooks, technical standards, and risk-reduction processes.
Experience with Jira, Confluence, or other project and knowledge-management tools used to coordinate technical work across distributed engineering teams.
Understanding of federal government application, server, and network security requirements such as NIST, FedRAMP, FISMA, RMF, and DoD cybersecurity requirements.
Certification in one or more of the following: CASP+ CE, CCNA-Security, CCNP Security, CCSP, CISA, CISSP or Associate, CND, CySA+, GCED, GCIH, GICSP, GSEC, Security+ CE, or SSCP.

Responsibilities

Own enterprise routing and switching architecture, including core, distribution, access, WAN edge, and data center interconnect designs.
Define routing architecture and policy standards for BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, and static routing, including addressing, filtering, summarization, path selection, redistribution boundaries, and convergence targets.
Define Layer 2 and high-availability architecture, including VLAN and spanning-tree strategy, link aggregation, redundancy, VRF and segmentation, multicast, and QoS policies.
Evaluate current network architecture, identify gaps and improvement opportunities, estimate effort, assess implementation risk, and develop engineering improvement plans.
Provide network architecture specifications, evaluate and recommend technologies, and conduct needs assessments to inform design and investment decisions.
Establish and enforce configuration standards, design patterns, and technical baselines.
Lead strategic engineering projects from concept through implementation and transition to operations, including requirements analysis, dependency identification, design coordination, planning, execution, and validation.
Develop and manage implementation plans, schedules, cutover strategies, contingency plans, rollback procedures, validation steps, stakeholder communications, and change documentation.
Lead modernization efforts involving segmentation, IPv4/IPv6 transition, optimization, connectivity consolidation, lifecycle replacement, automation, and software-defined networking.
Coordinate change windows, maintenance activities, test validation, and rollback procedures for high-impact network changes.
Partner with architecture, cybersecurity, operations, project management, and technical subject matter expert teams to resolve blockers and manage dependencies and delivery risk.
Serve as the final technical escalation point for complex routing, switching, transport, and performance problems across domains and vendors.
Provide technical direction, mentoring, and day-to-day guidance to network engineers, administrators, and analysts; review designs and implementation work.
Organize technical priorities, manage competing demands, track concurrent efforts, and maintain accountability to schedules.
Improve engineering processes, documentation standards, implementation playbooks, migration runbooks, technical standards, and execution models.
Develop and maintain logical and physical network designs, architecture diagrams, routing and addressing standards, configuration baselines, implementation and cutover plans, test and validation plans, risk and decision registers, playbooks, runbooks, as-built documentation, and operations transition documentation.
Present and defend architecture recommendations and technical decisions to leadership and approval boards, building consensus around technical approaches.