Principal Network Engineer - Routing and Switching

Global Enterprise Services, LLC•Fort Meade, MD

8h•$160,000 - $175,000•Hybrid

About The Position

GES is seeking a Principal Network Engineer specializing in routing and switching to serve as the senior technical authority for the routed and switched enterprise. The position advances network innovation through strategic design and implementation efforts that improve network security, scalability, resiliency, and performance. It provides network engineering support across planning, designing, evaluating, and improving network components; specifying network architecture; assessing needs; recommending technologies; and directing installation, modification, testing, and servicing of network infrastructure. The successful candidate owns enterprise routing and switching architecture and establishes the technical direction, standards, and baselines that other engineers follow. The role leads complex engineering projects from concept through implementation and operational transition, serves as the final technical escalation point for difficult network issues, and provides technical direction and mentorship to other engineers. It also develops and maintains architecture, implementation, testing, risk, and operations documentation. The position requires five days in the office until acclimated, after which one remote day may be possible. An active DoD Secret clearance is required.

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 the work of network engineers, administrators, or analysts.
Hands-on experience with two or more of Cisco, Aruba, Palo Alto, Dell, Infoblox, and Brocade technologies.
Experience documenting logical and physical 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 architecture recommendations, implementation 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.

Nice To Haves

Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Enterprise, CCIE, or equivalent certification.
Experience leading enterprise network innovation efforts 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.

Responsibilities

Own enterprise routing and switching architecture, including core, distribution, access, WAN edge, and data center interconnect designs.
Define enterprise 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 VLANs, spanning tree, link aggregation, redundancy, VRFs, segmentation, multicast, and QoS.
Evaluate network architecture, identify gaps and improvement opportunities, estimate effort and implementation risk, and develop engineering plans.
Specify network architecture, assess needs, and evaluate and recommend technologies 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 and contingency strategies, rollback procedures, validation steps, stakeholder communications, and change documentation.
Lead network modernization efforts, including segmentation, IPv4/IPv6 transition, optimization, connectivity consolidation, lifecycle replacement, automation, and software-defined networking adoption.
Coordinate change windows, maintenance activities, testing, validation, and rollback for high-impact network changes.
Partner with architecture, cybersecurity, operations, project management, and technical subject-matter experts to resolve blockers, manage dependencies, and reduce delivery risk.
Serve as the final technical escalation point for complex routing, switching, transport, and performance issues across domains and vendors.
Direct, mentor, and guide network engineers, administrators, and analysts; review designs and implementation work for technical quality.
Organize technical priorities, track concurrent efforts, manage competing demands, and maintain accountability against 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 architecture recommendations, implementation plans, risks, dependencies, and status to technical leadership, stakeholders, and approval boards; build consensus around technical approaches.