Principal Network Engineer

Leidos•Odenton, MD

21h•$116,350 - $210,325•Hybrid

About The Position

Leidos is seeking an experienced Network Engineer to join their Defense Enclave Services (DES) team, supporting a significant digital modernization program for the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) and Department of Defense (DoD) Fourth Estate Agencies (DAFAs). The Principal Network Engineer will be instrumental in driving enterprise network innovation through strategic design and implementation. This role will spearhead key engineering projects such as Network Segmentation and Comply-to-Connect (C2C), contributing to the evolution of the DES enterprise architecture to enhance security, reliability, and mission outcomes. The position requires commuting to Ft. Meade, MD two days per week and an active DoD Secret clearance.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience and 12+ years of prior relevant experience, or Master's degree with 10+ years of experience. Specific experience, education, and training may be considered in lieu of degree.
Significant experience leading or managing technical teams of network engineers, administrators, analysts, or implementation resources in complex enterprise 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 evaluating enterprise network architectures and developing improvement plans across LAN, WAN, WLAN, routing, switching, firewalls, VPN, proxies, security stacks, software-defined networking, and cloud-connected environments.
Experience with Network Segmentation/C2C or similar secure connectivity efforts, including data-flow analysis, firewall and ACL policy review, routing changes, security-zone design, stakeholder coordination, and implementation planning.
Demonstrated ability to organize teams, track details, manage competing priorities, meet aggressive schedules, and drive complex technical efforts to completion with a high degree of accountability.
Experience documenting logical and physical network designs, implementation plans, risks, dependencies, decision points, and technical recommendations using tools such as Visio, PowerPoint, Cameo, or similar tools.
Experience working with two or more of the following network technologies: Cisco, Aruba, Palo Alto, Dell, Infoblox, and Brocade.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience presenting architecture recommendations, implementation plans, risks, dependencies, and status to technical leadership, stakeholders, and approval boards.
Current IAT Level II or higher certification, such as Security+ or CISSP.
Requires an active DoD Secret clearance.

Nice To Haves

Certified Cisco Network Professional (CCNP) or equivalent certification.
Experience supporting DISA, DoDNet, DoD Fourth Estate, or similar large-scale federal network modernization programs.
Experience leading enterprise network innovation efforts such as Network Segmentation/C2C, enterprise Wi-Fi modernization, IPv6 transition, automation, SDN, cloud connectivity, zero-trust-aligned networking, or security stack modernization.
Experience with Jira, Confluence, or other project and knowledge-management tools used to coordinate technical work across distributed engineering teams.
Experience developing repeatable engineering execution frameworks, implementation playbooks, migration runbooks, technical standards, and risk-reduction processes for enterprise network teams.
Experience coordinating ASIs, change windows, implementation plans, test validation, and rollback procedures for mission-critical network activities.
Understanding of Federal Government application, server, and network security requirements such as NIST, FedRAMP, FISMA, RMF, and DoD cybersecurity requirements.

Responsibilities

Plan, design, and implement enterprise network segmentation and Comply-to-Connect, including data-flow mapping, firewall rule set and ACL review, routing and security policy coordination, cutover sequencing, validation, and stakeholder approval.
Lead strategic engineering projects from concept to implementation, encompassing architecture evaluation, requirements analysis, dependency identification, design coordination, planning, execution, validation, and transition to operations.
Develop and manage implementation plans, schedules, cutover strategies, contingency plans, rollback procedures, validation steps, stakeholder communications, and change documentation for critical network changes.
Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and direction to network engineers, administrators, and analysts, organizing team priorities, maintaining accountability, and ensuring execution against timelines.
Deliver technical information to government stakeholders.
Evaluate current network architecture, identify improvement opportunities, estimate effort, assess risks, and develop engineering plans to enhance enterprise capabilities.
Collaborate with architecture, cybersecurity, operations, project management, and technical SME teams to resolve issues, manage dependencies, reduce delivery risk, and ensure end-to-end network project execution.
Continuously improve engineering processes, documentation standards, implementation playbooks, and execution models to accelerate delivery, reduce rework, improve operational handoff, and lower sustainment burden.