Principal Network & Systems Engineer

Edgewater Federal Solutions, Inc.•Idaho Falls, ID

20h•Onsite

About The Position

Edgewater Federal Solutions is seeking a Principal Network & Systems Engineer to support the Department of Energy Operations Office in Idaho Falls, ID. This role involves architecting, designing, implementing, and maintaining the enterprise network, including core, distribution, edge, and data center layers, ensuring scalability and redundancy. The engineer will administer advanced routing and switching platforms, serve as the primary architect and administrator for Palo Alto Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW), and lead the enterprise remote-access environment using Palo Alto GlobalProtect. The position also requires designing and implementing zero-trust networking principles, administering Cisco wireless systems, and overseeing enterprise monitoring for network health. Modernization initiatives for network, wireless, and firewall architectures are a key responsibility, as is serving as the primary escalation point for complex issues. Additionally, the role includes leading the Network Team, providing technical direction, prioritization, and task assignment for junior engineers, mentoring team members, and overseeing quality assurance for network changes. The engineer will also be the primary administrator for Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Infoblox DDI (DNS, DHCP, IPAM), managing NIOS grid configurations, DNS services, DHCP scopes, and the enterprise IP Address Management platform. Responsibilities extend to Data Center Architecture and Infrastructure Engineering, including rack design, cabling, and hardware installations. Cybersecurity, Compliance & Incident Response duties include performing cyber incident response, investigations, reporting, and ensuring compliance with DOE Orders and federal regulations. System Administration of network support servers and systems such as Delinea Secret Server, F5 Load balancers, Cerberus SFTP, Syslog servers, Nessus Agents, and Tenable Vulnerability Management is also required.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, IS, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
7+ years in advanced network and systems engineering roles
Expertise in routing, switching, identity systems, Palo Alto platforms and IPAM
Experience with DOE directive and federal compliance.

Responsibilities

Architect, design, implement, and maintain DOE‑ID’s enterprise network across core, distribution, edge, and data center layers, ensuring scalability, redundancy, and long-term alignment with organizational infrastructure strategy.
Engineer and administer advanced routing and switching platforms, including EIGRP, OSPFv3, IPv6, VLAN segmentation, inter-VLAN routing, trunking, and high‑availability designs.
Serve as the primary architect and administrator for Palo Alto Next‑Generation Firewalls (NGFW), including security policy architecture, URL filtering, threat prevention, SSL decryption, logging integrations, and zero‑trust access enforcement.
Lead and maintain the enterprise remote‑access environment using Palo Alto GlobalProtect, including authentication integration, device posture checks, and certificate‑based access controls.
Design and implement zero‑trust networking principles across critical systems, integrating firewall segmentation, identity‑based access controls, and continuous trust verification.
Administer and optimize Cisco wireless systems, including controller‑based WLANs, SSID and authentication design, RF tuning, security policy enforcement, and enterprise guest wireless.
Oversee enterprise monitoring and network health using system dashboards, telemetry, trending, packet‑level diagnostics, and event correlation to ensure performance, reliability, and immediate visibility of issues.
Lead modernization initiatives for network, wireless, and firewall architectures, including equipment refreshes, policy redesign, IPv6 rollout, and backbone upgrades.
Serve as the primary escalation point for complex network, wireless, and firewall issues requiring senior‑level architectural analysis.
Serve as the Network Team Lead, providing daily technical direction, prioritization, and task assignment for junior and mid‑level network engineers.
Mentor team members in advanced networking, routing, firewall policy design, troubleshooting methodology, and enterprise architecture principles.
Oversee quality assurance for network changes, configurations, and architecture designs to ensure compliance with DOE standards and best practices.
Act as primary escalation point for complex networking issues requiring senior‑level expertise.
Coordinate work distribution, project responsibilities, and technical execution across the network engineering team.
Provide training and hands‑on guidance to new engineers, including platform-specific instruction (Cisco, Palo Alto, Infoblox, ISE, etc.).
Collaborate with cross-functional and inter‑agency teams to align network engineering activities with enterprise architecture goals.
Serve as primary administrator for Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) including RADIUS, TACACS, 802.1X, guest wireless, and certificate‑based enforcement.
Serve as primary administrator for Infoblox DDI (DNS, DHCP, IPAM).
Maintain and maintain NIOS grid configurations including grid member health, grid services, licenses, and failover/HA strategies.
Configure and maintain DNS authoritative and recursive services including zone management, forwarders, delegations, DNSEEC -related requirements, and RPZ policies.
Engineer and maintain DNCP Scopes, DHCPv4/v6 pools, reservations, failover configuration, split scopes and address management policy supporting both IPv4 and IPv6 architectures.
Manage the enterprise IP Address Management platform, ensuring effect subnet design, hierarchy, and usage tracking.
Serve as Data Center Architect and Engineer for rack design, cabling, hardware installations, power and cooling considerations.
Perform cyber incident response, investigations and reporting.
Ensure compliance with DOE Orders, DOE-Idaho Policy and enterprise best-practices.
Management and maintain network support servers and systems including Delinea Secret Server, F5 Load balancers Cerberus SFTP, Syslog servers, Nessus Agents, Tenable Vulnerability Management