Senior Network Engineer - Routing & Switching

Platinum Technologies•Fort Meade, MD

4d•$170,000 - $180,000•Onsite

About The Position

Platinum Technologies is seeking a Senior Network Engineer specializing in routing and switching to engineer, implement, and sustain enterprise network infrastructure across a large, distributed environment. The role has hands-on responsibility for the routed and switched core, including designing and implementing changes and resolving complex issues escalated to the senior engineering tier. This position supports network planning, design, and evaluation; development of routing and switching specifications; technology assessments and recommendations; needs assessments; and installation, modification, testing, and servicing of network equipment. The successful candidate works independently on complex engineering assignments, translates requirements into implementable designs, and serves as an escalation point for routing, switching, transport, and connectivity issues. The position is onsite at Fort Meade, Maryland, and requires an active DoD Secret clearance. Work is performed under general direction, with latitude for independent technical judgment. The engineer contributes to significant project milestones, recommends solutions that affect program results, analyzes complex technical problems, and communicates designs, risks, recommendations, and status to engineering leaders, peer teams, and stakeholders.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree with 8 or more years of relevant experience, or a master's degree with 6 or more years of experience; specific experience, education, and training may be considered in lieu of a degree.
Significant hands-on experience engineering, implementing, and troubleshooting enterprise routing and switching infrastructure at scale.
Strong working knowledge of TCP/IP, subnetting, BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, VLANs, spanning tree, link aggregation, VRFs, multicast, QoS, NAT, and high-availability design.
Experience installing and configuring network hardware, performing software upgrades, and completing lifecycle replacements.
Experience developing implementation plans, test procedures, and rollback plans, and executing production changes during maintenance windows.
Demonstrated troubleshooting ability, including packet capture and protocol analysis, in multi-vendor environments.
Hands-on experience with one or more of the following: Cisco, Aruba, Palo Alto, Dell, Infoblox, or Brocade.
Experience documenting network designs and procedures using Visio, PowerPoint, or similar tools.
Strong written and verbal communication skills.
Current IAT Level II or higher certification, such as Security+ CE.
Active DoD Secret clearance.

Responsibilities

Engineer, configure, and implement enterprise routing and switching infrastructure across core, distribution, access, and WAN edge layers.
Design and implement routing policies using BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, and static routing, including redistribution, filtering, summarization, path selection, and convergence tuning.
Engineer Layer 2 infrastructure, including VLAN architecture, spanning-tree design, link aggregation, trunking, and loop prevention.
Implement and maintain VRFs, MPLS/VPN services, tunneling, multicast, QoS policies, and high-availability designs such as HSRP/VRRP and redundant uplink topologies.
Develop network architecture specifications, evaluate and recommend technologies, and perform needs assessments.
Install, modify, configure, test, and service network equipment, including hardware refreshes and software/firmware lifecycle upgrades.
Baseline and optimize network performance, including latency, throughput, utilization, convergence, and error rates, and remediate deficiencies.
Develop implementation plans, test and validation steps, rollback procedures, and change documentation; execute network changes during approved change windows.
Provide senior-level troubleshooting and escalation support for complex routing, switching, transport, and connectivity issues across layers and vendors.
Perform packet-level and protocol-level analysis to isolate faults across network, systems, and application boundaries.
Support capacity planning, configuration standardization, and compliance with approved device configuration baselines and hardening requirements.
Partner with architecture, cybersecurity, operations, and project teams to resolve blockers, manage dependencies, and deliver network changes end-to-end.
Develop and maintain engineering and operational documentation, including network diagrams, routing designs and policy standards, addressing plans, device configuration standards and baselines, implementation and rollback plans, port/protocol/service requirements, troubleshooting guides, standard operating procedures, and as-built and operational handoff documentation.