Systems Engineer - Networking and Monitoring - Contingent

Aretum•McLean, VA

19d•Remote

About The Position

Lead AWS networking architecture, application load balancing, and enterprise monitoring/observability implementation for a Federal cloud integration solution. This is for a polypharmacy solution in a complex, multi-system cloud integration solution for Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system that services millions of veterans. Responsible for designing secure network segmentation, configuring high-availability load balancing, and establishing comprehensive monitoring across Splunk, Dynatrace, and DataDog platforms to ensure visibility, compliance, and operational excellence for RMF/ATO approval. Due to the nature of our work as a federal consulting organization, employees may be expected to handle Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and must adhere to applicable safeguarding and compliance requirements.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, or related technical field (relevant certifications and experience may supplement)
5-7 years in network engineering, systems engineering, or DevOps roles
3+ years hands-on experience with AWS networking and load balancing in production environments
2+ years experience with enterprise monitoring platforms (Splunk, Dynatrace, DataDog, or similar)
Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills for network and performance issues
Attention to detail and commitment to security-first network design
Effective written and verbal communication for documentation and cross-team collaboration
Ability to work independently and manage concurrent networking and monitoring workstreams
Adaptable to fast-paced, deadline-driven environment with changing requirements
Proactive identification of network bottlenecks and monitoring gaps
Understanding of NIST 800-53 security controls for networking and monitoring

Nice To Haves

AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty or Solutions Architect - Professional
Splunk Certified Admin, Dynatrace Professional, or DataDog certification
Experience with AWS WAF, Shield, and security monitoring services
Knowledge of service mesh technologies (Istio, AWS App Mesh)
Federal government contracting or DoD networking experience
Experience with network automation using Terraform or CloudFormation
Experience in federal, DoD, or highly regulated environments
Prior involvement in RMF/ATO processes with network security control implementation

Responsibilities

Design and implement AWS networking architecture including VPC design, subnets, route tables, security groups, and NACLs
Configure Application Load Balancer (ALB) with target groups, health checks, SSL/TLS termination, path-based routing, and WAF integration
Implement network security controls for federal compliance including network segmentation, encryption in transit, and zero-trust principles
Design multi-AZ high availability architecture ensuring resilience during infrastructure failures
Understand and coordinate Transit Gateway, PrivateLink, and VPC peering for secure multi-system connectivity
Implement container networking including service discovery, ingress controllers, and network policies
Manage VPC Flow Logs and network traffic analysis for security monitoring and troubleshooting
Create network diagrams, boundary protection documentation, and data flow diagrams for RMF compliance
Implement and configure enterprise monitoring platforms (Splunk, Dynatrace, and/or DataDog) for comprehensive system visibility
Design monitoring architecture covering containers, load balancers, APIs, databases, and data pipelines
Configure audit logging and SIEM integration for federal compliance requirements including who-did-what-when traceability
Establish alert design, escalation policies, and incident response integration for operational excellence
Create dashboards for technical teams, operations, and compliance stakeholders
Integrate AWS CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and VPC Flow Logs with enterprise monitoring platforms
Implement performance monitoring, capacity planning, and baseline establishment for anomaly detection
Configure distributed tracing and application performance monitoring (APM) for multi-tier applications
Design network architecture supporting zero-downtime deployments and automatic failover
Configure load balancer health checks, connection draining, and traffic distribution algorithms
Implement DNS failover strategies and multi-region considerations for disaster recovery
Test and validate network failover scenarios and recovery procedures
Monitor network performance metrics and optimize for latency, throughput, and reliability
Implement network security controls aligned with NIST 800-53 requirements
Configure encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+) across all network communication paths
Apply least-privilege network access policies using security groups and NACLs
Implement network intrusion detection and prevention monitoring
Document network security controls and monitoring capabilities for RMF/ATO security assessment
Configure compliance logging with appropriate retention policies for audit requirements
Monitor and alert on security events, anomalous network traffic, and compliance violations
Create comprehensive network architecture diagrams, IP addressing schemes, and routing documentation
Develop operational runbooks for network troubleshooting, load balancer management, and monitoring response procedures
Document monitoring alert thresholds, escalation procedures, and incident response playbooks
Maintain network and monitoring configuration baselines for compliance and change management
Collaborate with container platform team on networking requirements and service mesh integration
Work with developers on application health check design and monitoring instrumentation
Partner with testing team on performance monitoring and load testing metric collection
Support security teams with network traffic analysis and security event investigation