Test & Validation Integration Engineer - TS/SCI clearance - Chantilly, VA

PGTEK•Chantilly, VA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

PGTEK is seeking a Test & Validation Integration Engineer to support a federal customer in Chantilly, Virginia. The position connects laboratory staging with field deployment by integrating, testing, and validating enterprise infrastructure before it is released for production use. The engineer works hands-on in a controlled laboratory environment with enterprise compute, storage, networking, and Kubernetes platforms, and collaborates with engineering and field deployment teams to deliver reliable, deployment-ready systems. The work includes physically installing and cabling equipment, provisioning and configuring hardware, validating network and storage functionality, and diagnosing physical and logical faults. The engineer also installs and validates baseline Kubernetes environments and develops deployment documentation, test procedures, and process improvements to make staging and field installations consistent and repeatable. This is a 100% onsite position, five days per week, in Chantilly, Virginia. An active TS/SCI clearance is required.

Requirements

Active TS/SCI clearance and ability to maintain program access.
Ability to work onsite five days per week in Chantilly, Virginia.
Hands-on experience racking, stacking, cabling, configuring, and integrating enterprise infrastructure.
Experience with enterprise networking hardware, including Cisco, Arista, and/or Palo Alto platforms.
Understanding of network configuration, VLANs, routing, switching, and infrastructure connectivity.
Ability to troubleshoot physical and logical infrastructure issues in a laboratory or data center environment.
Practical experience provisioning and supporting enterprise server infrastructure; Dell PowerEdge is preferred.
Experience with enterprise storage technologies such as SAN, NAS, iSCSI, NVMe-oF, and/or NFS.
Understanding of RAID configuration, storage provisioning, and storage connectivity.
Experience configuring and troubleshooting out-of-band management interfaces, including iDRAC.
Ability to validate hardware functionality and resolve component-level issues.
Practical experience installing, configuring, and validating Kubernetes environments.
Familiarity with container runtimes, including containerd; understanding of Kubernetes networking, CNI plugins, and persistent storage integration.
Ability to troubleshoot infrastructure and platform issues affecting cluster functionality.
Demonstrated ability to diagnose and isolate physical and logical infrastructure faults across Layers 1–4.
Experience using command-line tools, packet captures, network diagnostics, and optics validation tools.
Ability to perform pre-deployment testing, system validation, and infrastructure troubleshooting, with strong root-cause analysis and problem-solving skills.
Strong technical documentation skills, including developing SOPs, cabling diagrams, configuration guides, and deployment runbooks.
Ability to communicate technical procedures clearly to engineering and field deployment teams.
Strong attention to detail and commitment to repeatable, reliable deployment processes.
Ability to lift and carry up to 50 pounds and perform hands-on physical work involving equipment installation, rack-and-stack operations, and infrastructure staging.
Strong communication, teamwork, and coordination skills.

Nice To Haves

Cisco CCNP or equivalent networking certification.
Arista ACE certification.
Palo Alto PCNSE certification.
Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA).
Relevant systems, networking, security, or infrastructure certifications.
Experience using Ansible, Terraform, Python, or Bash to automate infrastructure provisioning and configuration.
Familiarity with automated testing, configuration validation, and repeatable deployment workflows.
Ability to develop scripts that improve staging efficiency and reduce manual configuration errors.
Understanding of leaf-spine network architectures.
Experience with BGP, EVPN-VXLAN, and advanced routing and switching technologies.
Familiarity with stateful firewall inspection, security policies, and enterprise network segmentation.
Experience troubleshooting complex network interoperability issues.
Strong Linux systems administration and troubleshooting skills.
Familiarity with systemd services, kernel networking parameters, and system configuration.
Experience performing driver, firmware, and operating system upgrades.
Ability to troubleshoot Linux-based infrastructure and platform issues.
Experience supporting enterprise data centers, integration laboratories, or infrastructure staging environments.
Familiarity with power distribution units (ePDU), high-density optics, and data center cabling practices.
Experience with QSFP28, QSFP-DD, or other high-performance optical connectivity standards.
Familiarity with laboratory equipment inventory, asset tracking, and hardware management processes.

Responsibilities

Rack, stack, mount, and cable Dell PowerEdge servers, enterprise storage arrays, and networking appliances in data center racks.
Install and physically integrate hardware using established data center, power, and thermal management practices.
Provision enterprise infrastructure with baseline firmware, initial configurations, and out-of-band management settings.
Configure and validate iDRAC, console access, and other hardware management interfaces.
Integrate multi-vendor infrastructure, including Cisco, Arista, Palo Alto, and Dell platforms.
Configure and validate switches, firewalls, routing, VLANs, and connectivity between integrated systems.
Test network throughput, segmentation, routing, firewall policies, and end-to-end connectivity.
Troubleshoot hardware, configuration, and interoperability issues across infrastructure components, working with systems and network architects as needed.
Execute pre-deployment testing and end-to-end validation of compute, storage, and networking components.
Identify, isolate, and resolve physical and logical faults across network and infrastructure layers using command-line diagnostics, packet captures, optics validation tools, and other techniques.
Validate storage availability, RAID configurations, network connectivity, and system functionality; document results and ensure deficiencies are corrected before deployment.
Identify recurring defects, integration challenges, and staging bottlenecks to improve staging quality.
Install, configure, bootstrap, and validate baseline Kubernetes environments on bare-metal and virtualized infrastructure.
Verify container runtime functionality, including containerd; test container networking, CNI configuration, cluster connectivity, and persistent storage integration.
Troubleshoot platform-level issues involving infrastructure, networking, and container services, and ensure staged environments meet requirements before field release.
Develop and maintain deployment runbooks, standard operating procedures, commissioning documentation, cabling diagrams, equipment configurations, and validation procedures.
Document staging, testing, troubleshooting, and site activation processes and communicate procedures to engineering and field deployment teams.
Identify staging workflow failure points and inefficiencies; improve processes to reduce delays and onsite troubleshooting and increase first-time installation success.
Support the transition of validated infrastructure from laboratory staging to field deployment.

Benefits

Comprehensive PPO medical coverage with access to a Health Savings Account (HSA) option.
Vision plan.
Dental insurance; the base dental plan option is paid for by PGTEK.
Life insurance premiums covered by PGTEK.
Short- and long-term disability insurance premiums covered by PGTEK.
Critical illness insurance premiums covered by PGTEK.
Matching 401(k) plan.
Discount on pet insurance through ASPCA Pet Insurance.
Employee Assistance Program at no cost to employees.
Generous PTO and holidays.
Education Assistance Program available after 12 months of employment.
Sponsored training, conference attendance, and certification support.
Access to cutting-edge enterprise hardware, controlled laboratory environments, and emerging infrastructure technologies.
Collaborative engineering culture and professional development opportunities across systems engineering, network architecture, infrastructure automation, and deployment validation.