active Secret)

Critical Solutions•Norfolk, VA

1d•$112,000 - $144,000•Onsite

About The Position

Critical Solutions is seeking a VPN/Firewall Network Engineer to support a federal customer as part of its Transport Operations team. The engineer will provide VPN, DMZ, and firewall network engineering expertise for a large agency intranet and design, implement, operate, integrate, maintain, and secure the as-fielded network. The role focuses on enterprise-grade Juniper firewalls, DMZ environments, secure firewall/VPN solutions, and Cisco network appliances, while collaborating with engineering, project management, network operations, and administration teams. The engineer will also support incident response, change and problem management, operations and maintenance, ITSM, and DevSecOps initiatives. The position is full-time and onsite. The regular schedule is 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, with weekend on-call duties as needed. The primary location is Norfolk, Virginia; other acceptable work locations are Pearl Harbor, Hawaii; San Diego, California; Washington, D.C.; and Pensacola, Florida. An active DoD Secret clearance and U.S. citizenship are required. Selected candidates must also undergo the federal agency's background investigation and fingerprinting and pass the required screening. The listed salary range is $112,000–$144,000. Compensation may vary by location and is based on factors including job responsibilities, education, experience, knowledge, skills, certifications, and other requirements. Benefits include 100% premium coverage for medical, dental, vision, and life insurance; supplemental insurance; 401(k) matching; flexible time off and holidays; and higher education/training reimbursement.

Requirements

U.S. citizenship and an active DoD Secret security clearance.
A bachelor's degree with prior relevant experience; work experience may substitute for the degree at the Hiring Manager's discretion.
An active DoD 8570.01 IAT Level III certification, such as CCNP Security, CISSP, or CASP+.
An active associate-level network vendor certification from Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto, or F5 Networks.
Ability to work or be called in during off-hours to meet customer mission support requirements.
Extensive experience engineering and troubleshooting networks, including routing, switching, MPLS, VPNs, routing protocols such as BGP, OSPF, and IS-IS; switching protocols such as Spanning Tree Protocol, VLANs, and LLDP; VoIP; multicast protocols; and emerging network technologies.
Strong understanding and in-depth knowledge of IP network and subnet addressing.
Extensive knowledge of defense-in-depth principles, network architecture, modern network topologies, network appliance integrity, and common networking security elements.
Experience with Ansible, Python, and infrastructure-as-code network automation.
Ability to undergo the federal agency's background investigation and fingerprinting and successfully pass the required screening.

Responsibilities

Provide VPN, DMZ, and firewall network engineering subject matter expertise for agency operations.
Modify, operate, integrate, maintain, secure, and implement services for the as-fielded agency network.
Collaborate with the Network Operations Center, network administrators, and network engineering team to define and continuously improve network security appliances, including DMZ, VPN, and firewall systems.
Test and validate automation and opportunities to insert best practices.
Lead development of network standard operating procedures and tactics, techniques, and procedures.
Drive continuous service improvements, system performance tuning, and enhancements.
Create and maintain Engineering Implementation Plans (EIPs).
Plan and execute network upgrades and maintenance with the Operations Manager, NOC Lead, Release Management team, and other stakeholders.
Provide Tier III escalation support and engage vendors for incident management.
Participate in root cause analysis for problem management activities.
Provide Tier III operational support to NOC watch staff as a network subject matter expert.
Perform technical maintenance and configuration of firewalls, VPNs, and DMZ appliances.
Participate in the Transport Operations team's on-call rotation and support off-hours customer mission requirements.