Wide Area Network Engineer Lead

National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)•Chantilly, VA

3d•$132,751 - $181,428•Onsite

About The Position

The NRO Communications Directorate (COMM) is responsible for developing and executing integrated IT solutions across the NRO's global enterprise. The Network Services Group (NSG) within COMM serves as the Long Haul and Campus Area Network (CAN)/Local Area Network (LAN) service provider, managing communications services including engineering, deployment, installation, test, sustainment, and operations for a large network supporting over 70,000 users at numerous NRO, Department of War (DoW), and mission partner locations. This position is for a Non-Supervisor, Wide Area Network Engineer Lead, GGS-12-13, occupational series 2210. The role involves leading the planning, execution, and delivery of complex network infrastructure projects, supporting the design, implementation, security accreditation, and transition to operations of mission and enterprise WAN IT systems. The lead will oversee a contractor support team for WAN solutions for new customer requests across the NRO, IC mission partners, ODNI, and DoW. Responsibilities include project lifecycle management, integrating bandwidth requirements, tracking End of Life (EOL) for WAN hardware/software, and managing the implementation of new enterprise network capabilities like cloud connectivity, virtualized services, and hybrid infrastructure.

Requirements

Demonstrated experience applying project management methodologies (PMI, Agile, or hybrid approaches) to successfully deliver complex IT infrastructure projects.
Knowledge of project management principles including scope management, schedule development, resource management, risk management, stakeholder management, and earned value management.
Experience developing project plans, managing budgets, tracking milestones, and reporting program status to senior leadership.
Demonstrated expertise in LAN/WAN technologies and protocols including TCP/IP, routing protocols (EIGRP, BGP, OSPF), MPLS, VPN technologies, IPSEC, GRE, SD-WAN, VoIP, H.323, SSL/TLS, and Type 1 Encryption.
Familiarity with Satellite Communications (SATCOM) systems and transport technologies.
Understanding of network design principles including segmentation, quality of service (QoS), traffic engineering, and high availability architectures.
Knowledge of cloud networking architectures and services across major cloud service providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) including virtual private clouds (VPC), cloud interconnects, direct connect/express route, cloud VPN, transit gateways, and cloud-native networking services.
Experience integrating on-premises WAN infrastructure with cloud environments in hybrid and multi-cloud architectures.
Understanding of cloud security controls, identity and access management (IAM), and cloud network monitoring.
Relevant experience in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Information Systems or a closely related discipline.
Ability to apply systems engineering principles and practices including requirements analysis, functional decomposition, interface management, configuration management, and verification & validation.
Experience providing technical leadership to engineering teams and making architectural decisions for complex systems.
Excellent written and oral communication skills to effectively engage with technical and non-technical audiences.
Ability to forge relationships across diverse customer base including mission partners, senior leadership, and contractor teams.
Experience facilitating working groups, presenting technical briefings, documenting decisions, and negotiating solutions across organizational boundaries.
Must be a U.S. Citizen
Must be able to obtain and maintain a TS/SCI security clearance
Will be subject to pre-employment and periodic drug testing
Will be subject to pre-employment and periodic polygraph examinations

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end program management and systems engineering of Wide Area Network requirements for deploying connectivity between space intelligence collection downline locations and processing/dissemination locations for the NRO, Department of War (DoW) and Intelligence Community (IC).
Develop project charters, work breakdown structures, integrated master schedules, and resource-loaded plans.
Apply program management principles to ensure on-time, on-budget delivery of network capabilities.
Facilitate technical exchange meetings and requirements workshops with internal and external partners and stakeholders.
Coordinate translating mission requirements into technical specifications for network connectivity, cloud integration, and enterprise services.
Build and manage the budget and master schedule in coordination with the Program COTR.
Create and manage risks, issues, and opportunities and manage capability roadmaps.
Provide regular program status reporting to leadership including earned value management metrics, variance analysis, and forecast-to-complete projections.
Oversee the performance of a contractor team that provide program management, engineering and implementation for enterprise and mission network solutions.
Maintain current and detailed knowledge of advanced IT industry best practices, R&D programs, and commercial standards developments with regards to WAN technologies, cloud architectures (AWS, Azure, hybrid cloud), software-defined networking (SDN), network function virtualization (NFV), and enterprise services.
Identify opportunities to improve enterprise-level systems to support mission, business and enterprise processes utilizing emerging technologies including zero-trust architectures, secure access service edge (SASE), and multi-cloud networking.
Provide technical direction for network design activities including topology planning, capacity modeling, redundancy/resiliency design, and security architecture.
Ensure integration of cloud connectivity solutions, server infrastructure, virtualization platforms, and enterprise services (DNS, DHCP, NTP, authentication services) into the WAN environment.
Coordinate security accreditation activities and transition-to-operations planning.