NEN Solution Engineering - Senior Network Engineer

Position Overview

We are seeking a seasoned, hands-on Senior Network Transport Solution Engineer to support the technical planning, architecture, design, integration, verification, validation, fielding, and sustainment of enterprise network transport solutions.

Reporting to the Engineering - Transport Access Lead, this position will serve as a senior individual contributor and may act as the technical lead for assigned projects, engineering workstreams, or solution-development efforts. The engineer will be responsible for entire projects or technical processes that may span multiple network technologies, infrastructure domains, operational environments, or engineering disciplines.

The engineer will develop solutions to complex technical issues that affect multiple systems or areas, applying advanced technical knowledge, ingenuity, and sound engineering judgment. Responsibilities will include requirements analysis, functional analysis, alternatives analysis, trade studies, interface definition, solution architecture, detailed design, laboratory validation, implementation planning, system testing, fielding, and transition to operations.

The engineer may coordinate technical activities, provide technical direction to personnel supporting an assigned project, review engineering products, and mentor less-experienced engineers. The position will not be responsible for employee performance management, staffing decisions, career development, or organizational workforce planning.

The successful candidate will remain actively engaged in hands-on network engineering and will work closely with Network Operations, Cybersecurity, Systems Engineering, program leadership, site personnel, customers, telecommunications carriers, equipment manufacturers, subcontractors, and other technical stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

1. Technical Project and Workstream Leadership

• Technical Execution: Lead the technical planning and execution of assigned network transport projects, workstreams, modernization efforts, technology refreshes, or engineering activities.
• Project Coordination: Coordinate engineering activities across multiple technical areas, sites, vendors, or infrastructure domains and identify dependencies that could affect successful delivery.
• Technical Direction: Provide technical guidance to engineers and other personnel assigned to an effort, review engineering work products, and help resolve issues that could affect cost, schedule, performance, security, or operational readiness.
• Requirements Traceability: Help ensure that engineering decisions, designs, test activities, and implementation plans remain traceable to approved technical and operational requirements.
• Risk Management: Identify technical risks, assumptions, constraints, dependencies, and lifecycle concerns and develop practical mitigation recommendations for project and engineering leadership.
• Estimating and Planning: Support the development of engineering estimates, bills of material, implementation schedules, staffing assumptions, technical proposals, and levels of effort.
• Technical Mentoring: Mentor and support other engineers through design reviews, peer reviews, troubleshooting activities, laboratory testing, and knowledge-sharing sessions.

2. Systems Engineering and Solution Lifecycle

• Requirements Analysis: Analyze operational, functional, technical, cybersecurity, performance, capacity, availability, interoperability, and supportability requirements for assigned network transport solutions.
• Functional Analysis: Evaluate how network transport capabilities support mission systems, applications, user communities, operational services, and dependent infrastructure.
• Alternatives and Trade Studies: Evaluate technical alternatives based on capability, cost, risk, lifecycle status, interoperability, implementation complexity, cybersecurity, maintainability, scalability, and supportability.
• Requirements Allocation: Translate customer and program requirements into system, subsystem, interface, configuration, performance, and testing requirements.
• Interface Definition: Define and document network interfaces, addressing requirements, routing boundaries, security-zone interactions, transport dependencies, management interfaces, and external service connections.
• Solution Documentation: Develop and maintain high-level designs, low-level designs, logical and physical network diagrams, bills of material, IP addressing plans, port maps, rack elevations, cable requirements, configuration templates, implementation procedures, rollback plans, test plans, and as-built documentation.
• Verification and Validation: Plan and perform laboratory validation, integration testing, interoperability testing, performance testing, failover testing, site-acceptance testing, and other activities needed to confirm that solutions satisfy defined requirements.
• Configuration and Quality Control: Apply established engineering, cybersecurity, configuration-management, change-management, and quality-assurance processes throughout the solution lifecycle.
• Operational Transition: Support the transition of new or modified solutions to operations by confirming that monitoring, documentation, training, support procedures, configuration backups, escalation paths, and operational dependencies have been addressed.

3. Network Transport Architecture and Design

• Enterprise Network Architecture: Design and integrate secure, scalable, resilient, and supportable network transport solutions across campus, data center, branch, remote-site, enterprise-edge, and wide-area network environments.
• LAN Engineering: Develop wired network designs incorporating access, distribution, and core architectures; Layer 2 and Layer 3 boundaries; VLANs; trunks; link aggregation; loop-prevention mechanisms; redundant uplinks; and resilient switching technologies.
• Routing Engineering: Design and implement IPv4 and IPv6 routing solutions using static routing and dynamic routing protocols such as OSPF, BGP, EIGRP, or IS-IS, as applicable to the environment.
• Route Control: Develop route-advertisement, redistribution, filtering, summarization, path-selection, route-policy, and convergence approaches that support stable and predictable network operation.
• WAN and SD-WAN Engineering: Design and integrate enterprise WAN, SD-WAN, VPN, MPLS, carrier Ethernet, internet, and other wide-area transport solutions.
• Data Center Networking: Support data center network designs, including leaf-spine architectures, Layer 2 and Layer 3 interconnection, multi-chassis redundancy, workload connectivity, network overlays, and technologies such as EVPN and VXLAN where applicable.
• Network Segmentation: Develop technical solutions using VLANs, VRFs, routed boundaries, access controls, overlays, and other segmentation mechanisms to separate systems, missions, tenants, security zones, or operational functions.
• Carrier and Optical Transport: Evaluate and integrate telecommunications carrier services, leased circuits, dark fiber, wavelength services, metro Ethernet, broadband, and other optical or packet-based transport services.
• Out-of-Band Management: Develop resilient out-of-band management and console-access solutions that support remote administration, troubleshooting, and recovery during primary network outages.
• Quality of Service: Design and validate end-to-end QoS solutions, including traffic classification, DSCP and Layer 2 Class of Service marking, trust boundaries, queuing, shaping, policing, congestion management, and bandwidth allocation.
• Multicast Transport: Develop multicast-routing and distribution solutions using technologies such as IGMP, PIM, rendezvous-point architectures, and related controls when required by supported systems.
• Availability and Resiliency: Develop technical requirements and designs for high availability, path diversity, equipment redundancy, geographic redundancy, survivability, disaster recovery, and service continuity.
• Capacity and Performance: Analyze utilization, traffic patterns, throughput, latency, packet loss, error rates, oversubscription, growth projections, and other performance factors to determine infrastructure and bandwidth requirements.
• Technical Roadmaps: Contribute technical analysis, lifecycle data, alternatives, sequencing recommendations, and implementation considerations to network modernization and technology-roadmap activities.
• Technology Evaluation: Conduct product evaluations, proof-of-concept activities, interoperability testing, and technical risk assessments for new or replacement network technologies.

4. Hands-On Engineering, Integration, and Troubleshooting

• Configuration and Deployment: Configure, integrate, test, and deploy routers, switches, network-management appliances, optical interfaces, console systems, and other network transport components.
• Routing and Switching Implementation: Develop and validate routing, switching, redundancy, segmentation, QoS, multicast, management, and infrastructure-service configurations.
• Multi-Vendor Integration: Integrate network technologies from multiple manufacturers and resolve interoperability issues across hardware, software, optics, transceivers, management platforms, and transport services.
• Network Services Integration: Coordinate the integration of network transport solutions with DNS, DHCP, IP address management, authentication, authorization, accounting, time synchronization, certificate services, and other shared infrastructure services.
• Security Integration: Work with Cybersecurity and other technical teams to integrate network access controls, firewalls, intrusion-detection or prevention systems, security monitoring, encryption, and boundary-protection requirements.
• Complex Troubleshooting: Resolve complex technical issues involving routing instability, switching loops, asymmetric routing, packet loss, congestion, latency, jitter, MTU mismatches, fragmentation, duplex or speed mismatches, interface errors, optical degradation, link flaps, or service-provider problems.
• Packet and Traffic Analysis: Use packet captures, flow records, telemetry, logs, routing tables, forwarding tables, interface statistics, and other diagnostic information to isolate network problems.
• Root-Cause Analysis: Perform detailed technical investigations, identify underlying causes, develop corrective actions, and document lessons learned.
• Corrective Actions: Recommend and implement technical changes that address recurring issues while considering risk, configuration control, operational impact, and rollback requirements.
• Laboratory Validation: Build or use laboratory environments to validate network designs, software versions, hardware platforms, configurations, migration approaches, and failure scenarios before production implementation.
• Implementation Support: Develop and execute method-of-procedure documents, installation plans, migration plans, test procedures, and rollback procedures for network changes and deployments.
• Fielding Support: Provide remote or on-site engineering support for installation, integration, testing, troubleshooting, acceptance, and transition activities.

5. Network Management and Operational Readiness

• Network Monitoring: Support the implementation and use of network-management, monitoring, alerting, and performance-analysis platforms.
• Telemetry and Visibility: Develop monitoring requirements using SNMP, SNMPv3, syslog, NetFlow, IPFIX, streaming telemetry, API-based collection, or comparable technologies.
• Configuration Management: Support configuration backup, version control, compliance assessment, configuration-drift detection, and restoration processes.
• Performance Analysis: Analyze network availability, interface utilization, capacity, latency, packet loss, error rates, route stability, device health, and recurring incidents.
• Operational Readiness: Confirm that assigned solutions are documented, monitored, supportable, secure, resilient, and ready for operational ownership before deployment or transition.
• Lifecycle Management: Assess equipment and software lifecycle status, including end-of-sale, end-of-support, security exposure, vendor supportability, hardware capacity, and software compatibility.
• Software and Firmware Evaluation: Evaluate network operating-system releases, firmware versions, defect notices, security advisories, and compatibility requirements before recommending upgrades.
• Baseline Compliance: Apply approved configuration baselines, security controls, technical implementation guidance, and applicable hardening requirements.
• Vulnerability Remediation: Support the evaluation and remediation of network vulnerabilities while balancing cybersecurity risk, mission availability, system compatibility, and operational constraints.
• Change Management: Develop technically complete change packages and support implementation through established review, approval, execution, validation, and closure processes.

6. Stakeholder, Customer, and Vendor Coordination

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work with Network Operations, Cybersecurity, Systems Engineering, application teams, server teams, facility personnel, program management, customers, and other stakeholders to align network solutions with operational and technical requirements.
• Technical Communication: Explain technical issues, risks, alternatives, dependencies, and recommendations to engineers, project leaders, client team members, and other stakeholders.
• Design Reviews: Lead or participate in technical interchange meetings, peer reviews, architecture reviews, design reviews, test-readiness reviews, implementation-readiness reviews, and operational-transition reviews.
• Customer Coordination: Work with customer technical representatives to clarify requirements, resolve design questions, communicate constraints, and obtain technical concurrence.
• Vendor Coordination: Coordinate technical activities with equipment manufacturers, software providers, telecommunications carriers, circuit providers, subcontractors, and system integrators.
• Carrier Escalations: Support the troubleshooting and escalation of circuit, transport, peering, routing, performance, or service-availability issues involving external service providers.
• Technical Influence: Develop well-supported recommendations and work with project and engineering leaders to gain acceptance of proposed designs, processes, corrective actions, or implementation approaches.

Required Experience and Education

• Must be a US Citizen and able to obtain and maintain a Secret security clearance.
• Professional Experience: Typically requires a bachelor’s degree and 8-12 years of prior relevant experience, or a master’s degree and 6-10 years of prior relevant experience. May possess a doctorate in a technical domain.
• Technical Background: Progressive engineering experience in enterprise routing, switching, LAN, WAN, data center networking, carrier transport, network architecture, or a closely related technical discipline.
• Project Leadership: Demonstrated experience leading the technical execution of complex projects, implementations, migrations, or engineering workstreams involving multiple technologies or technical areas.
• Engineering Lifecycle: Experience performing requirements analysis, alternatives analysis, trade studies, solution design, integration, testing, implementation planning, documentation, fielding, and transition to operations.
• Complex Problem Solving: Demonstrated ability to diagnose and resolve complex technical problems that affect multiple systems, sites, technologies, or engineering disciplines.
• Technical Mentoring: Experience providing technical guidance, peer review, training, or mentoring to other engineers. Formal supervisory or people-management experience is not required.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Network Engineering, Telecommunications, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field. Equivalent relevant education, certifications, and practical experience may be considered where permitted.

Preferred Technical Proficiencies

• Enterprise Routing: Advanced knowledge of IPv4, IPv6, OSPF, BGP, EIGRP, IS-IS, static routing, route redistribution, summarization, filtering, path selection, and routing policy.
• Enterprise Switching: Strong knowledge of Ethernet, VLANs, trunking, Spanning Tree Protocol, Rapid Spanning Tree, Multiple Spanning Tree, link aggregation, LACP, multi-chassis link aggregation, Cisco vPC, Arista MLAG, or comparable technologies.
• WAN and SD-WAN: Experience with enterprise WAN, SD-WAN, MPLS, carrier Ethernet, broadband, internet transport, IPsec VPN, generic routing encapsulation, dynamic multipoint VPN, or comparable technologies.
• Data Center Networking: Experience with leaf-spine architectures, high-availability switching, data center interconnect, EVPN, VXLAN, network overlays, and workload connectivity.
• Carrier and Optical Technologies: Working knowledge of fiber-optic transport, transceivers, optical budgets, CWDM, DWDM, wavelength services, dark fiber, metro Ethernet, and telecommunications-carrier services.
• Network Segmentation: Experience designing and troubleshooting VLAN, VRF, routed-boundary, overlay, access-control, or multi-tenant segmentation solutions.
• Quality of Service: Experience designing and validating traffic classification, marking, queuing, shaping, policing, congestion-management, and bandwidth-allocation policies.
• Multicast Networking: Working knowledge of IGMP, PIM, rendezvous-point design, multicast routing, and multicast troubleshooting.
• Network Management: Experience with network monitoring, configuration management, telemetry, SNMPv3, syslog, NetFlow, IPFIX, streaming telemetry, and performance-reporting platforms.
• Infrastructure Services: Working knowledge of DNS, DHCP, IP address management, AAA, RADIUS, TACACS+, Network Time Protocol, Precision Time Protocol, certificate services, and related infrastructure dependencies.
• Security and Compliance: Working knowledge of secure configuration baselines, access control, network segmentation, authentication, encryption, vulnerability remediation, configuration management, and applicable cybersecurity or technical implementation requirements.
• Troubleshooting Tools: Demonstrated ability to use Wireshark, packet-capture platforms, network test equipment, optical power meters, protocol analyzers, device debugs, routing tables, flow data, logs, telemetry, and monitoring systems.
• Vendor Platforms: Experience with enterprise network technologies from manufacturers such as Cisco, Arista, Juniper, HPE Aruba, Extreme Networks, Ruckus/Brocade, Nokia, Ciena, or comparable vendors.
• Automation and APIs: Experience using Python, Ansible, PowerShell, REST APIs, NETCONF, RESTCONF, YANG, or comparable tools for configuration, validation, data collection, provisioning, or compliance assessment.

Leadership and Communication Skills

• Ability to independently lead complex technical efforts while collaborating effectively with project managers, engineering leaders, customers, operations personnel, vendors, and service providers.
• Ability to provide technical direction, coordination, and mentorship without relying on formal supervisory authority.
• Strong judgment and decision-making skills, including the ability to evaluate alternatives and balance technical performance, cost, schedule, cybersecurity, operational risk, lifecycle concerns, and supportability.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts, risks, dependencies, and recommendations to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Ability to influence project and team leaders through sound engineering analysis, clear documentation, technical evidence, and well-supported recommendations.
• Strong customer and stakeholder-management skills, including the ability to clarify requirements, establish expectations, communicate constraints, and resolve technical disagreements.
• Demonstrated problem-solving ability and experience working through complex or high-pressure engineering and operational situations.
• Ability to work across organizational and technical boundaries when the resolution of an issue requires coordination among multiple teams or disciplines.
• Commitment to knowledge sharing, process improvement, engineering quality, technical documentation, and continuous professional development.

Preferred Certifications and Qualifications

• Cisco Certified Network Professional Enterprise or a comparable advanced routing and switching certification.
• Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert Enterprise Infrastructure is beneficial but not required.
• Juniper Networks Certified Professional, Juniper Networks Certified Expert, Arista Cloud Engineer, Nokia, Ciena, or comparable network or transport certification.
• Current cybersecurity certification applicable to the position or customer environment.
• Experience developing technical proposals, statements of work, bills of material, levels of effort, implementation plans, migration plans, or technical risk assessments.
• Experience with network automation, infrastructure-as-code, source control, configuration validation, and automated compliance checking.
• Experience supporting geographically distributed, highly available, mission-critical, or operationally sensitive enterprise networks.
• Experience executing network modernization, equipment-refresh, end-of-support remediation, site migration, data center migration, carrier transition, or technology-consolidation efforts.
• Experience working in laboratory, test, integration, staging, and production network environments.

NGEN

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo - because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 - and moving faster than anyone else dares.

Original Posting:

For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range:

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.