NEN Solution Engineering – Sr. Voice Engineer

We are seeking a seasoned, hands-on Senior VoIP, VTC, and Telephony Solution Engineer to support the design, integration, validation, deployment, and sustainment of enterprise Unified Communications and Collaboration solutions.

Reporting to the Voice/VTC Manager, this position will serve as a senior technical contributor and may act as the technical lead for assigned projects, workstreams, or engineering efforts. The engineer will be responsible for developing solutions to complex technical problems that span multiple systems or disciplines and for helping ensure assigned solutions are secure, resilient, supportable, and operationally ready.

The engineer may provide technical direction, coordinate the work of engineers supporting an assigned project, review engineering products, and mentor less-experienced team members, but will not be responsible for employee performance management, staffing decisions, or organizational workforce planning.

The successful candidate will remain actively engaged in requirements analysis, alternatives analysis, solution architecture, detailed design, laboratory validation, implementation planning, system integration, testing, and Tier 3/Tier 4 engineering escalations. The position will work closely with Transport Engineering, Network Operations, Cybersecurity, program leadership, customers, telecommunications carriers, and technology vendors.

Key Responsibilities

1. Technical Project and Workstream Leadership

• Technical Execution: Lead the technical planning and execution of assigned VoIP, VTC, telephony, and collaboration projects or workstreams.
• Project Coordination: Coordinate engineering activities across multiple technical areas, identify dependencies, track technical milestones, and support the timely completion of project deliverables.
• Technical Direction: Provide technical guidance to engineers assigned to a project, review engineering work products, and help resolve technical issues that could affect cost, schedule, performance, or operational readiness.
• Risk Management: Identify technical risks, constraints, assumptions, and dependencies and recommend practical mitigation approaches to project and engineering leadership.
• Estimating and Planning: Support the development of engineering estimates, bills of material, staffing assumptions, implementation schedules, and levels of effort.
• Technical Mentoring: Mentor and support other engineers through design reviews, peer reviews, troubleshooting activities, and knowledge-sharing sessions.

2. Systems Engineering and Solution Lifecycle

• Requirements Analysis: Analyze operational, functional, technical, cybersecurity, performance, availability, and supportability requirements for assigned solutions.
• Alternatives and Trade Studies: Evaluate technical alternatives based on capability, cost, risk, interoperability, lifecycle status, security, supportability, and implementation complexity.
• Requirements Allocation: Translate customer and program requirements into system, subsystem, interface, configuration, and testing requirements.
• Solution Documentation: Develop and maintain high-level designs, low-level designs, interface definitions, bills of material, configuration baselines, implementation procedures, rollback plans, test plans, and as-built documentation.
• Verification and Validation: Plan and perform laboratory validation, interoperability testing, system testing, acceptance testing, and other verification activities needed to confirm that solutions satisfy defined requirements.
• Configuration and Quality Control: Apply established engineering, cybersecurity, configuration-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, support procedures, training requirements, and operational dependencies have been addressed.

3. Voice, Video, and Collaboration Solution Engineering

• Solution Design: Design and integrate enterprise voice, video teleconferencing, Session Initiation Protocol, Session Border Controller, telephony, and collaboration solutions.
• Enterprise Telephony: Engineer enterprise dial plans, E.164 number normalization, digit manipulation, call routing, SIP trunking, carrier interconnections, PSTN services, voice gateways, voicemail, and emergency-calling capabilities.
• VTC and Collaboration: Design and integrate multi-vendor VTC and audiovisual collaboration environments, including Cisco Room Series and Webex devices, Poly, Microsoft Teams Rooms, Crestron, Zoom Rooms, and comparable technologies.
• Cloud and Hybrid Integration: Develop integrations between on-premises voice infrastructure and cloud collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams Phone, Direct Routing, Operator Connect, Webex Calling, and comparable services.
• Availability and Resiliency: Develop technical requirements and designs for high availability, geographic redundancy, survivability, disaster recovery, capacity management, and service continuity.
• Technology Evaluation: Conduct product evaluations, proof-of-concept activities, interoperability testing, and technical risk assessments for new or replacement voice, video, and collaboration technologies.
• Technical Roadmaps: Contribute technical analysis, lifecycle data, recommendations, and implementation considerations to technology-modernization and product-roadmap activities.

4. Hands-On Engineering and Technical Escalation

• Configuration and Deployment: Configure, integrate, test, and deploy IP telephony systems, SIP proxies, voice gateways, Session Border Controllers, VTC systems, and unified communications platforms.
• Session Border Controllers: Configure and troubleshoot enterprise SBC technologies, including AudioCodes, Ribbon, Cisco CUBE, Oracle Communications Session Border Controller/Acme Packet, or comparable platforms.
• Complex Troubleshooting: Resolve complex voice and video problems involving call routing, signaling, media negotiation, interoperability, packet loss, jitter, latency, one-way audio, call quality, and service availability.
• Root-Cause Analysis: Perform detailed technical investigations, identify underlying causes, develop corrective actions, and document lessons learned.
• QoS and Transport Integration: Collaborate with Transport and Network Engineering to design and validate end-to-end Quality of Service, including DSCP and Layer 2 Class of Service marking, queuing, shaping, policing, call-admission control, bandwidth planning, and class-of-service mapping.
• Network Analysis: Evaluate routing, switching, VLAN, firewall, Network Address Translation, DNS, certificate, and transport conditions that affect voice and video services.
• Monitoring and Service Assurance: Support monitoring, alerting, call-quality analytics, call-detail records, capacity reporting, and trend analysis for enterprise voice and video services.

5. Stakeholder and Vendor Coordination

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work with Transport Engineering, Network Operations, Cybersecurity, program management, customers, and operations personnel to align technical solutions with infrastructure, security, and operational requirements.
• Technical Communication: Explain technical issues, risks, alternatives, 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, test-readiness reviews, and implementation-readiness reviews.
• Vendor Coordination: Coordinate technical activities with equipment manufacturers, software providers, telecommunications carriers, SIP service providers, subcontractors, and system integrators.
• Technical Influence: Develop well-supported technical recommendations and work with project and engineering leaders to gain acceptance of proposed designs, processes, or corrective actions.

Required Experience and Education

• Professional Experience: Typically requires a bachelor’s degree and 8-12 years of relevant experience, or a master’s degree and 6-10 years of relevant experience. Equivalent relevant education, certifications, and practical experience may be considered.
• Technical Background: Progressive engineering experience in VoIP, VTC, enterprise telephony, unified communications, collaboration systems, networking, or a closely related technical discipline.
• Project Leadership: Demonstrated experience leading the technical execution of complex projects, workstreams, implementations, or engineering efforts that involve multiple technologies or technical disciplines.
• Engineering Lifecycle: Experience performing requirements analysis, solution design, alternatives analysis, integration, testing, implementation planning, documentation, and transition to operations.
• 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, Telecommunications, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related field.

Preferred Technical Proficiencies

• VoIP and Telephony Protocols: Strong knowledge of SIP, SDP, RTP/RTCP, SRTP, H.323, MGCP, ISDN/PRI, and related signaling and media protocols.
• Call-Control Platforms: Experience with enterprise platforms such as Cisco Unified Communications Manager, Cisco Unity Connection, Microsoft Teams Phone, or comparable on-premises and cloud-based call-control systems.
• Dial Plans and Carrier Services: Experience with enterprise dial plans, E.164 numbering, digit manipulation, SIP trunks, PSTN connectivity, carrier interconnections, voice gateways, voicemail, and emergency calling.
• VTC and Collaboration Systems: Experience designing, integrating, deploying, or supporting Cisco, Poly, Microsoft Teams Rooms, Zoom Rooms, Crestron, Webex, or comparable collaboration technologies.
• Session Border Controllers: Experience configuring and troubleshooting AudioCodes Mediant, Ribbon SBC, Oracle Communications Session Border Controller/Acme Packet, Cisco CUBE, or comparable SBC platforms.
• Cloud and Hybrid Voice: Experience integrating on-premises telephony with cloud collaboration services, including Microsoft Teams Direct Routing, Operator Connect, Webex Calling, or comparable platforms.
• Network and QoS Analysis: Strong working knowledge of IP networking, routing, switching, VLANs, firewalls, Network Address Translation, SIP and media traversal, packet analysis, QoS policy design, and bandwidth planning.
• Security and Identity: Working knowledge of SIP TLS, mutual TLS, SRTP, certificates and PKI, directory services, identity integration, secure configuration baselines, vulnerability remediation, and configuration management.
• Troubleshooting Tools: Demonstrated ability to use Wireshark, platform traces, SBC logs, call-detail records, monitoring systems, and other diagnostic tools to isolate signaling, media, network, and interoperability problems.

Leadership and Communication Skills

• Ability to independently lead complex technical efforts while collaborating effectively with project managers, engineering leaders, customers, and operations personnel.
• Ability to provide technical direction 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, risk, security, and supportability.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts, risks, and recommendations to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Ability to influence project and team leaders through sound engineering analysis, clear documentation, and well-supported recommendations.
• Strong customer and stakeholder-management skills, including the ability to establish expectations, communicate constraints, and resolve technical disagreements.
• Demonstrated problem-solving ability and experience working through complex or high-pressure engineering and operational situations.
• Commitment to knowledge sharing, process improvement, engineering quality, and continuous technical development.

Preferred Certifications and Qualifications

• Cisco Certified Network Professional Collaboration or a comparable voice, video, networking, or unified communications certification.
• Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert Collaboration is beneficial but not required.
• Current Microsoft certification related to Microsoft Teams Phone, collaboration communications systems, or an equivalent technology.
• Current AudioCodes, Ribbon, Cisco, Microsoft, or comparable voice and collaboration certification.
• Experience developing technical proposals, statements of work, bills of material, levels of effort, implementation plans, or technical risk assessments.
• Experience with automation or scripting for telephony administration, data collection, validation, or provisioning using PowerShell, Python, REST APIs, or comparable technologies.
• Experience supporting geographically distributed, highly available, or mission-critical voice and video 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.