Cisco Identity Services Engineer (ISE) Lead

CACI International Inc; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

CACI International Inc. is seeking a Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Lead to provide senior engineering and operational leadership for enterprise network access control.

You will drive design, testing, implementation, and sustainment of Cisco ISE policies enforcing Comply-to-Connect across wired, remote, and device-management environments. The role supports the ECS3 program for intelligence customers across CONUS/OCONUS, collaborating with network, cybersecurity, and identity teams to

Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI clearance with ability to obtain CI Polygraph prior to start.
• Current DoW 8140/8570-aligned IAT Level II certification or equivalent.
• 10+ years in IT/network engineering/cybersecurity with relevant experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead ISE and C2C policy engineering and troubleshooting.
• Design, test, implement, document, and sustain ISE policies and posture.
• Engineer and support 802.1X, EAP-TLS, MAB, RADIUS, and TACACS+.

Skills

ISE policy engineering

Network engineering

Cybersecurity

Incident response

Technical leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in a technical field

Tools

Cisco ISE

Active Directory integration

PKI/certificate services

pxGrid

RADIUS

TACACS+

802.1X

Job description

• Implement enterprise access-control methods

Job Title: Cisco Identity Services Engineer (ISE) Lead

Job Category: Information Technology

Time Type: Full time

Minimum Clearance Required to Start: TS/SCI with Polygraph

Employee Type: Regular

Percentage of Travel Required: Up to 10%

Type of Travel: Outside Continental US

The Opportunity

CACI is seeking a Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Lead to provide senior engineering, operations, and technical leadership for enterprise network access control. The successful candidate will lead the development, testing, implementation, and sustainment of Cisco ISE policies that enforce Comply-to-Connect (C2C) requirements across wired, remote-access, and network-device-administration environments.

The ECS3 program supports our intelligence customer across CONUS and OCONUS locations through the design, transition, operations, modernization, technology refresh, and continual improvement of enterprise LAN, Unified Communications, and cybersecurity services. The Tier 3 ISE Lead will work with network, cybersecurity, endpoint-management, and identity teams to translate approved access-control requirements into scalable, supportable ISE policy and operational capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead ISE and C2C policy engineering

Design, create, test, implement, document, and sustain ISE authentication and authorization policies, authorization profiles, identity source sequences, endpoint groups, profiling rules, posture policies, and exception workflows.

• Implement enterprise access-control methods

Engineer and support 802.1X, EAP-TLS, MAB, RADIUS, TACACS+, guest access, contractor access, certificate-based authentication, and network-device administration.

• Develop C2C enforcement and remediation workflows

Implement policy actions using dynamic VLAN assignment, downloadable ACLs, Security Group Tags, Change of Authorization, reauthentication, restricted-access controls, quarantine actions, and endpoint-remediation workflows.

• Lead ISE integrations

Integrate and sustain ISE connections with Active Directory, PKI and certificate authorities, endpoint-management tools, endpoint-security platforms, vulnerability-management tools, SIEMs, pxGrid clients, switches, VPN infrastructure, and other approved security services.

• Provide Tier 3 troubleshooting and incident support

Resolve complex authentication, authorization, certificate, profiling, posture, endpoint, CoA, RADIUS, TACACS+, and network-device issues. Analyze ISE Live Logs, session traces, alarms, packet captures, switch logs, support bundles, and endpoint data to determine root cause and corrective actions.

• Maintain ISE platform health and resiliency

Administer and troubleshoot the distributed ISE deployment, including PAN, secondary Administration node, PSNs, MnT, pxGrid, node groups, replication, backups, restores, certificates, performance, capacity, and disaster‑recovery procedures.

• Plan and execute lifecycle activities

Support ISE upgrades, patches, certificate renewals, policy migrations, technology refresh, node recovery, backup validation, and approved maintenance activities. Develop implementation, test, validation, rollback, and post‑change review plans.

• Establish technical standards and change controls

Develop and maintain policy naming standards, configuration baselines, test procedures, implementation checklists, rollback procedures, SOPs, and knowledge articles. Review proposed policy changes for operational impact, dependencies, and access risk.

• Lead C2C onboarding and operational improvement

Support pilot efforts, site onboarding, phased rollout, transition to operations, recurring‑incident reduction, and continuous improvement of C2C policy and service delivery.

• Provide technical leadership and escalation management

Mentor teammates; provide technical guidance to engineering and operations teams; coordinate Cisco TAC cases; and produce complete escalation packages, root‑cause analyses, and after‑action reports.

Required:

• Active TS/SCI clearance with ability to obtain CI Polygraph prior to start
• Current DoW 8140/8570-aligned IAT Level II certification, such as CompTIA Security+, or ability to obtain prior to start.
• Current Cisco Certified Specialist – Security Identity Management Implementation credential.
• 10+ years of relevant information technology, network engineering, cybersecurity, or network‑access‑control experience. A bachelor’s degree in an applicable technical field may substitute for a defined portion of experience in accordance with contract requirements.
• 5+ years of hands‑on Cisco ISE engineering or administration experience in an enterprise or mission environment.
• Demonstrated experience designing, creating, testing, and sustaining Cisco ISE authentication and authorization policies.
• Demonstrated experience with 802.1X, EAP‑TLS, MAB, RADIUS, TACACS+, CoA, dynamic VLAN assignment, dACLs, SGTs, and enterprise network‑access‑control concepts.
• Demonstrated experience integrating Cisco ISE with Active Directory, PKI/certificate services, switches, and endpoint‑management or endpoint‑security platforms.
• Experience troubleshooting complex wired access‑control issues across Cisco ISE, switches, endpoints, identity services, and certificate infrastructure.
• Experience with Cisco ISE distributed deployments, including PAN, secondary Administration node, PSN, Monitoring, pxGrid, node registration, replication, backup/restore, and operational health monitoring.
• Familiarity with ticketing systems, change‑management processes, incident management, problem management, and customer‑facing operational support.
• Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with network, security, endpoint, identity, and service‑management teams.

Desired

• Cisco Certified Network Professional Security (CCNP Security) or current equivalent Cisco security professional certification.
• Cisco Certified Network Professional Enterprise (CCNP Enterprise) certification.
• Cisco Implementing and Configuring Cisco Identity Services Engine (SISE) training or equivalent demonstrated ISE engineering experience.
• Cisco DoD Comply-to-Connect (C2C) training or demonstrated experience implementing C2C‑aligned ISE capabilities.
• CompTIA Network+, CySA+, CASP+, or other relevant network/security certifications.
• Experience with Cisco Catalyst Center, Cisco SD‑Access, TrustSec, pxGrid, Cisco Secure Client, Cisco Secure Firewall, and/or network segmentation technologies.
• Experience with scripting and automation using Python, REST APIs, Ansible