Senior Network Engineer

Agile Defense, LLC; Ashburn (VA); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Agile Defense, located in Ashburn, VA, is seeking a Senior Network Engineer to enable the DHS mission and enterprise network infrastructure. The role involves engineering, configuring, and troubleshooting WAN, LAN, SD-WAN, VPNs, WLAN, and perimeter security per customer standards.

Candidates should have 10+ years of federal or large agency experience, strong Cisco and firewall expertise, SDN experience, and ability to lead technically while supporting 24/7 operations.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in MIS/CS/Engineering or related technical field; 10+ years of network engineering experience.
• Minimum of ten years of verifiable network engineering experience with a large federal agency; strong protocol knowledge.
• Expertise with Cisco technology and firewall solutions; ability to perform firewall changes.
• Hands-on SDN experience (Cisco ACI or VMware NSX) with strong problem-solving skills.
• Delivers high-level technical leadership to meet project goals.

Responsibilities

• Configure, deploy, and support enterprise switches, routers, firewalls, VPN gateways; maintain logging baselines and load balancers.
• Provide Tier 2/3 escalation support for outages; conduct root cause analyses and coordinate vendor support.
• Plan and install hardware upgrades; manage SD-WAN transitions and cloud interconnects (AWS/Azure/GCP).
• Design, implement, and maintain SD-WAN with traffic routing policies and performance requirements.
• Maintain network diagrams (Visio), topology maps, inventory databases, and SOPs; manage change tickets (ServiceNow/Remedy).
• Support 24/7/365 on-call rotation; implement Emergency Change Requests when restoring services.
• Participate in RCA or post-incident analysis for mission-critical infrastructure; coordinate with program managers.
• Coordinate project milestones and resource planning with enterprise objectives.
• Travel within the United States up to 35% as needed.

Skills

Network troubleshooting

Technical leadership

Root cause analysis

On-call readiness

Vendor coordination

Documentation

Project planning

Education

Bachelor's degree in MIS/CS/Engineering or related field

10+ years of network engineering experience

Tools

Cisco technology

Firewall technologies

SD-WAN (Cisco ACI/NSX)

Visio

ServiceNow/Remedy

AWS/Azure/GCP interconnects

Job description

About Agile Defense

At Agile Defense we know that action defines the outcome and new challenges require new solutions. That's why we always look to the future and embrace change with an unmovable spirit and the courage to build for what comes next.

Our vision is to bring adaptive innovation to support our nation's most important missions through the seamless integration of advanced technologies, elite minds, and unparalleled agility-leveraging a foundation of speed, flexibility, and ingenuity to strengthen and protect our nation's vital interests.

Requisition #: 1798

Job Title: Senior Network Engineer

Location: Hybrid, Ashburn, VA

Clearance Level: Ability to successfully receive a DHS Customs and Border Protection background check (CBP BI), Public Trust

Job Description

Serve as a Senior Network Engineer enabling the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) mission and enterprise network infrastructure. The applicant will be responsible for engineering, maintaining, configuring, and troubleshooting wide-area networks (WAN), local-area networks (LAN), SDWAN, Virtual Private Networks, wireless networks (WLAN), and perimeter security controls in accordance with customer standards and mandates.

Education and Background

• Bachelor's degree in management information systems, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field (e.g. Networking and Telecommunications) with 10+ years of experience performing network engineering or 14+ years of network engineering experience without a bachelor's degree.
• Minimum of ten (10) years of verifiable network engineering experience supporting a large, complex Federal agency. Strong knowledge of networking protocols, such as TCP/IP, BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, MPLS, VPNs and VLANs.
• Expertise and experience with Cisco technology and Firewall technologies. Ability to perform firewall changes.
• Hands-on experience with SDN technologies such as Cisco ACI or VMware NSX. Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills, with the ability to troubleshoot complex network issues.
• Delivers high-level technical leadership to meet or exceed establishes project goals.

Years of Experience

10 years

Required Skills

The Senior network engineer will be the technical lead performing the following:

• Network Engineering & Maintenance: Configure, deploy, and support enterprise-grade switches, routers, firewalls, VPN gateways, adhere to logging baselines and load balancers across DHS operational environments.
• Troubleshooting & Incident Management: Provide Tier 2/Tier 3 escalation support for network outages, circuit degradations, and performance issues; conduct root cause analyses (RCA) and coordinate vendor support.
• Architecture & Upgrades: Support the planning, installation, and cutover of network hardware upgrades, SD-WAN transitions, cloud interconnects (AWS/Azure/GCP), remote field sites and infrastructure modernization.
• Software Defined Wide Area Networking (SD-WAN): Design, implement, and maintain an SD-WAN solution that extends the principles of software-defined networking and supports multiple network transports (e.g., Dedicated Internet Access (DIA), Broadband Internet, MPLS, 4G/LTE/5G, and satellite) at remote sites. Use SD-WAN network virtualization capabilities, the SD-WAN solution to route traffic based on application type, pre-defined routing policies, and network performance requirements
• Documentation & Asset Management: Maintain accurate network diagrams (Visio), topology maps, inventory databases, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and change control tickets (ServiceNow/Remedy).
• Support On-Call & Escalation Management: support 24/7/365 on-call rotation readiness to respond to Tier 3 critical network incidents within SLA limits and coordinating cross-functional escalation pathways. When needed to restore services, the Senior Network Engineer will provide a solution and implement an Emergency Change Request (ECR), Emergency Break Fix (EBF), or Change Request.
• Root Cause Analysis (RCA) or Post Incident Reporting: Participate in the Root Cause Analysis (RCA) or post incident analysis of problems for mission critical applications, mission essential applications, and mission essential network infrastructure as well as recurring issues on the enterprise IT infrastructure.
• Project Support: Partner with program and project managers to align network engineering deliverables, milestone schedules, and resource planning with enterprise project objectives.
• Scheduled and Adhoc Travel: Ability to travel within the United States either on short notice or scheduled, up to 35% of the time.

Preferred Skills

• Active CBP BI or within the past 3 years
• Active Industry certifications, such as CCNA, CCNP (routing and switching)
• Nice to have: experience and expertise with Zero Trust (Zscaler) and Palo Alto technologies
• Previous experience CBP highly desired, followed by DHS or DoW
• Advance skills in 3 or more of the following:
  • Cisco SD-WAN
  • Cisco Hyperflex
  • Cisco StealthWatch
  • Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure
  • Cisco Firepower
• Willing to be cross trained in the above technologies,

Working Conditions

Ability to sit for long periods of time

$120,000 - $140,000 a year

Our Core Values

Employees of Agile Defense are our number one priority, and the importance we place on our culture here is fundamental. Our culture is alive and evolving, but it always stays true to its roots. Here, you are valued as a family member, and we believe that we can accomplish great things together. Agile Defense has been highly successful in the past few years due to our employees and the culture we create together.

What makes us Agile? We call it the 6Hs, the values that define our culture and guide everything we do. Together, these values infuse vibrancy, integrity, and a tireless work ethic into advancing the most important national security and critical civilian missions. It's how we show up every day. It's who we are.

• Happy - Be Infectious. Happiness multiplies and creates a positive and connected environment where motivation and satisfaction have an outsized effect on everything we do.
• Helpful - Be Supportive. Being helpful is the foundation of teamwork, resulting in a supportive atmosphere where collaboration flourishes, and collective success is celebrated.
• Honest - Be Trustworthy. Honesty serves as our compass, ensuring transparent communication and ethical conduct, essential to who we are and the complex domains we support.
• Humble - Be Grounded. Success is not achieved alone, humility ensures a culture of mutual respect, encouraging open communication, and a willingness to learn from one another and take on any task.
• Hungry - Be Eager. Our hunger for excellence drives an insatiable appetite for innovation and continuous improvement, propelling us forward in the face of new and unprecedented challenges.
• Hustle - Be Driven. Hustle is reflected in our relentless work ethic, where we are each committed to going above and beyond to advance the mission and achieve success.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.