Senior Network Engineer

MIT Lincoln Laboratory; Lexington (MA); On-site; USD 134,000 - 181,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health plans

Pension

401K

Paid leave

Tuition reimbursement

Mentorship programs

Work‑life balance

Job summary

MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, MA seeks a Senior Network Engineer to design and modernize enterprise network infrastructure for classified environments. You will shape architecture, set standards, and mentor engineers while collaborating with cybersecurity, systems, and application teams.

This on-site role emphasizes hands-on expertise, network automation (Ansible, VMware NSX), CSfC familiarity, and STIG compliance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of professional network engineering experience.
• 5+ years with Palo Alto firewalls or similar platform.
• 2+ years of network automation and cloud network integration.
• Experience as a senior network engineer, architect, or technical lead.
• Expert knowledge of TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, SNMP, and BGP.
• Experience implementing network automation with Python, Ansible, Terraform, APIs.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain enterprise network architectures for highly available, security‑sensitive environments.
• Establish network architecture standards, design patterns, and roadmaps.
• Design LAN, WAN, data center, campus, cloud, and hybrid solutions.
• Create network diagrams, traffic flows, routing, security boundaries, and resiliency plans.
• Architect segmentation, redundancy, HA, DR, and BC strategies.
• Evaluate and modernize existing architectures; lead design reviews.
• Provide senior technical escalation and mentorship to engineers.
• Network Support: 1st tier support for tickets.

Skills

Network engineering

Enterprise networks

Palo Alto firewalls

Network automation (Ansible)

TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, SNMP, BGP

Juniper networks

Python scripting

Terraform / APIs

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Tools

Ansible

VMware NSX

Terraform

STIG Viewer

CSfC

Job description

Senior Network Engineer

Date: Oct 6, 2026

Location: Lexington, MA, US

Company: MIT Lincoln Laboratory

Position Description

The Network Services Lead will design, modernize, and guide the evolution of highly available, secure enterprise network infrastructure, while supporting the Laboratory's enterprise classified networks as part of the Digital Solutions Team. This position serves as a senior technical authority for network architecture, establishing technical standards and reference architectures while partnering with network engineers, cybersecurity personnel, system administrators, application teams, and organizational leadership.

The ideal candidate combines strong hands‑on technical expertise with an architectural mindset and can translate business, operational, cybersecurity, and compliance requirements into scalable and supportable network designs. The candidate will have a solid background with subnetting, switching, routing, firewall configuration to include managing security zones to limit east/west traffic, configuring and managing TACLANEs and supporting VTC appliances; familiarity with Commercial Solutions for Classified (CSfC) would be a bonus. This candidate will also possess a strong understanding of network automation and virtualization utilizing technologies such as Ansible and VMware NSX. Finally, preference will be given to candidates with experience supporting cloud infrastructure, ideally in classified environments but public experience would also be considered. As part of this role the individual will need to demonstrate proficiency applying STIGs and understanding how to use DISA's STIG Viewer to evaluate systems for STIG compliance.

This position is 100% dedicated to supporting classified environments and is 100% on-site in Lexington, MA. Occasional off‑hour/on‑call support is necessary. A certain degree of flexibility of schedule is required as some work (planned/unplanned) must be done outside of major production hours during pre‑scheduled maintenance windows.

This position requires an individual with excellent communication (both oral and writing) and organizational skills. The individual must be able to work in a fast‑paced environment at times with minimal supervision and execute operations, project and administrative tasks with a high degree of quality, while following existing processes and establishing new operational procedures and best practices where necessary. Additionally, the position requires the ability to work with members of other teams and staff to accomplish department and organizational goals.

Job Duties

Network Architecture and Engineering

• Develop and maintain enterprise network architectures supporting highly available and security‑sensitive computing environments.
• Establish network architecture standards, design patterns, reference architectures, and technology roadmaps.
• Design LAN, WAN, data center, campus, cloud, and hybrid‑cloud network solutions.
• Develop high‑level and detailed network designs, including logical and physical network diagrams, traffic flows, routing architectures, security boundaries, and resiliency strategies.
• Architect solutions for network segmentation, redundancy, high availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity.
• Evaluate existing network architectures and recommend modernization, consolidation, and lifecycle‑management strategies.
• Lead technical design reviews and ensure proposed solutions meet architecture, cybersecurity, operational, and performance requirements.
• Serve as a senior technical escalation point for complex network engineering and performance issues.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to network engineers.
• Network Support: Provide 1st tier support resolving Service Desk tickets.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field or the equivalent technical experience and certifications.
• 10+ years of professional network engineering experience, including significant experience designing and architecting large‑scale enterprise networks.
• 5+ years of experience with Palo Alto firewalls or similar platform
• 2+ years of experience with network automation (preferably with Ansible) and cloud network integration (preferably classified cloud)
• Demonstrated experience serving as a senior network engineer, network architect, technical lead, or equivalent.
• Expert knowledge of Juniper network technology solutions.
• Expert knowledge of TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, SNMP and BGP protocols.
• Demonstrated experience implementing network automation using technologies such as Python, Ansible, Terraform, APIs, or similar tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Juniper Networks Certified Professional (JNCIP) or Juniper Networks Certified Expert (JNCIE) in an applicable networking track.
• Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE) or current equivalent advanced Palo Alto certification.
• Strong understanding of DoD networks and STIG security controls
• Minimum of a Secret clearance
• Minimum of a Security+ certification or the ability to obtain within 6 months
• Demonstrated ability to learn new technologies and disciplines quickly
• Ability to work independently toward delivery of goals as well as collaboration in team efforts
• Strong foundational skills in organizing and managing technical projects
• Excellent customer service skills (verbal and written)

Hiring Range:$134,100-$181,000

Disclaimer: MIT Lincoln Laboratory provides a typical hiring range as a good faith estimate of what we reasonably expect to offer for this position at the time of posting. The final salary offered to a selected candidate will depend on various factors, including-but not limited to-the scope and responsibilities of the role, the candidate's experience, skills and education/training, internal equity considerations and applicable legal requirements. This range reflects base salary only and does not include additional forms of compensation or benefits.

At MIT Lincoln Laboratory, our exceptional career opportunities include many outstanding benefits to help you stay healthy, feel supported, and enjoy a fulfilling work‑life balance. Benefits offered to employees include:

• Comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans
• MIT‑funded pension
• Matching 401K
• Paid leave (including vacation, sick, parental, military, etc.)
• Tuition reimbursement and continuing education programs
• Mentorship programs
• A range of work‑life balance options
• ... and much more!

Please visit our Benefits page for more information. As an employee of MIT, you can also take advantage ofother voluntary benefits, discounts and perks.

Selected candidate will be subject to a pre‑employment background investigation and must be able to obtain and maintain a Secret level DoD security clearance.

MIT Lincoln Laboratory is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, veteran status, disability status, or genetic information; U.S. citizenship is required.

Requisition ID: 43354

Nearest Major Market: Boston

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