Senior SDN Architect & Systems Engineer

Nightwing Intelligence Solutions, LLC; Georgetown (MD); On-site; USD 122,000 - 253,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, vision, and dental insurance

401(k) plan

Paid time off and holidays

Job summary

Nightwing Intelligence Solutions, LLC is seeking a Senior Network Engineer / Systems Engineer to analyze and extend SDN controller architectures, ensuring scalable, modular and secure network programmability for mission-critical environments. You will evaluate existing platforms, design custom modules, and prototype plugins while collaborating with engineers and defense partners.

The role requires hands-on SDN, extensive Java experience, and a TS/SCI with Poly clearance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Network Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related STEM field.
• 7+ years of experience in network engineering, systems engineering, or software-defined networking.
• Hands-on SDN controller experience including architecture, deployment, and customization.
• Strong knowledge of model-driven architectures and service abstraction layers in SDN controllers.
• Expertise in OpenFlow, NETCONF, RESTCONF, BGP, OSPF, and SNMP.
• Proficiency with YANG data modeling for network device configuration and state management.
• Knowledge of RESTful API design and implementation.
• Experience with distributed systems, microservices, and data consistency challenges.
• Excellent documentation and communication skills; TS/SCI with Polygraph; U.S. citizenship.

Responsibilities

• Conduct deep technical analysis of SDN controller architectures, including core modules and plugins.
• Evaluate platform capabilities against mission requirements to identify gaps.
• Architect and design custom modules and features to extend platform functionality.
• Analyze controller internals and data/state interactions.
• Decide between adding to architecture or creating modular components.
• Prototype southbound protocol plugins for specialized devices.
• Develop northbound API extensions and applications leveraging programmability.
• Analyze platform performance and identify bottlenecks for scalability.
• Define data models for device configuration and state.
• Evaluate integration with external systems and orchestration platforms.
• Document architectural decisions and trade-offs for customizations.
• Collaborate with software engineers to implement and test modules.
• Stay current with SDN community developments and best practices.

Skills

SDN

OpenFlow

NETCONF/RESTCONF

BGP

OSPF

SNMP

YANG modeling

Java programming

RESTful API design

Distributed systems

Architectural analysis

Documentation & communication

Security clearance TS/SCI with Poly

U.S. citizenship

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Engineering or related STEM field

Tools

OSGi framework

Apache Karaf

Java

Job description

Nightwing Intelligence Solutions, LLC is seeking a Senior Network Engineer / Systems Engineer to analyze and extend SDN controller architectures, ensuring scalable, modular and secure network programmability for mission-critical environments. You will evaluate existing platforms, design custom modules, and prototype plugins while collaborating with engineers and defense partners.

The role requires hands-on SDN, extensive Java experience, and a TS/SCI with Poly clearance.