Contract Network Engineer Government Jobs in Reston, VA

Senior Network Engineer (CONUS)

Location: Washington, DC, San Antonio, TX, or Honolulu, HI
Security Clearance: Active SECRET Clearance Required (or ability to obtain prior to start)
Employment Type: Full-Time
Travel: Occasional Continental United States (CONUS) and OCONUS travel as required

Position Overview

AAC Inc. is seeking an experienced Senior Network Engineer to support the Defense Health Agency (DHA) enterprise medical network infrastructure serving Military Health System (MHS) facilities worldwide. This position serves as the senior technical authority for enterprise network engineering and operations across the Continental United States (CONUS) while supporting global network initiatives.

The Senior Network Engineer is designated as Key Personnel under the contract and plays a critical role in maintaining highly available, secure, and resilient Local Area Networks (LAN), Wireless LAN (WLAN), and Wide Area Networks (WAN) supporting mission-critical healthcare operations. The successful candidate will function as a trusted technical advisor to Government leadership, collaborate with engineers across multiple geographic regions, and provide advanced engineering expertise supporting enterprise routing, switching, network security, and infrastructure modernization.

The ideal candidate will possess extensive Department of Defense networking experience, exceptional troubleshooting abilities, strong communication skills, and the ability to lead complex technical initiatives in a dynamic enterprise environment.

Primary Responsibilities

The Senior Network Engineer will be responsible for designing, implementing, maintaining, and continuously improving enterprise network infrastructure supporting Defense Health Agency medical facilities.

Primary responsibilities include:

• Serve as the senior technical authority and Subject Matter Expert (SME) for enterprise LAN/WLAN/WAN infrastructure supporting CONUS operations.
• Provide engineering support for enterprise routing, switching, wireless networking, and communications infrastructure.
• Design, configure, deploy, document, maintain, and troubleshoot enterprise network devices and services.
• Lead diagnosis and resolution of highly complex network performance issues across all layers of the OSI model.
• Monitor enterprise network health utilizing advanced network management platforms including SolarWinds Orion, Armis, Ansible, and other enterprise monitoring solutions.
• Analyze network performance utilizing SNMP, Management Information Bases (MIB), MRTG, and other diagnostic tools to maximize network availability and performance.
• Engineer secure network architectures utilizing firewalls, VPN technologies, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), and enterprise security controls.
• Support implementation of Zero Trust networking principles and evolving cybersecurity initiatives.
• Develop technical recommendations for network enhancements, upgrades, standardization efforts, and operational improvements.
• Produce engineering documentation, implementation plans, technical standards, and change management documentation.
• Coordinate with Government stakeholders, NetMOD Network Standards Teams, vendors, and other engineering organizations to ensure enterprise compliance with DHA and DoD standards.
• Participate in network modernization initiatives, technology refresh projects, infrastructure upgrades, and enterprise deployments.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and vendor products to determine applicability to Defense Health Agency operational environments.
• Establish and maintain network engineering standards, operating procedures, and best practices.
• Support incident response activities and provide senior-level technical leadership during network outages and critical operational events.
• Mentor junior engineers and provide technical leadership across the engineering team.
• Travel as required to support enterprise engineering efforts across military treatment facilities.

Required Qualifications

Education

One of the following is required:

• Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related technical discipline with a minimum of five (5) years of directly related network engineering experience; or
• Technical or Vocational School certification with ten (10) years of progressively responsible enterprise network engineering experience.

Required Certifications

Candidates must possess:

• DoD 8570/8140 compliant certification
• IAM Level III certification (or equivalent)
• Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)

Required Experience

The successful candidate will demonstrate extensive experience supporting large-scale enterprise networks including:

• Cisco enterprise networking technologies
• Enterprise routing and switching
• LAN/WLAN/WAN architecture
• Network security engineering
• Windows enterprise environments
• Microsoft Active Directory
• UNIX environments
• Enterprise network monitoring
• Defense Health Agency or Department of Defense network environments
• Healthcare Information Systems supporting mission-critical operations

Strong experience is required with:

• SolarWinds Orion
• Armis
• Ansible
• Network configuration management
• Enterprise change management
• Configuration documentation
• Network performance analysis
• Enterprise troubleshooting

Technical Knowledge

Candidates should possess mastery-level knowledge of:

Networking Protocols

• TCP/IP
• HTTP / HTTPS
• SMTP
• SNMP
• DNS
• DHCP
• BGP
• OSPF
• EIGRP
• VRRP
• RSTP
• PPP
• HDLC
• XDM

Networking Standards

• IEEE 802.1d
• IEEE 802.1q
• IEEE 802.1w
• IEEE 802.3
• IEEE 802.3u
• IEEE 802.3z
• IEEE 802.5
• IEEE 802.10
• IEEE 802.11

Network Technologies

• Ethernet
• Fast Ethernet
• Gigabit Ethernet
• ATM
• FDDI
• Fiber infrastructure
• Long-haul WAN connectivity
• Optical networking

Diagnostic Equipment

Experience utilizing:

• Optical Time Domain Reflectometers (OTDR)
• Network analyzers
• Cable testers
• Network protocol analyzers/sniffers
• EIA/TIA cabling standards

Preferred Qualifications

Preference will be given to candidates with:

• Experience supporting the Defense Health Agency (DHA)
• Military Health System (MHS) experience
• Experience supporting Department of Defense healthcare environments
• Zero Trust Architecture implementation experience
• Enterprise automation using Ansible
• Enterprise network modernization experience
• ITIL Foundation certification
• Experience supporting geographically dispersed enterprise networks

Communication & Leadership

This position requires exceptional interpersonal and communication skills. The Senior Network Engineer will routinely interact with senior Government officials, military leadership, healthcare professionals, technical engineers, vendors, and program management personnel.

The successful candidate must demonstrate the ability to:

• Communicate highly technical information to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Lead engineering discussions and technical working groups.
• Produce clear, concise technical documentation.
• Develop engineering standards and operational procedures.
• Coordinate multiple stakeholders across geographically dispersed organizations.
• Provide technical leadership during high-priority operational events.

Security Requirements

• Active SECRET Security Clearance required or the ability to obtain and maintain a SECRET clearance prior to reporting.
• Must meet all Department of Defense personnel security requirements.
• Must comply with DoD cybersecurity workforce requirements (DoD 8570/8140).