Freelance Optical Network Engineer Jobs in Washington

Best consideration date for applications: Friday, July 24

The University System of Maryland Office serves as the administrative and strategic headquarters for the University System of Maryland, supporting the Chancellor, Board of Regents, member institutions, and systemwide initiatives across higher education. Within this environment, MDREN plays an important role in enabling reliable, high-capacity connectivity that supports research, education, and collaboration across institutions and partner networks.

This role offers the opportunity to help shape and strengthen a complex statewide network environment that underpins critical academic and institutional operations. The work spans core infrastructure, long-range network evolution, and close collaboration with institutional and partner stakeholders to support resilient, high-performance services.

As Senior Wide Area Network Engineer, you will provide technical leadership across MDREN's statewide network environment, helping guide the design, operation, and continued evolution of WAN and optical transport infrastructure. You will contribute to both day-to-day network reliability and longer-term architectural planning, while working closely with member institutions, partner research and education networks, and internal stakeholders to support connectivity, service delivery, and network growth.

Network Operations, Monitoring, and Maintenance:

• Maintains and operates MDREN's statewide wide area network (WAN) infrastructure, including core, edge, and optical transport layers.
• Ensures high availability, performance, and resilience across all backbone and interconnection services.
• Responds to and corrects problems within the MDREN network.
• Monitors network activity to detect, identify, and address security issues, events, and intrusions to the Network.
• Proactively monitors all enterprise communication systems for proper, stable operation, taking appropriate corrective action if required.
• Ensures networking maintenance and upgrades are coordinated with the affected parties.
• Works with network equipment vendors to find effective solutions to network issues and upgrades.
• Maintains related computer systems, software packages, and network appliances in support of the network.
• Develops implementation plans and schedules.
• Develops and maintains documentation, policies, procedures, and methods for the operation of the MDREN network.

WAN & Optical Network Architecture & Engineering:

• Designs, engineers, and maintains MDREN's statewide WAN, including backbone, regional aggregation, and partner interconnects.
• Leads architecture and deployment of dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical transport systems, including wavelength services, reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexer (ROADM) configurations, and optical path engineering.
• Integrates and operates optical/IP convergence architectures, leveraging router-based DWDM optics where applicable.
• Engineers and supports high-capacity backbone upgrades (100G/400G and beyond).
• Collaborates with member institutions and partner research and education networks (RENs) on interconnection design and capacity planning.

Member Engagement and Network Services Support:

• Supports and contributes to MDREN's web presence by maintaining accurate, up-to-date technical content related to network services, infrastructure status, and member resources.
• Collaborates with MDREN leadership and administrative staff to ensure the website reflects current services, network architecture, and strategic initiatives.
• Provides technical oversight for website content related to network operations, including service documentation, outage notifications, and performance information.
• Assists in the administration and continuous improvement of the MDREN website, including recommending enhancements to structure, usability, and future design to better support member institutions and stakeholders.
• Provides technical support and guidance to MDREN member institutions to ensure effective use of network services.
• Serves as a primary technical resource for member institutions on network services and connectivity.
• Troubleshoots and resolves member-reported network issues.
• Communicates network changes, outages, and upgrades to affected members.
• Supports onboarding of new member connections and services.

Research, Innovation, and Continuous Improvement:

• Identifies and evaluates emerging technologies and best practices to enhance network capabilities.
• Researches new technologies, tools, and methodologies relevant to enterprise and research network environments.