Network Engineer – Switch Management

Network Engineer – Switch Management

Requirements

• Minimum of 2 years of enterprise network engineering/administration experience, with a focus on switch management, to include but not limited to Cisco switches.
• Active Top Secret clearance (required).
• Legally authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for sponsorship.
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) or equivalent; must demonstrate strong working knowledge of Cisco hardware and software.
• Experience with VLAN configuration, trunking, QoS, access control, and switch hardening in enterprise or federal environments.
• Strong troubleshooting skills and attention to detail in high-availability environments.

Responsibilities

• Administer and maintain enterprise-level switches and networking gear in a hybrid data center/cloud environment.
• Design, configure, and optimize Layer 2 and Layer 3 network infrastructure, including VLANs, trunks, spanning-tree, and routing protocols.
• Implement network segmentation, QoS policies, and access control following Department of State (DoS) security standards and NIST hardening guidance.
• Collaborate with virtualization and converged infrastructure engineers to ensure seamless integration of network, compute, and storage systems.
• Lead the implementation and support of switching environments for both new deployments and ongoing operations and maintenance (O&M).
• Monitor and troubleshoot switching infrastructure, ensuring network resilience, minimal latency, and high availability across mission-critical environments.
• Participate in the integration of new network hardware and software—ensuring compatibility, compliance, and optimal performance.
• Maintain thorough documentation of switch configurations, network topologies, and standard operating procedures.
• Coordinate disaster recovery (DR) planning, including redundancy, failover, and backup connectivity strategies.
• Provide Tier 3 support, technical leadership, and mentorship for junior network staff.
• Develop and enforce network security policies and configuration baselines in accordance with Federal IT and Department of State guidelines.
• Design, architect, and implement virtual infrastructure (VI) environments using VMware technologies.
• Maintain all VMware virtual infrastructure environments, ensuring performance, availability, and system integrity.
• Manage all physical hardware hosting the virtual infrastructure, coordinating upgrades, maintenance, and troubleshooting.
• Monitor the availability and performance of enterprise VI systems, proactively addressing issues to ensure service continuity.
• Maintain and provide reliable VM backups and restoration capabilities to support business continuity and disaster recovery.
• Provide 24/7 Tier 3 support for virtual infrastructure issues on a rotating basis, including incident response and escalation.
• Assist customers in designing and implementing enterprise-grade solutions within virtualized environments.
• Participate in the design and architecture of overall data center network infrastructure, ensuring integration with virtualization platforms.
• Produce comprehensive architectural documentation for logical and physical virtual infrastructure components.
• Provision and manage customer virtual machines, providing ongoing support and lifecycle management.
• Work with vendors to implement secure, cost-effective government solutions that align with technical and regulatory requirements.
• Harden all virtual and physical infrastructure in accordance with Department of Defense (DoD) cybersecurity standards.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to develop and deliver tailored infrastructure solutions that support evolving mission needs.
• Work independently with minimal supervision, proactively identifying and addressing infrastructure issues and reporting findings to the team.
• Communicate clearly and effectively with management regarding technical issues, troubleshooting steps, and proposed resolutions.
• Develop and propose future infrastructure enhancements, contributing to long-term planning and modernization efforts.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting data center switch infrastructure within the Department of State or other federal agencies.
• Familiarity with advanced Cisco certifications (e.g., CCNP), and additional platforms like Nexus, Catalyst, or SDN technologies.
• Knowledge of Hyper Converged Infrastructure (e.g., Nutanix, VMware), virtual switching, and hybrid networking models.
• Working knowledge of network monitoring and logging tools (e.g., SolarWinds, Splunk, Wireshark).
• Comfortable in Agile and DevSecOps environments, collaborating closely across multidisciplinary engineering teams.