Senior Network Engineer - Routing & Switching

Job description

**Who we are.** Platinum Technologies is a Northern Virginia based integrated solutions firm that specializes in PaaS, Cybersecurity & AI Platform development for the Defense and Federal Sectors. Our team solves hard problems and helps our Mission Partners achieve their goals. If you are self-motivated, possess demonstrated learning agility, and are passionate about delivering high-quality work products – we want to hear from you. We lead with technical expertise, but that is just the tip of the iceberg – the ‘Why’ matters. At Platinum, we don’t hire people to just do a job. We provide professional and leadership development to complement our self-motivated domain experts. Our teammates are dot-connecting leaders that operate in a mutually accountable environment to deliver thought leadership, expert technical analysis, and quality execution for our clients. **You.** Platinum Technologies currently has an opportunity for a Senior Network Engineer specializing in routing and switching to engineer, implement, and sustain enterprise network infrastructure across a large, distributed environment. The role carries hands-on responsibility for the routed and switched core — designing changes, implementing them cleanly, and resolving the complex problems that reach the senior engineering tier. This position supports overall network engineering across a broad range of efforts, including planning, designing, and evaluating components of the network. Duties include developing specifications for routing and switching designs, evaluating and recommending technologies to enhance current capabilities, performing needs assessments, and performing installation, modification, testing, and servicing of network equipment. The successful candidate operates independently on complex engineering work, translates requirements into implementable designs, and serves as an escalation point for routing, switching, and transport issues that others cannot resolve. This role is onsite at **Fort Meade, MD.** **Candidates must hold an active Secret clearance.** **Scope and Impact** - Impact: Contributes to the completion of significant project milestones and recommends technical solutions and improvements that affect program results. Work is performed under general direction, with latitude for independent judgment on technical approach. - Complexity: Resolves complex technical problems requiring in-depth analysis, evaluation of multiple factors, and application of established engineering principles and best practices. - Communication: Communicates technical information, design recommendations, risks, and status to engineering leadership, peer teams, and stakeholders. Explains complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences. - Knowledge: Strong working knowledge of routing and switching principles, theories, and concepts, with demonstrated depth across enterprise network technologies. **Primary Responsibilities** Routing and Switching Engineering - Engineer, configure, and implement enterprise routing and switching infrastructure, including core, distribution, access, and WAN edge layers. - Design and implement routing policy using BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, and static routing, including route redistribution, filtering, summarization, path selection, and convergence tuning. - Engineer Layer 2 infrastructure, including VLAN architecture, spanning-tree design, link aggregation, trunking, and loop prevention. - Implement and maintain VRFs, MPLS/VPN services, tunneling, multicast, QoS policy, and high-availability designs such as HSRP/VRRP and redundant uplink topologies. - Develop specifications for network architecture, evaluate and recommend new technologies to enhance current capabilities, and perform needs assessments. - Perform installation, modification, configuration, testing, and servicing of network equipment, including hardware refresh and software/firmware lifecycle upgrades. - Baseline and optimize network performance — latency, throughput, utilization, convergence, and error rates — and remediate identified deficiencies. Implementation and Operations Support - Develop implementation plans, test and validation steps, rollback procedures, and change documentation for network changes, and execute them during approved change windows. - Provide senior-level troubleshooting and escalation support for complex routing, switching, transport, and connectivity issues spanning multiple layers and vendors. - Perform packet-level and protocol-level analysis to isolate faults across the network, systems, and application boundary. - Support capacity planning, configuration standardization, and compliance of device configurations against approved baselines and hardening requirements. - Partner with architecture, cybersecurity, operations, and project teams to resolve blockers, manage dependencies, and deliver network changes end-to-end. Documentation - Develop and maintain engineering and operational documentation, including: - Logical and physical network diagrams - Routing designs, policy standards, and addressing plans - Device configuration standards and baselines - Implementation, test, and rollback plans - Port, protocol, and services requirements - Troubleshooting guides and standard operating procedures - As-built and operational handoff documentation **Key Success Factors:** This role is for an engineer who is genuinely hands-on. The expectation is not oversight of someone else's configuration work but direct ownership of the design, the change, the validation, and the outcome. The successful engineer is the person others escalate to — comfortable reading a routing table and a packet capture under time pressure, and equally comfortable writing the implementation plan that keeps the change from becoming an incident. **Required Skills.** - Bachelor's degree and 8+ years of prior relevant experience, or Master's degree with 6+ years of experience. Specific experience, education, and training may be considered in lieu of a degree. - Significant hands-on experience engineering, implementing, and troubleshooting enterprise routing and switching infrastructure at scale. - Strong working knowledge of TCP/IP, subnetting, BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, VLANs, spanning tree, link aggregation, VRFs, multicast, QoS, NAT, and high-availability design. - Experience with network hardware installation, configuration, software upgrades, and lifecycle replacement. - Experience developing implementation plans, test procedures, and rollback plans, and executing changes in production environments during maintenance windows. - Demonstrated troubleshooting ability, including packet capture and protocol analysis, across multi-vendor environments. - Hands-on experience with one or more of the following: Cisco, Aruba, Palo Alto, Dell, Infoblox, and Brocade. - Experience documenting network designs and procedures using tools such as Visio, PowerPoint, or similar. - Strong written and verbal communication skills. - Current IAT Level II or higher certification, such as Security+ CE. - Active DoD Secret clearance. **Desired Qualifications** - Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Enterprise or equivalent certification. - Experience with enterprise network modernization, migration, or large-scale transformation and integration efforts. - Experience with software-defined networking, SD-WAN, or SD-Access (Cisco Catalyst Center / DNA Center) environments. - Experience with network segmentation, access control, and identity-based networking. - Experience integrating enterprise networking with cloud infrastructure, including hybrid connectivity and secure cloud routing. - Experience with network automation and scripting using Python, Ansible, or infrastructure-as-code approaches. - Experience applying DISA STIGs, vulnerability remediation, and configuration hardening to network devices. - Experience with Jira, Confluence, or similar project and knowledge-management tools. *The Company is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to disability, protected veteran status, race, color, religious creed, national origin, citizenship, marital status, sex, sexual orientation/gender identity, age, or genetic information.*