Network Engineer (Secret Clearance)

Zachary Piper Solutions is seeking a Network Engineer to support a long-term Department of Defense program focused on enterprise network security, firewall engineering, and secure network infrastructure. This position is 100% onsite in Norfolk, VA or Pearl Harbor, HI and supports a large-scale U.S. Navy enterprise network environment. The Network Engineer will support the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet (NMCI), providing Tier III engineering expertise across enterprise firewalls, VPNs, DMZ environments, and network security appliances. This role is heavily focused on designing, configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting enterprise network security infrastructure while supporting mission-critical network operations, security, and modernization initiatives.

Responsibilities of the Network Engineer:

• Design, implement, configure, and maintain enterprise firewall, VPN, and DMZ infrastructure supporting Navy and DoD network environments
• Engineer and troubleshoot enterprise-grade Juniper firewalls, VPN solutions, DMZ environments, and Cisco network security appliances
• Perform highly technical network modifications, integrations, upgrades, maintenance, and security enhancements across enterprise network infrastructure
• Provide Tier III engineering support and technical escalation for complex network security, firewall, VPN, and connectivity issues
• Collaborate with Network Operations Center (NOC), network administrators, and engineering teams to support incident response, problem management, and operational network security
• Develop, maintain, and validate Engineering Implementation Plans (EIPs), network configuration changes, maintenance procedures, and implementation documentation
• Plan and execute network upgrades, maintenance activities, and security enhancements in coordination with operations, release management, and engineering stakeholders
• Participate in incident management, root cause analysis (RCA), problem resolution, and vendor escalation activities
• Support continuous service improvement initiatives, network performance tuning, and infrastructure optimization
• Develop and maintain network security standard operating procedures (SOPs), technical tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), and engineering best practices
• Identify opportunities for network automation and validate automated configuration, deployment, and maintenance solutions
• Apply defense-in-depth principles, network security controls, and enterprise security architecture standards to protect mission-critical infrastructure
• Support on-call incident response and off-hours maintenance activities to maintain operational availability and mission readiness

Qualifications of the Network Engineer:

• Bachelor's degree and 8-12 years of relevant experience; additional work experience may be substituted for education at the Hiring Manager's discretion
• U.S. Citizen with an active DoD Secret security clearance
• Active DoD 8570.01 IAT Level III certification, such as CISSP, CASP+, or CCNP Security
• Active associate-level network vendor certification from Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto, or F5 Networks
• Extensive hands-on experience engineering, configuring, maintaining, and troubleshooting enterprise firewalls, VPNs, and DMZ infrastructure
• Strong experience with Juniper firewall appliances and enterprise Cisco network/security appliances
• Extensive network engineering experience across routing, switching, MPLS, VPNs, BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, VLANs, Spanning Tree, LLDP, VoIP, and multicast
• Strong understanding of IP addressing, subnetting, network architecture, modern network topologies, and enterprise network security
• Experience providing Tier III network engineering support, NOC escalation, incident response, vendor coordination, and root cause analysis
• Experience supporting enterprise network upgrades, configuration changes, maintenance activities, and engineering implementation planning
• Strong understanding of defense-in-depth principles, network security controls, and network appliance integrity
• Experience with network automation and Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), including Ansible and Python
• Ability to support off-hours maintenance, mission-critical incident response, and an on-call rotation

Compensation for the Network Engineer includes:

• Compensation: $100,000-$110,000 depending on experience
• Benefits: Medical, Dental, Vision, 401(k) Plan, Holidays, PTO, and sick leave as required by law

Keywords: Senior VPN/Firewall Network Engineer, Firewall Engineer, VPN Engineer, Network Security Engineer, Network Security Architect, Juniper SRX, Juniper Firewall, Cisco ASA, Cisco Firepower, Palo Alto Firewall, F5, Enterprise Firewall, VPN, DMZ, Network Security, Network Engineering, Tier III, Tier 3, NOC, Incident Management, Problem Management, Root Cause Analysis, RCA, Engineering Implementation Plan, EIP, Network Operations, NMCI, NGEN, DoD, Navy, Cisco, Juniper, Palo Alto, MPLS, BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, VLAN, Spanning Tree, LLDP, VoIP, Multicast, IP Addressing, Subnetting, Defense-in-Depth, Network Architecture, Network Automation, Ansible, Python, Infrastructure-as-Code, IaC, CISSP, CASP+, CCNP Security, CCNA, JNCIA, Security+, IAT Level III, IAT III, DoD 8570, Active Secret Clearance, DoD Secret, Secret Clearance, Security Clearance, U.S. Citizen

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