Senior Network Engineer

Nationwide IT Services (NIS) is seeking a Senior Network Engineer to provide engineering, operational, optimization, and advisory support for the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) Cisco-based enterprise network. This role serves as a senior technical authority responsible for maintaining and enhancing network infrastructure across core, distribution, access, and edge environments while supporting Zero Trust initiatives, incident response, security compliance, and network modernization efforts. The successful candidate will operate with minimal supervision and lead the resolution of complex network issues escalated from the service desk., * Design, implement, and support enterprise network infrastructure across core, distribution, access, and edge layers.

• Manage and optimize routing, switching, VLANs, enterprise DNS, DHCP, VPNs, and related network services.
• Lead Zero Trust network initiatives, including segmentation, micro-segmentation, least-privilege access, identity-aware controls, and 802.1X deployments.
• Ensure compliance with NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-207, and Cisco security hardening standards.
• Perform continuous monitoring, vulnerability management, and network security assessments.
• Support incident response activities, including containment, forensic analysis, root cause investigations, and remediation efforts.
• Administer perimeter and public-facing security controls, including firewalls, ingress/egress filtering, and MFA-protected administrative access.
• Develop and maintain network documentation, architecture diagrams, SOPs, configuration baselines, and change-management records.
• Conduct security-impact assessments for proposed network changes and enhancements.
• Serve as a senior technical advisor and collaborate with cloud, Microsoft, cybersecurity, and infrastructure teams.
• Support audits, compliance reviews, and security assessments.

• 8+ years of progressive enterprise network engineering experience in Cisco environments.
• Extensive experience designing, implementing, and supporting enterprise network architectures.
• Strong knowledge of routing, switching, VLANs, DNS, DHCP, VPNs, and network security technologies.
• Hands-on experience with Zero Trust networking principles and technologies.
• Experience supporting incident response, security investigations, and remediation activities.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical initiatives and resolve complex network issues independently.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field; equivalent experience may be substituted.

Certifications

• Cisco CCNP Enterprise required/preferred; CCIE strongly preferred.
• Security-focused certification, such as Security+ or Cisco Security certification, preferred.
• Current certifications maintained and in good standing.

Technical Skills

• Cisco routers, switches, and firewalls
• Cisco ISE and 802.1X / Network Access Control (NAC)
• Cisco TrustSec, SD-Access, or VLAN/ACL-based segmentation
• VPN technologies
• Enterprise DNS and DHCP
• SIEM and Network Detection & Response (NDR) integrations
• Cisco security hardening and configuration baselines
• Configuration, change, and release management processes