Strategic Engineer

Strategic Engineer

This role supports our Navy customer in Patuxent River, MD.

Job Description and Responsibilities:

Serve as the senior technical advisor guiding the evolution of the RDT&E Network Enclave and DREN, leveraging historical knowledge to inform current decisions and leading preparations for upcoming modernization efforts, including SDA migration and Zero Trust implementation across participating labs.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic Technical Guidance

• Advise leadership on architecture, policy, and implementation decisions affecting the RDT&E Network Enclave and DREN.
• Provide historical context on network design, performance, security posture, and prior modernization efforts to ensure continuity of mission and avoidance of repeat issues.
• Translate strategic directives and policy changes into actionable technical guidance for program managers, engineers, and lab leads
• Maintain subject-matter expertise on the current RDT&E and DREN architectures, services, security controls, and interconnections.
• Assess impacts of proposed changes (e.g., new security requirements, tool deployments, or routing changes) on lab operations and mission systems.

RDT&E & DREN Network Expertise

• Identify technical and operational risk areas, recommend mitigations, and support development of COAs and implementation plans. SDA Migration (e.g., Class SDA)
• Lead technical planning and advisory support for class SDA migrations impacting RDT&E and DREN-connected labs. Zero Trust Transition Support
• Serve as the primary technical advisor on applying Zero Trust principles to the RDT&E and DREN environment, aligned with DoD/IC and enterprise ZT strategies.
• Interpret Zero Trust requirements for lab environments (identity, device, network, application, data, and visibility/analytics) and translate them into specific lab actions.
• Identify required changes in access control, segmentation, authentication/authorization (e.g., ICAM), endpoint posture, and monitoring for labs to be compliant.
• Review lab architectures and designs for Zero Trust alignment, providing recommendations for phased adoption that minimize mission disruption.

Lab Engagement, Education, and Readiness

• Act as the primary technical liaison to RDT&E labs and tenants regarding network modernization activities.
• Develop and deliver briefings, workshops, and technical artifacts (guides, FAQs, reference architectures, checklists) explaining:
• SDA migration impacts and responsibilities
• Zero Trust expectations and required lab actions
• Timelines, dependencies, and resource considerations
• Conduct lab readiness assessments and gap analyses; provide tailored remediation recommendations and track closure of critical gaps ahead of modernization milestones.

Architecture & Design Review

• Participate in and/or chair technical review boards and design reviews related to RDT&E and DREN modernization projects.
• Evaluate proposed solutions for scalability, interoperability, security, and alignment with enterprise standards and Zero Trust architecture.
• Ensure lab and tenant designs integrate properly with the evolving RDT&E network core, security stacks, and enterprise services. Documentation & Knowledge Management
• Capture lessons learned from historical and ongoing RDT&E and DREN efforts and codify them into reusable patterns and standards.
• Maintain up-to-date technical documentation, decision logs, and reference materials that support continuity across personnel changes.
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of standard operating procedures, implementation guides, and configuration baselines relevant to labs.

Stakeholder Coordination & Communication

• Coordinate across program offices, cybersecurity authorities, network operations, lab leadership, and external partners to ensure coherent modernization plans.
• Provide clear, concise updates and recommendations to leadership on risks, issues, and decision points related to SDA migration and Zero Trust adoption.
• Facilitate alignment between enterprise mandates and lab operational realities, helping negotiate feasible timelines and technical solutions. Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Monitor industry and DoD trends in network modernization, Zero Trust, and RDT&E networking requirements.
• Proactively identify opportunities to improve performance, security, resilience, and manageability of the RDT&E and DREN networks.
• Recommend pilots, proofs-of-concept, and incremental enhancements that de-risk large-scale modernization initiatives.

Basic Requirements: Masters degree and 7 years professional experience relevant to the above-described role. Or, Bachelors degree and 12 or more years experience.

Education Requirements: Navy COOL 451 Sys Admin qualified.

Security Clearance: Top Secret / SCI (must be a US Citizen)

Telework and Travel: Onsite in Patuxent River, MD with situational telework.

Contract: This position is supporting an active, funded contract.

Perrygo Consulting Group, LLC is an Equal Opportunity Employer, for all individuals, including protected veterans and those with…