Senior Lead Software Engineer - Network Infrastructure and Automation

Senior Lead Software Engineer – Network Infrastructure & Automation

Nightwing provides technically advanced full‑spectrum cyber, data operations, systems integration and intelligence mission support services to meet our customers’ most demanding challenges. Our capabilities include cyber space operations, cyber defense and resiliency, vulnerability research, ubiquitous technical surveillance, data intelligence, lifecycle mission enablement, and software modernization.

At Nightwing, we are on a mission to develop resilient and scalable network infrastructure systems that support critical missions. This onsite role is based at our National Business Park in Maryland.

This Senior Lead Software Engineer will create network infrastructure and automation systems that operate at scale, maintain reliability under demanding conditions, and incorporate advanced technical approaches. Projects may involve software‑defined datacenter networking, multi‑cloud orchestration, network automation frameworks, and real‑time infrastructure intelligence applications.

• Lead the development, implementation, and delivery of software‑defined networking (SDN) solutions, ensuring timelines, technical requirements, and network performance standards are met across highly resilient and scalable infrastructure.
• Design, develop, and implement network automation solutions and infrastructure management platforms using Python and modern web technologies to reduce manual intervention and improve operational efficiency.
• Develop and maintain network automation frameworks, APIs, and tooling that integrate with network devices, controllers, and monitoring systems, writing clean, maintainable infrastructure‑as‑code that adheres to coding standards.
• Integrate AI‑driven analytics and automation capabilities into network operations to augment performance monitoring, anomaly detection, and predictive maintenance workflows.
• Drive adoption and governance of approved AI‑assisted engineering practices across teams to improve code quality, delivery speed, and operational outcomes (e.g., AI‑assisted code review/refactoring, test acceleration, release readiness, incident/root‑cause analysis).
• Build and optimize containerized network applications (Kubernetes, Helm) and microservices architectures for network management and orchestration.
• Develop solutions for event‑driven network automation and large‑scale infrastructure workflows using modern protocols and APIs.
• Collaborate with network architects, security teams, product owners, and infrastructure engineers in an Agile environment, conducting code reviews and troubleshooting network applications to meet performance and reliability requirements.
• Mentor engineers on network automation and infrastructure‑as‑code principles while influencing technical direction by evaluating emerging SDN technologies and Dev Sec Ops  methodologies.
• Maintain adherence to agile development practices and modern Dev Sec Ops  workflows with a focus on security and reliability.

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of experience in network infrastructure development and Dev Ops networking engineering.
• Hands‑on practical experience delivering system design, application development, testing, and operational stability.
• Strong experience developing software with Python and Shell Scripting for network automation and infrastructure management.
• Deep understanding of networking protocols and technologies including BGP, VRF, MPLS, IP, TCP, and UDP as applied to datacenter and mission‑critical contexts.
• Experience with VMware NSX‑T or similar SDN platforms for software‑defined networking solutions including logical switching, routing, load balancing, distributed firewall, and micro‑segmentation.
• Proficiency in Linux‑based development environments and infrastructure automation.
• Strong experience with distributed systems and containerized applications using technologies such as Kubernetes, Podman, or Docker.
• Experience with CI/CD tools (Jenkins, Git Lab CI) for infrastructure automation pipelines and…