Network Engineer - CBO

Location Washington, DC — hybrid; on-site as required by task assignment
Employment Type Full-time — contingent upon contract award
Salary Range $92,000 – $110,000
Clearance / Suitability Public Trust (Tier
2); U.S. citizenship or permanent residence required

The Network Engineer provides secure engineering and operational support for a U.S. legislative branch agency's Cisco-based enterprise network. The role designs, implements, and sustains secure network architectures that enforce Zero Trust principles — segmentation, micro-segmentation, and least-privilege access — while hardening and continuously monitoring switches, routers, and perimeter systems in accordance with federal cybersecurity standards (NIST SP 800-53 and NIST SP 800-207) and Cisco best practices.

• Operate, optimize, and troubleshoot the Cisco core, distribution, access, and edge network infrastructure to ensure reliability, performance, and availability.
• Configure and manage routing, switching, VLANs, DNS, DHCP, and VPN services with secure, standards-aligned configurations.
• Implement and maintain network security controls aligned with NIST SP 800-53 (AC, CM, SC, AU control families).
• Enforce Zero Trust architecture per NIST SP 800-207, including network segmentation, micro-segmentation, and continuous verification of users and devices.
• Deploy and manage 802.1X port-based network access control (NAC) and least-privilege, identity-aware access across all network layers.
• Harden network devices to secure configuration baselines (e.g., Cisco Secure Configuration Guides); secure perimeter and public-facing assets through ingress/egress filtering, firewall rule optimization, and MFA for administrative access.
• Configure centralized logging and forward logs to the enterprise SIEM; support continuous, real-time (24/7) monitoring and alerting.
• Conduct continuous monitoring and vulnerability assessments aligned with the NIST Risk Management Framework (RMF); coordinate patching, firmware updates, and remediation.
• Support incident response with network-level analysis, containment actions, and forensic data collection.
• Perform root cause analysis (RCA) for network incidents; develop and maintain network diagrams, configuration baselines, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
• Serve as technical adviser on complex service-desk tickets, collaborating with cloud, Microsoft engineering, and cybersecurity teams.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field (equivalent experience considered).
• Minimum 8 years of hands-on enterprise network engineering experience in Cisco environments.
• Demonstrated expertise in routing and switching, VLANs, DNS/DHCP, VPNs, and 802.1X network access control.
• Working knowledge of NIST SP 800-53 controls and NIST SP 800-207 Zero Trust Architecture.
• Active Cisco certification (CCNP or CCNA) or equivalent demonstrable expertise.
• S. citizenship or permanent residence status; ability to obtain a Public Trust (Tier
  2) determination.

• CCNP Enterprise or CCNP Security;
  CompTIA Security+ (DoD 8140/8570 IAT Level II).
• Experience with Cisco ISE, Trust Sec/MACsec, and Catalyst 9300 Stack Wise environments.
• Experience with next-generation firewalls (Check Point or Palo Alto) and secure web gateways (e.g., iBoss).
• Familiarity with SIEM (Microsoft Sentinel or Splunk) and network monitoring tools (Solar Winds, Thousand Eyes).
• Prior experience supporting federal or Congressional / legislative branch environments.

U.S. citizenship or permanent residence status is required. The selected candidate must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust (Tier
2) suitability determination…