Principal Network & Systems Engineer (Cisco and Palo Alto)

Job DescriptionJob Description

Edgewater Federal Solutions is seeking a Principal Network & Systems Engineer to support the Department of Energy Operations Office in Idaho Falls, ID. This is both Cisco and Palo Alto; Cisco routers and switches with Palo Alto firewalls. This is onsite in Idaho Falls, ID and NO clearance is needed to start.

Qualifications:

• US citizenship is required.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, IS, Engineering, or equivalent experience.
• 7+ years in advanced network and systems engineering roles
• Expertise in routing, switching, systems, Palo Alto platforms and IPAM
• Experience with DOE directive and federal compliance.

Responsibilities:

Enterprise Network, Security, Wireless Architecture & Engineering

• Architect, design, implement, and maintain DOE‐ID’s enterprise network across core, distribution, edge, and data center layers, ensuring scalability, redundancy, and long-term alignment with organizational infrastructure strategy.
• Engineer and administer advanced routing and switching platforms, including EIGRP, OSPFv3, IPv6, VLAN segmentation, inter-VLAN routing, trunking, and high‐availability designs.
• Serve as the primary architect and administrator for Palo Alto Next‐ Firewalls (NGFW), including security policy architecture, URL filtering, threat prevention, SSL decryption, logging integrations, and zero‐trust access enforcement.
• Lead and maintain the enterprise remote‐access environment using Palo Alto GlobalProtect, including authentication integration, device posture checks, and certificate‐based access controls.
• Design and implement zero‐trust networking principles across critical systems, integrating firewall segmentation, ‐based access controls, and continuous trust verification.
• Administer and optimize Cisco wireless systems, including controller‐based WLANs, SSID and authentication design, RF tuning, security policy enforcement, and enterprise guest wireless.
• Oversee enterprise monitoring and network health using system dashboards, telemetry, trending, packet‐level diagnostics, and event correlation to ensure performance, reliability, and immediate visibility of issues.
• Lead modernization initiatives for network, wireless, and firewall architectures, including equipment refreshes, policy redesign, IPv6 rollout, and backbone upgrades.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for complex network, wireless, and firewall issues requiring senior‐level architectural analysis.

Network Team Lead & Work Direction

• Serve as the Network Team Lead, providing daily technical direction, prioritization, and task assignment for junior and mid‐level network engineers. 1
• Mentor team members in advanced networking, routing, firewall policy design, troubleshooting methodology, and enterprise architecture principles.
• Oversee quality assurance for network changes, configurations, and architecture designs to ensure compliance with DOE standards and best practices.
• Act as primary escalation point for complex networking issues requiring senior‐level expertise.
• Coordinate work distribution, project responsibilities, and technical execution across the network engineering team.
• Provide training and hands‐on guidance to new engineers, including platform-specific instruction (Cisco, Palo Alto, Infoblox, ISE, etc.).
• Collaborate with cross-functional and inter‐agency teams to align network engineering activities with enterprise architecture goals.

, Access, and Authentication Systems

• Serve as primary administrator for Cisco Services Engine (ISE) including RADIUS, TACACS, 802.1X, guest wireless, and certificate-based enforcement.

DNS, DHCP, and IP Address Management Architecture

• Serve as primary administrator for Infoblox DDI (DNS, DHCP, IPAM).
• Maintain and maintain NIOS grid configurations including grid member health, grid services, licenses, and failover/HA strategies.
• Configure and maintain DNS authoritative and recursive services including zone management, forwarders, delegations, DNSEEC -related requirements, and RPZ policies.
• Engineer and maintain DNCP Scopes, DHCPv4/v6 pools, reservations, failover configuration, split scopes and address management policy supporting both IPv4 and IPv6 architectures.
• Manage the enterprise IP Address Management platform, ensuring effect subnet design, hierarchy, and usage tracking.

Data Center Architecture and Infrastructure Engineering

• Serve as Data Center Architect and Engineer for rack design, cabling, hardware installations, power and cooling considerations.

Cybersecurity, Compliance & Incident Response

• Perform cyber incident response, investigations and reporting.
• Ensure compliance with DOE Orders, DOE-Idaho Policy and enterprise best-practices.

System Administration

• Management and maintain network support servers and systems including Delinea Secret Server, F5 Load balancers Cerberus SFTP, Syslog servers, Nessus Agents, Tenable Vulnerability Management

Company DescriptionEdgewater Federal Solutions is a privately held government contracting firm located in Frederick, MD. The company was founded in 2002 with the vision of being highly recognized and admired for supporting customer missions through employee empowerment, exceptional services and timely delivery. Edgewater Federal Solutions is ISO 9001, 20000-1, 270001 certified, appraised at CMMI Level 3 Maturity for Development and Services, and has been named in the Top Workplaces in the Greater Washington Area Small Companies for 2018 through 2025.

It has been and continues to be the policy of Edgewater Federal Solutions to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, , , , , , , , marital status, veteran status, and/or other statuses protected by applicable law.Company DescriptionEdgewater Federal Solutions is a privately held government contracting firm located in Frederick, MD. The company was founded in 2002 with the vision of being highly recognized and admired for supporting customer missions through employee empowerment, exceptional services and timely delivery. Edgewater Federal Solutions is ISO 9001, 20000-1, 270001 certified, appraised at CMMI Level 3 Maturity for Development and Services, and has been named in the Top Workplaces in the Greater Washington Area Small Companies for 2018 through 2025. \r\n \r\nIt has been and continues to be the policy of Edgewater Federal Solutions to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, , , , , , , , marital status, veteran status, and/or other statuses protected by applicable law.