Sr IT Specialist I (Sr. Network Engineer)

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POSITION SUMMARY

The Senior Network Engineer (Sr. IT Specialist I, Grade 27) serves as the principal technical authority and subject matter expert (SME) for UCOR’s enterprise network infrastructure. Operating under minimal supervision, this senior leadership role is responsible for system-wide, cross-functional team management, network strategy, and the architectural design of complex Local Area Networks (LAN), Wide Area Networks (WAN), wireless environments (WLAN), cloud integrations, and secure network boundaries.

The individual acts as a primary technical advisor to senior leadership, leads high-visibility modernization projects, coordinates cross-discipline teams, and mentors junior IT and network engineering staff. Additionally, they ensure that all enterprise network infrastructures are highly secure, resilient, and fully compliant with Department of Energy (DOE) orders, NIST frameworks, and federal cybersecurity regulations.

LEVEL SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

• Technical Leadership & Team Management: Lead system-wide, cross-functional teams and serve as the technical authority for network engineering and IT infrastructure. Provide technical direction, guidance, and project management to team members.
• Mentorship & Career Development: Act as a dedicated mentor to less senior IT staff and network administrators, facilitating professional development, skill-building, and training within the IT discipline.
• Strategic Planning & Integration: Plan, coordinate, and manage the end-to-end implementation, upgrade, and integration of cutting-edge network technologies and software-defined architectures across the enterprise.
• System-Wide Investigation & Advisory: Conduct high-level investigations for strategy studies, requirements specifications, and feasibility analyses. Advise senior leadership and clients on network alternatives, assessing technical limitations against operational realities.
• Operations Escalation & Issue Resolution: Serve as the final escalation point for high-visibility operational network outages or performance degradation, coordinating rapid resolution, root-cause analysis, and preventative planning.
• Stakeholder Liaison & Process Analysis: Partner with senior business clients and Information Systems & Technology (IS&T) teams to analyze user requirements, evaluate complex workflows, and organize system improvements across infrastructure, data management, and processes.
• Automation, Tooling, & Evaluation: Evaluate, recommend, and coordinate the deployment of new network automation modules, monitoring frameworks, and automated testing tools. Assist in executing the project technical automation plan to streamline enterprise network provisioning.
• Meetings & Collaborative Workshops: Arrange, prepare, and lead technical workshops, architectural review boards, and presentations for both technical staff and executive stakeholders.
• Change Control & Governance: Lead project Change Control Board (CCB) activities for network and system infrastructures, ensuring all changes are rigorously evaluated for risk, impact, and strategic alignment.
• Quality Assurance & Compliance Oversight: Establish infrastructure testing requirements, develop robust network test strategies, and review system implementations to ensure strict compliance with Software Development Methodology Frameworks (SDMF), configuration management baselines, and quality assurance work plans.

JOB KNOWLEDGE & SKILLS

• Enterprise Architecture Expert: Master-level understanding of complex enterprise routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP), advanced switching (VLANs, VRFs, Spanning Tree), traffic engineering, Quality of Service (QoS), and SD-WAN architectures.
• Network Security & Edge Defense: Comprehensive expertise in designing and managing next-generation firewalls (NGFW), network segmentation strategies, Network Access Control (NAC) solutions, Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS), and secure remote access (VPN) architectures.
• Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure: Advanced knowledge of integrating enterprise physical networks with secure hybrid cloud environments (AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute) and managing virtual network appliances.
• Automation & Configuration as Code: Deep competency in network automation tools and scripting languages (e.g., Python, Ansible, Terraform) to manage, test, and deploy network configurations reliably at scale.
• Federal Compliance & Risk Management: Thorough knowledge of federal cybersecurity directives, configuration management standards, and security frameworks, including NIST SP 800-53, NIST SP 800-171, and DOE security orders.
• Project & Financial Management: Demonstrated ability to align large-scale technical projects with organizational budgets, resource constraints, and aggressive operational schedules.
• Strategic Communication: Excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills, with a proven ability to lead workshops, author high-level technical specifications, and communicate complex architectural decisions to diverse audiences.

QUALIFICATIONS & REQUIREMENTS

Education & Experience Requirements:

• Option 1: Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Network Engineering, or other relevant technical discipline and 15+ years of progressive, hands-on experience in IT and enterprise network engineering.
• Option 2: Associate’s degree or technical diploma/degree in Information Technology or relevant technical discipline and 19+ years of progressive, hands-on experience in IT and enterprise network engineering.
• Option 3: 23+ years of Enterprise-level IT experience in an administration, support, and/or oversight capacity.

Professional Certifications (Highly Preferred):

• Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) or Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Enterprise/Security.
• Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer (PCNSE) or equivalent advanced firewall/security certifications.
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) or equivalent senior security credential.

Clearance Requirements:

• Ability to obtain and maintain a Department of Energy (DOE) "L" or "Q" security clearance. (U.S. Citizenship is required for clearance eligibility).