Principal Network Access Control (NAC) Engineer

Location: Fort Meade, MD

Schedule: (FT/PT): Full Time

Travel Required:

Shift:

Potential for Telework: Yes, Hybrid

Required: Secret Security Clearance and U.S. Citizenship

Job Description

Our customer, Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA), requires personnel to support the Defense Enclave Services (DES) contract. The DES team is responsible for developing and deploying operational capabilities into an integrated and modernized enterprise environment. Become a member of the team supporting an extensive modernization program critical to DISA and Fourth Estate Agencies. Fourth Estate entities include organizations within the DoD that are not in the military departments, IC agencies, or combatant commands. The DES contract unifies the DOD Fourth Estate Defense Agencies and Field Activities (DAFA) common-use information technology systems, personnel, functions, and program elements under the direction of DISA’s Fourth Estate Network Optimization program office.

Our client is seeking a Principal Network Engineer specializing in enterprise wireless infrastructure to design, implement, and modernize a large-scale, geographically distributed wireless network environment. The successful candidate will serve as a senior technical engineer responsible for migrating Aruba wireless controllers to a centralized cloud-hosted environment, implementing Aruba Central, improving wireless network resiliency, and standardizing wireless security and access-control capabilities.

This position requires extensive experience with Aruba wireless technologies, enterprise networking, wireless security, high availability, and network access control. The engineer will collaborate with cloud, network, cybersecurity, identity management, and monitoring teams to deliver reliable, scalable, and secure wireless infrastructure.

The engineer will support architecture, implementation, integration, testing, migration, documentation, and transition to operations while providing technical direction to other engineering personnel.

Primary Responsibilities

Wireless Architecture and Controller Migration

• Design, engineer, and implement the migration of existing Aruba wireless controllers to a centralized cloud-hosted infrastructure.
• Deploy and configure Aruba Central for centralized wireless management, configuration standardization, monitoring, and operational visibility.
• Develop controller migration strategies, implementation procedures, validation plans, and rollback processes.
• Standardize NTP configurations across wireless controllers, access points, and supporting network infrastructure.
• Evaluate and establish wireless deployment standards, including bridge versus tunnel mode and campus versus remote architectures.
• Develop standardized configurations and deployment playbooks for geographically distributed sites.
• Coordinate cloud infrastructure integration, including connectivity, routing, security requirements, and availability.

Wireless High Availability and Network Resiliency

• Design and implement Layer 2 and Layer 3 redundancy to improve wireless availability and service continuity.
• Configure and validate controller failover, preemption, and recovery to preferred controllers following service restoration.
• Implement and troubleshoot VRRP, virtual IP addressing, and controller high-availability configurations.
• Evaluate and optimize DHCP, GRE tunnels, routing, and wireless traffic forwarding across centralized and distributed environments.
• Develop and execute failover and recovery testing to validate wireless resiliency.
• Troubleshoot complex controller, routing, and wireless connectivity issues.

Wireless Security and Network Access Control

• Design and implement enterprise wireless security standards, including WPA3, Wireless Intrusion Detection Systems (WIDS), and identity-based access controls.
• Configure wireless security policies through Aruba Central and validate deployment to controllers and access points.
• Evaluate hardware compatibility and develop migration strategies for WPA3 adoption, including transition-mode considerations.
• Standardize wireless configurations, including 5 GHz operation, authentication, and security settings.
• Integrate wireless infrastructure with Cisco ISE, Aruba ClearPass, and enterprise identity services.
• Configure and troubleshoot 802.1X, RADIUS, EAP-TLS, certificate-based authentication, and wireless access policies.
• Coordinate identity-based policy integration with Microsoft Entra ID, VPN infrastructure, and firewall enforcement.

Monitoring and Enterprise Integration

• Integrate Aruba Central with ScienceLogic SL1 to support wireless monitoring, alerting, device discovery, and performance visibility.
• Coordinate with monitoring engineers to establish required APIs, monitoring policies, and operational dashboards.
• Validate controller status, access point availability, authentication health, and wireless performance monitoring.
• Support integration with enterprise DNS, DHCP, NTP, routing, and security infrastructure.
• Identify opportunities to automate wireless configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting.

Guest Wireless and Security Integration

• Develop secure guest wireless architecture, including network segmentation and Internet connectivity options.
• Evaluate guest authentication methods, including temporary credentials, PPSK, and IPSK.
• Support guest wireless security requirements, implementation planning, and authorization documentation.
• Coordinate technical security assessments, configuration validation, and required infrastructure approvals.
• Technical Leadership and Implementation
• Serve as a senior technical subject matter expert for Aruba wireless infrastructure and centralized wireless management.
• Provide technical direction, mentoring, and engineering guidance to network engineering personnel.
• Lead technical design reviews, implementation planning, integration testing, and troubleshooting activities.
• Identify technical risks, dependencies, and operational impacts associated with wireless modernization.
• Establish repeatable engineering standards and implementation procedures for deployment teams.
• Support production migration, validation, and transition to operations.

Documentation Responsibilities

Develop and maintain engineering and operational documentation, including:

• Wireless architecture and cloud integration diagrams.
• Aruba Central and controller configuration standards.
• Controller migration and implementation procedures.
• Layer 2/Layer 3 redundancy, VRRP, and failover designs.
• Wireless security and WPA3 implementation standards.
• NAC integration and authentication policy documentation.
• Network connectivity, routing, and data-flow diagrams.
• ScienceLogic SL1 monitoring integration requirements.
• Guest wireless architecture and security documentation.
• Test plans, validation procedures, and rollback documentation.
• Standard operating procedures and migration playbooks.
• As-built and operations transition documentation.

Key Success Factors

The ideal candidate is not simply a wireless controller administrator. This position requires an engineer capable of modernizing enterprise wireless infrastructure, integrating centralized management platforms, improving network resiliency, and implementing secure wireless access across distributed environments.

The successful engineer must understand how wireless controllers, Aruba Central, routing, authentication, cloud infrastructure, and enterprise monitoring work together to deliver reliable wireless connectivity.

The position requires strong technical leadership, advanced troubleshooting capabilities, and the ability to develop standardized implementation procedures that enable successful migrations and long-term operational support.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 12+ years of relevant experience, or Master's degree with 10+ years of relevant experience. Additional relevant experience, education, or training may be considered in lieu of a degree.

• IAT Level II Certified

• Significant hands-on experience engineering, implementing, and supporting enterprise Aruba wireless infrastructure, including controllers, access points, and centralized management platforms.

• Experience with Aruba Central, including configuration management, controller integration, and enterprise wireless deployments.

• Strong knowledge of enterprise wireless networking, including 802.11 standards, RF fundamentals, WLAN architecture, VLANs, routing, and switching.

• Experience implementing and troubleshooting wireless controller redundancy, high availability, failover, and network resiliency.

• Experience with wireless security and authentication, including WPA2/WPA3, 802.1X, RADIUS, and enterprise NAC platforms.

• Experience integrating wireless infrastructure with enterprise networking services, including DNS, DHCP, NTP, routing, and monitoring platforms.

• Experience developing and executing engineering designs, implementation plans, migration procedures, test plans, and production deployments.

• Strong troubleshooting and analytical skills with the ability to resolve complex wireless connectivity, authentication, and network performance issues.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience providing technical guidance and developing engineering documentation.

• Clearance Requirements

• U.S. citizenship required.

• Active Secret clearance required.

• Must meet applicable cybersecurity workforce qualification requirements for the assigned position.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience migrating Aruba wireless controllers to cloud-hosted or centrally managed environments.

• Experience with Aruba Central On-Premises or cloud-managed Aruba deployments.

• Experience implementing VRRP, controller preemption, and Layer 2/Layer 3 failover architectures.

• Experience with bridge-mode, tunnel-mode, campus, and remote wireless architectures.

• Experience integrating Cisco ISE and Aruba ClearPass with enterprise wireless infrastructure.

• Experience integrating wireless authentication with Microsoft Entra ID, Active Directory, and PKI.

• Experience implementing WPA3, WIDS/WIPS, PPSK/IPSK, and wireless security standards.

• Experience integrating Aruba Central with ScienceLogic SL1 or comparable monitoring platforms.

• Experience designing secure guest wireless networks with isolated Internet connectivity.

• Experience with wireless RF optimization, 5 GHz deployments, and high-density environments.

• Experience with Python, REST APIs, Ansible, or similar network automation technologies.

• Experience supporting security authorization activities, configuration hardening, and compliance assessments.

• Experience supporting geographically distributed enterprise networks.

• Relevant certifications may include:

• Aruba Certified Mobility Professional (ACMP) or equivalent.

• Aruba Certified Design Professional (ACDP) or equivalent.

• Aruba Certified Mobility Expert (ACMX) or equivalent.

• Cisco CCNP Enterprise.

• CISSP

Additional Qualifications

• Certification in one or more of the following: IAT Level II - CASP+ CE, IAT Level II - CCNA-Security, IAT Level II - CCNP Security, IAT Level II - CCSP, IAT Level II - CISA, IAT Level II - CISSP (or Associate), IAT Level II - CND, IAT Level II - CySA+, IAT Level II - GCED, IAT Level II - GCIH, IAT Level II - GICSP, IAT Level II - GSEC, IAT Level II - Security+ CE, IAT Level II – SSCP

PW Communications is a woman-owned, military-friendly firm that specializes in DoD contract support and proposal/document preparation for Federal contractors. For over 20 years, we have served as the premiere source in providing solutions to complex problems that face our clients daily. PW Communications’ staff is renowned as leaders in consultancy, and that is exactly why our clients trust us as THE source in handling mission essential needs.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, ethnicity, age, national origin, citizenship, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy, family structure, marital status, ancestry, domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran or military status, or any other basis prohibited by law.