Network Architect SME

We are seeking a Subject Matter Expert (SME) Network Architect to join our team supporting a large-scale federal modernization program. This role owns enterprise and solution-level network architecture, designing secure, resilient network environments that support mission-critical systems and shared services across both cloud and on-premises boundaries, and driving the standards, target-state direction, and modernization roadmap that keep the network ready to scale.

This is a hands-on architecture role. You'll be expected to produce real technical designs and see them through implementation, not just set direction from a distance.

This is a hybrid role based out of Washington, DC. Candidates must be U.S. citizens.

Key Responsibilities

• 1. Network Architecture & Design
• Develop, review, and implement secure, resilient enterprise network architectures supporting mission systems and shared services.
• Produce and assess physical/logical diagrams, routing/segmentation, interfaces, connectivity, capacity, availability, and monitoring requirements.
• Design hybrid connectivity architecture spanning on-premises and cloud environments.
• 2. Standards & Target-State Direction
• Define and maintain network architecture standards, reference patterns, and technical decisions.
• Set target-state network direction and modernization roadmap, balancing scale, security, resilience, and performance.
• Align network architecture with enterprise architecture governance and repository requirements.
• 3. Technical Reviews & Governance
• Support technical reviews, architecture compliance reviews, phase gates, and implementation-readiness reviews.
• Evaluate proposed deviations and provide recommendations grounded in risk and architectural impact.
• 4. Gap Analysis & Modernization
• Analyze current-state network gaps, technical debt, lifecycle risk, single points of failure, and performance bottlenecks.
• Provide recommendations for modernization, standardization, and optimization, including cost/performance tradeoffs.
• 5. Cross-Domain Coordination
• Coordinate with cloud/platform, cybersecurity, identity, endpoint/mobility, applications, data, and ITSM teams, as well as external carriers and providers.
• Resolve complex cross-domain design conflicts under fixed milestones.
• 6. Documentation & Operational Handoff
• Maintain standards, reference patterns, technical decisions, configurations, risks, and dependencies in approved repositories.
• Support implementation, testing, migration, and stabilization, and troubleshoot complex cross-domain problems, communicating root cause, options, and corrective actions.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in network engineering, including significant architecture responsibility at enterprise scale.
• Strong fundamentals in TCP/IP, routing, switching, segmentation, DNS/DHCP/IPAM, load balancing, resiliency, performance, monitoring, and security.
• Demonstrated experience producing technical network designs and supporting implementation, testing, troubleshooting, and operational transition.
• Ability to work across cloud and on-premises boundaries and through formal security/architecture review processes.
• Strong documentation and communication skills, with experience presenting designs and tradeoffs to both engineers and leadership.
• U.S. Citizenship Required.
• Nice to Have
• Direct federal, government, or large distributed enterprise network experience.
• Relevant Cisco, Juniper, cloud networking, SD-WAN, wireless, security, or architecture certifications.
• Experience with network automation, infrastructure as code, software-defined networking, zero trust, SASE/SSE, and observability.
• Experience with enterprise architecture repositories and technology standards/roadmaps.