Lead Network Engineer

Position Summary
ERT is seeking a motivated individual to provide senior network engineering support for the National Weather Service's lifesaving Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS). Responsibilities include ensuring secure, reliable, and high-performance connectivity across hybrid environments (on-premises, cloud, and edge field sites). This role will lead the design of networking solutions to support data-intensive workloads, real-time weather ingest/processing, and mission-critical system availability. Key responsibilities include:

• Design and implement cloud and hybrid networking solutions to support a distributed, microservices-based architecture including EDGE device deployment.
• Develop secure, high-throughput connectivity for data ingest pipelines, storage services, and inter-service communication.
• Architect solutions leveraging cloud-native networking (e.g., AWS VPC, Transit Gateway, PrivateLink, Azure Virtual WAN, GCP VPC).
• Serve as the technical lead for network engineering across the program.
• Mentor and guide junior network engineers and site technicians.
• Collaborate with the Cloud Platform Architect, Security Engineers, and DevSecOps teams.
• Oversee configuration, deployment, and troubleshooting of networking components (firewalls, VPNs, routers, load balancers).
• Support migration of legacy connectivity models to zero-trust, cloud-native designs.
• Ensure compliance with network security standards (FIPS, NIST, FedRAMP, etc.).
• Monitor and optimize network performance for low-latency, high-volume weather data flows.
• Design resilient and fault-tolerant architectures (multi-region, failover, disaster recovery).
• Implement observability and monitoring solutions (CloudWatch, Azure Monitor, ELK, Prometheus/Grafana).
• Work with Agile teams to support feature and enabler delivery that depend on networking.
• Participate in PI Planning, system demos, and architecture syncs to ensure alignment.
• Manage networking-related dependencies across field sites, cloud environments, and data centers.
  

Required Skills

• 7+ years of experience in network engineering, with at least 3 years in a lead or senior-level role.
• Expertise in cloud networking (AWS, Azure, or GCP), hybrid cloud connectivity, and network security.
• Strong knowledge of routing, switching, load balancing, VPNs, firewalls, and DNS/DHCP.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code (IaC) for networking (Terraform, Ansible, or CloudFormation).
• Deep understanding of network security models (Zero Trust, micro-segmentation, TLS/mTLS, PKI).
• Ability to lead and mentor a distributed engineering team.
• Experience completing software/firmware upgrades for routers/switches/firewalls
• Must be a US Citizen or Permanent Resident and be able to pass a background investigation to obtain a security badge to enter the applicable government facility.
  

Desired

• Certifications: CCNP/CCIE, AWS Advanced Networking Specialty, Azure Network Engineer Associate, or equivalent.
• Experience supporting large-scale system modernization or cloud migration programs.
• Familiarity with real-time data ingestion systems, high-bandwidth applications, or mission-critical platforms.
• Background in federal or scientific systems (e.g., NOAA, NWS, NASA, DoD).
• Familiarity with DevSecOps pipelines and network automation tooling.
  

Education
BS in engineering, computer science, related discipline, or equivalent.

Location
This position supports work at NOAA's Silver Spring and College Park, MD facilities.

Compensation
The salary range for this role is $78,000 - 215,000/year. This range is a good faith estimate based on similar roles across the organization. ERT uses several factors when extending an offer, including but not limited to, the position's scope and expected duties, a candidate's work experience, education/training, and key skills.

Benefits
All full-time employees are eligible to participate in our flexible benefits package, which includes:

• Medical, Rx, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan with company-matching
• 11 Paid Federal Government Holidays
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Basic Life & Supplemental Life
• Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
• Employee assistance program (EAP)
• Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development & Learning Opportunities
• Skills Development & Certifications
• Professional Membership Reimbursement
• Employee Referral Program
• Competitive compensation plan
• Discretionary variable incentive bonuses based on factors such as individual performance, business unit performance, and/or the company's performance
• Publication and Conference Presentation Awards with bonuses

ERT is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor and Equal Opportunity employer - All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or protected Veteran status.