Senior Network Engineer

MITRE Senior Network Engineer

Why choose between doing meaningful work and having a fulfilling life? At MITRE, you can have both. That's because MITRE people are committed to tackling our nation's toughest challenges—and we're committed to the long-term well-being of our employees. MITRE is different from most technology companies. We are a not-for-profit corporation chartered to work for the public interest, with no commercial conflicts to influence what we do. The R&D centers we operate for the government create lasting impact in fields as diverse as cybersecurity, healthcare, aviation, defense, and enterprise transformation. We're making a difference every day—working for a safer, healthier, and more secure nation and world. Our workplace reflects our values. We offer competitive benefits, exceptional professional development opportunities for career growth, and a culture of innovation that embraces adaptability, collaboration, technical excellence, and people in partnership. If this sounds like the choice you want to make, then choose MITRE - and make a difference with us.

Department Summary

The L616 – Enterprise and Tactical Networking Department within MITRE Technology and Engineering specializes in complex network challenges vital to national well-being. Our work involves researching, developing, and applying advanced technologies in core areas such as:

• Network architecture and design
• Software-defined / Virtual networks (SDN/NFV)
• Network reliability, resilience, mission security and assurance, network data analytics
• E2E network MS&A, T&E, AFSIM
• Embedded networks (IoT, ICS, SCADA)
• Tactical and threat-informed networking

By integrating deep technical expertise across these networking domains, we provide our federal sponsors with comprehensive solutions that enable their mission outcomes.

Roles & Responsibilities

MITRE's Enterprise and Tactical Networking department is seeking talented Senior Network Engineers to join our team and leverage expertise in enterprise networking, network security, automation, and infrastructure architecture to address complex technical challenges for a wide range of sponsor organizations. Candidates will contribute to:

• Network Design: Defining validated designs for networks with details required for implementation
• Software-Defined / Virtual Networks: Configuring, deploying, testing and validating the latest technologies in software-defined and virtualized networks as well as "traditional" networking
• Mission Security and Assurance: Conducting cybersecurity risk assessments of proposed and existing designs to evaluate security posture, identify threats and vulnerabilities, and recommend mitigation strategies
• Network Data Analytics: Designing, implementing, and enhancing network monitoring and data collection capabilities to provide visibility into performance, availability and operational health
• Network Modeling, Simulation and Analysis: Developing and applying network modeling, simulation, emulation, and test methodologies to validate design assumptions, analyze traffic patterns, assess resiliency, and predict performance and scalability outcomes
• Tactical and Thread-Informed Networking: Developing solutions for coupling non-traditional, external threat feeds into traditional network routing parameters (i.e., bandwidth, delay, throughput) to better influence communications paths in challenging network environments

MITRE Senior Network Engineers contribute to the design, implementation, testing, validation, and modernization of secure, resilient, and scalable network environments spanning LAN/WAN, data center, and tactical operations use cases. The role requires strong collaboration, technical rigor, and the ability to translate mission needs into practical engineering solutions.

Basic Qualifications

• Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 3 years and a Master's degree; or a PhD with relevant experience who can immediately contribute at this job step; or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• Ability to obtain a DoD Secret security clearance.
• Per the U.S. Government's eligibility requirements, you must be a U.S Citizen to be considered for a security clearance.
• This position requires a minimum of 4 days a week on-site.
• The candidate will engage in hands-on, mission-driven work. Responsibilities span the full solution lifecycle - from design and prototyping through testing, implementation, and monitoring - across various networking use cases and solutions. The candidate is expected to have some experience in the following
• Network Design: Defining designs that enable secure, scalable, resilient, and supportable solutions, including target-state designs, operational processes, and implementation artifacts.
• Software-Defined / Virtual Networks: Some areas of software-defined and virtualized networks, as well as "traditional" networking protocols and concepts, such as the following: IPv4/IPv6, Interior gateway routing protocols (e.g., OSPF), SD-WAN, Docker Swarm / Kubernetes, Network segmentation.
• Mission Security and Assurance: Conducting and providing risk assessments, threat and vulnerability identification, and mitigation strategy recommendations.
• Network Data Analytics: Monitoring, troubleshooting and managing networks using protocols such as SNMP and / or Syslog, NetFlow/IPFIX, APIs and dashboards.
• Technical Reporting and Communications: Clearly communicate technical findings, methodologies, and project outcomes through written reports, briefings, and demonstrations.
• Knowledge Sharing: Actively participate in internal MITRE technical exchange events focused on emerging trends in networking and service management.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Data Science related discipline, or equivalent combination of related education and work experience.
• Associate level networking certification(s) such as a CCNA or JNCIA.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• Strong communication, presentation, and writing skills
• The ability to thrive in collaborative and working relationships with people of different backgrounds.
• Knowledge of, or hands-on experience in:
• Network Services: Recent hands-on experience configuring core network services (i.e., DHCP, DNS, NTP) and multiple routing protocols (i.e., OSPF, BGP).
• Virtualization and Continuous Integration: Experience with DevOps paradigms supported by virtualization, containerization, cloud and serverless architectures
• Software Development and Automation : Experience using languages like Go, C++, Python, and JavaScript. Strong proficiency in scripting and automation using tools and frameworks like Ansible, Terraform, PowerShell, and Bash. Experience with version control systems, particularly Git, for source code management, collaboration, and CI/CD workflow integration.
• Network Data Analytics & Monitoring: Experience collecting, process, and analyze large-scale network data (e.g., logs, flows, telemetry, SNMP, etc.) using tools such as Splunk, Elasticsearch, and Wireshark. Develop dashboards and visualizations to monitor network performance, capacity, and anomalies using Grafana, Kibana, and Microsoft Power BI. Implement data pipelines for real-time and batch network analytics using Apache Kafka, Apache Spark, Logstash, and Apache NiFi.
• Embedded Networks: Experience with Internet of Things (IoT), Industrial Control Systems (ICS), and / or Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, including protocols and regulatory compliance frameworks such as: Modbus, DNP3, OPC, BACnet, NERC CIP, IEC 62443, NIST SP 800-82.
• Tactical and Thread-Informed Networking: Experience integrating distributed and centralized network control algorithms and / or integrating external inputs to "traditional" network path decision logic to facilitate non-standard (i.e., not "shortest path first") routing.
• Network Modeling, Simulation and Analysis: Experience with network modeling, simulation, emulation, and test methodologies to validate design assumptions and predict performance.