Network Security Engineer

Network Security EngineerAt Credence, we support our clients' mission-critical needs, powered by technology. We provide cutting-edge solutions, including AI/ML, secure cloud, digital transformation, and advanced intelligence capabilities, to the largest defense, health, and international development federal organizations. Through partnership and trust, we increase mission success for warfighters and secure our nation for a better future. We are privately held, are repeatedly recognized as a top place to work, and have been on the Inc. 5000 Fastest Growing Private Companies list for the last 12 years. We practice servant leadership and believe that by focusing on the success of our clients, team members, and partners, we all achieve greater success.Credence has an immediate opening for a Network Security Engineer to join our internal IT team. This individual will own enterprise network and security infrastructure across physical and cloud-hosted environments, administer multi-vendor firewalls, and maintain compliance-aligned controls within a CMMC Level 2 and SOC 2 audit environment. The role carries meaningful responsibility for SSP accuracy, ISSO support functions, and GCP organization-level governance. The ideal candidate combines deep network security expertise with documentation discipline and a proactive, compliance-first mindset.Network Infrastructure & OperationsProvide technical ownership of the corporate WAN, LAN, and wireless infrastructure, including planning, implementation, expansion, and lifecycle management.Monitor and maintain network performance and reliability, ensuring a minimum of 99% uptime for corporate systems, phone systems, and connectivity.Configure and manage routing, switching, firewalls, and VPNs across Palo Alto NGFW (HQ and branch), Palo Alto VM-Series (AWS Commercial), and FortiGate VM (Azure Government).Serve as primary administrator across all firewall platforms, including policy management, rule additions and modifications, allow-list maintenance, and configuration backups; maintain privileged access under a documented change-controlled process.Oversee network configuration management and backups to ensure recoverability and business continuity.Analyze and resolve escalated Tier 2+ network support tickets.Administer enterprise wireless infrastructure across multiple vendor platforms including Cisco, Aruba, and Ubiquiti; manage access point provisioningSecurity & ComplianceIdentify, assess, and mitigate network vulnerabilities through proactive monitoring and remediation.Implement and manage network security controls including firewalls, intrusion detection/prevention systems, antivirus, and secure access solutions.Collaborate with Systems Administrators on vulnerability scanning, patch management, and remediation efforts (e.g., Nessus scan results, OS hardening).Support audit readiness and compliance for CMMC Level 2 and SOC 2, including maintaining network-layer controls in the System Security Plan (SSP), providing firewall and network evidence for assessments, and contributing to ISSO functions as needed.Coordinate firewall rule changes and network modifications through a documented change management process, maintaining an audit-ready record of all changes for SOC 2 and CMMC assessment cycles.Collaboration & SupportWork in coordination with Systems and Security administrators to ensure smooth systems and network integration across on-prem and cloud environments.Provide training, documentation, and knowledge sharing to IT staff on new network technologies and processes.Assist in disaster recovery planning and implementation of secure, redundant connectivity solutions.Write and maintain technical documentation, including network diagrams, cabling layouts, and internal knowledge base articles.Contribute to internal IT automation and tooling initiatives, including scripting, infrastructure-as-code, and network-layer input on expanding internal platforms and dashboards.Cloud Infrastructure & GCP GovernanceServe as the GCP organization owner, maintaining folder hierarchy, org policies, IAM governance, and network configurations across all projects and access boundaries.Administer cloud-hosted network infrastructure including Palo Alto VM-Series in AWS Commercial and FortiGate VM in Azure Government; design and maintain hybrid connectivity patterns across cloud environments.Support GCP cloud networking operations including Cloud NCC hub-and-spoke architecture, HA-VPN with BGP over IKEv2, Cloud Router, and Cloud NAT.