Federal Network Automation Engineer

Network Automation Engineer – Federal Customer

Location: Chantilly, VA
Work Arrangement: 100% Onsite – 5 Days per Week
Security Clearance: Active TS/SCI Required
Position: Network Development / Automation Engineering

IMPORTANT: Candidates must possess an active TS/SCI clearance. Applicants without the required clearance will be automatically declined.

Job Summary

PGTEK is seeking an experienced Network Automation Engineer to support a federal customer in Chantilly, VA. This position plays a critical role in designing, deploying, automating, and maintaining enterprise network infrastructure supporting mission-critical IT workloads.

The successful candidate will work alongside network architects, software engineers, and platform engineering teams to develop scalable, reliable, and automated networking solutions. This role focuses on automating network deployments, optimizing performance, troubleshooting complex infrastructure issues, and improving the stability and scalability of next-generation networks.

The Network Automation Engineer will work directly with enterprise networking hardware, including switches, routers, firewalls, and software-defined networking platforms. Responsibilities include developing automation scripts, implementing configuration changes, supporting enterprise WAN and SD-WAN environments, and maintaining network infrastructure across geographically distributed sites.

The ideal candidate combines strong enterprise networking expertise with practical software development and automation experience. This individual will help streamline network operations, improve deployment consistency, and deliver sustainable solutions that support evolving mission requirements.

An active TS/SCI clearance is required. Candidates must be able to work onsite five days per week in Chantilly, VA.

Key Responsibilities

Network Development & Infrastructure Engineering

• Design, deploy, maintain, and optimize enterprise network infrastructure supporting mission-critical IT workloads.
• Support network operations, infrastructure deployments, technology refreshes, scaling, and sustaining engineering activities.
• Configure, manage, and troubleshoot enterprise networking hardware, including switches, routers, firewalls, and network appliances.
• Support network infrastructure from Top-of-Rack (ToR) switching through the network border and associated connectivity.
• Collaborate with network architects and engineering teams to implement new network designs, products, and infrastructure capabilities.
• Support network performance, stability, scalability, and operational reliability.
• Identify opportunities to improve network architecture, infrastructure management, and operational efficiency.

Network Automation & Configuration Management

• Develop and implement automation solutions to deploy, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot network infrastructure.
• Create production-quality automation scripts and configuration frameworks using Python, Go, and Ansible.
• Automate network configuration changes to improve consistency, reduce manual effort, and minimize operational risk.
• Develop simple, sustainable, and repeatable automation processes for network deployment and maintenance.
• Integrate network automation with device APIs, software-defined control planes, and infrastructure management tools.
• Utilize RESTful APIs, NETCONF, RESTCONF, and structured data formats to interact with network devices and services.
• Maintain network automation standards, configuration policies, and operational best practices.
• Support automation-driven network provisioning, configuration validation, and infrastructure lifecycle management.

Enterprise WAN & SD-WAN Engineering

• Design, deploy, configure, and troubleshoot large-scale enterprise WAN architectures across geographically distributed sites.
• Support enterprise routing protocols, including BGP, OSPF, and EIGRP.
• Implement and maintain MPLS, overlay networks, and enterprise network connectivity.
• Configure and manage software-defined WAN platforms, including Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN/Viptela, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, VMware Velocloud, and Silver Peak.
• Support centralized policy enforcement, zero-touch provisioning (ZTP), and dynamic path selection.
• Troubleshoot routing, interconnectivity, performance, and configuration issues across WAN infrastructure.
• Implement secure connectivity between network environments using appropriate transport and security technologies.
• Optimize network performance and reliability for latency-sensitive enterprise applications.

Network Security & Connectivity