Network Team Lead

Peraton is seeking an experienced Network Team Lead that will be responsible for the design, administration, performance, and 24x7x365 operations of the customer's enterprise network infrastructure, encompassing 150 routers, 477 switches, 88+ firewalls, 28 load balancers, 541 wireless access points, and 1,300+ network devices across 88+ locations nationwide. The ideal candidate  leads the Network Operations Center (NOC), manages 23 distinct network technology areas, coordinates customer Field Office Representatives, and drives DHS security finding remediation across the entire customer network estate. 

Day to Day Roles and Responsibilities: 

• Lead and manage all network services, providing technical direction and performance oversight for NOC engineers, network architects, and field network technicians. 
• Manage 24x7x365 NOC operations — ensure continuous monitoring, rapid incident response, and escalation management for all network events. 
• Oversee administration of 150 routers, 477 switches, 88+ firewalls, 28 load balancers, and 541 WAPs across 88+ locations. 
• Coordinate Field Office Representatives — provide technical guidance, escalation support, and network change coordination for 78 field offices. 
• Lead DHS security finding remediation — manage weekly DHS security reports, prioritize findings, assign remediation tasks, and track closure. 
• Manage network change management — author and review network RFCs, attend CAB, and ensure all network changes follow customer change management procedures. 
• Develop and maintain network capacity plans — monitor bandwidth utilization, forecast growth, and coordinate circuit upgrades with the customer and carriers. 
• Oversee network security posture in coordination with the Network Security Team Lead — firewall policy reviews, ACL management, and security hardening. 
• Manage OEM relationships (Cisco, Juniper, F5, Palo Alto) — coordinate support cases, software upgrades, and roadmap planning. 
• Produce weekly/monthly network health reports, NOC performance metrics, and capacity trend analyses for customer leadership. 
• Coordinate with the MEM team to ensure full-stack network monitoring coverage and rapid P1 incident notification. 
• Support bank closing operations — provide network resources and on-call support for after-hours bank closing activities. 

• Location: Must work onsite at the Primary Data Center in Northern Virginia

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree and 10 years experience or Masters degree and 8 years experience in Computer Science, Information Technology, Network Engineering, or high school diploma/equivalent and 14 years experience 
• Minimum 8 years of client services / deskside support experience in a large enterprise environment (5,000+ endpoints). 
• Minimum 3 years in an IT outsourcing or managed-services environment.
• ITIL v3 Foundation certified 
• Technical: Expert-level proficiency in Cisco IOS/IOS-XE, routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP), switching (STP, VLANs, 802.1x), and WAN technologies. 
• NOC: Experience managing a 24x7x365 Network Operations Center in a large enterprise or federal environment. 
• Experience with network security (firewall management, ACLs, VPN) and DHS/federal security compliance. 
• Minimum 3 years of hands-on experience implementing automation tools, scripts, or platforms to streamline IT operations workflows. 
• Demonstrated experience deploying or integrating AI/ML-based monitoring, analytics, or decision-support tools in an enterprise environment. 
• Proven ability to identify manual, repetitive processes and engineer automated replacements using tools such as Ansible Network Automation, Cisco NSO, Netmiko/NAPALM, Python, SolarWinds automation, Cisco ThousandEyes, Darktrace, ServiceNow Network Management integration, and Terraform. 
• Experience integrating disparate IT management platforms (e.g., ServiceNow, monitoring tools, CMDB, ticketing systems) to create unified, automated workflows. 
• Track record of measurable operational improvements (reduced MTTR, increased automation rate, reduced manual effort) resulting from automation initiatives. 
• U.S. Citizenship required; must have the ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance

Preferred Qualifications: 

• ITIL 4 Foundation certification
• Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) — Routing & Switching or Enterprise Infrastructure (SOW preferred). 
• Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Enterprise or equivalent. 
• Experience with F5 BIG-IP load balancer administration. 
• Familiarity with Cisco DNA Center / Catalyst Center for network automation and assurance. 
• Experience with SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) or equivalent NMS. 
• Prior federal government network experience (FISMA, NIST SP 800-53, DHS CDM). 
• Knowledge of SD-WAN technologies (Cisco Viptela, VMware VeloCloud). 
• Demonstrated ability to lead, mentor, and develop high-performing technical teams in a 24x7x365 managed-services environment. 
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; ability to brief senior government stakeholders and customer leadership. 
• Proven track record of managing SLA/SLO compliance and driving continuous service improvement (CSI). 
• Experience managing vendor/OEM relationships and escalations. 
• Collaborative leadership style with cross-functional coordination across multiple service towers. 
• Ability to manage competing priorities, resource constraints, and rapid incident response simultaneously. 
• Experience coordinating geographically distributed network teams across 88+ locations. 
• Ability to manage federal government security compliance requirements (DHS, FISMA) and communicate remediation status to customer leadership.