Principal Network Engineer

Leidos is seeking a Principal Network Engineer specializing in enterprise wireless infrastructure to design, implement, and modernize a large-scale, geographically distributed wireless network environment.

The successful candidate will serve as a senior technical engineer responsible for migrating Aruba wireless controllers to a centralized cloud-hosted environment, implementing Aruba Central, improving wireless network resiliency, and standardizing wireless security and access-control capabilities.

Primary Responsibilities

Wireless Architecture and Controller Migration

• Design, engineer, and implement the migration of existing Aruba wireless controllers to a centralized cloud-hosted infrastructure.
• Deploy and configure Aruba Central for centralized wireless management, configuration standardization, monitoring, and operational visibility.
• Develop controller migration strategies, implementation procedures, validation plans, and rollback processes.
• Standardize NTP configurations across wireless controllers, access points, and supporting network infrastructure.
• Evaluate and establish wireless deployment standards, including bridge versus tunnel mode and campus versus remote architectures.
• Develop standardized configurations and deployment playbooks for geographically distributed sites.
• Coordinate cloud infrastructure integration, including connectivity, routing, security requirements, and availability.

Wireless High Availability and Network Resiliency

• Design and implement Layer 2 and Layer 3 redundancy to improve wireless availability and service continuity.
• Configure and validate controller failover, preemption, and recovery to preferred controllers following service restoration.
• Implement and troubleshoot VRRP, virtual IP addressing, and controller high-availability configurations.
• Evaluate and optimize DHCP, GRE tunnels, routing, and wireless traffic forwarding across centralized and distributed environments.
• Develop and execute failover and recovery testing to validate wireless resiliency.
• Troubleshoot complex controller, routing, and wireless connectivity issues.

Wireless Security and Network Access Control

• Design and implement enterprise wireless security standards, including WPA3, Wireless Intrusion Detection Systems (WIDS), and identity-based access controls.
• Configure wireless security policies through Aruba Central and validate deployment to controllers and access points.
• Evaluate hardware compatibility and develop migration strategies for WPA3 adoption, including transition-mode considerations.
• Standardize wireless configurations, including 5 GHz operation, authentication, and security settings.
• Integrate wireless infrastructure with Cisco ISE, Aruba ClearPass, and enterprise identity services.
• Configure and troubleshoot 802.1X, RADIUS, EAP-TLS, certificate-based authentication, and wireless access policies.
• Coordinate identity-based policy integration with Microsoft Entra ID, VPN infrastructure, and firewall enforcement.

Monitoring and Enterprise Integration

• Integrate Aruba Central with ScienceLogic SL1 to support wireless monitoring, alerting, device discovery, and performance visibility.
• Coordinate with monitoring engineers to establish required APIs, monitoring policies, and operational dashboards.
• Validate controller status, access point availability, authentication health, and wireless performance monitoring.
• Support integration with enterprise DNS, DHCP, NTP, routing, and security infrastructure.
• Identify opportunities to automate wireless configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting.

Guest Wireless and Security Integration

• Develop secure guest wireless architecture, including network segmentation and Internet connectivity options.
• Evaluate guest authentication methods, including temporary credentials, PPSK, and IPSK.
• Support guest wireless security requirements, implementation planning, and authorization documentation.
• Coordinate technical security assessments, configuration validation, and required infrastructure approvals.

Technical Leadership and Implementation

• Serve as a senior technical subject matter expert for Aruba wireless infrastructure and centralized wireless management.
• Provide technical direction, mentoring, and engineering guidance to network engineering personnel.
• Lead technical design reviews, implementation planning, integration testing, and troubleshooting activities.
• Identify technical risks, dependencies, and operational impacts associated with wireless modernization.
• Establish repeatable engineering standards and implementation procedures for deployment teams.
• Support production migration, validation, and transition to operations.

Documentation Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain engineering and operational documentation, including:
• Wireless architecture and cloud integration diagrams.
• Aruba Central and controller configuration standards.
• Controller migration and implementation procedures.
• Layer 2/Layer 3 redundancy, VRRP, and failover designs.
• Wireless security and WPA3 implementation standards.
• NAC integration and authentication policy documentation.
• Network connectivity, routing, and data-flow diagrams.
• ScienceLogic SL1 monitoring integration requirements.
• Guest wireless architecture and security documentation.
• Test plans, validation procedures, and rollback documentation.
• Standard operating procedures and migration playbooks.
• As-built and operations transition documentation.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with 12+ years of relevant experience, or Master's degree with 10+ years of relevant experience.
• Current IAT Level II or higher certification, such as Security+ or CISSP.
• Significant hands-on experience engineering, implementing, and supporting enterprise Aruba wireless infrastructure, including controllers, access points, and centralized management platforms.
• Experience with Aruba Central, including configuration management, controller integration, and enterprise wireless deployments.
• Strong knowledge of enterprise wireless networking, including 802.11 standards, RF fundamentals, WLAN architecture, VLANs, routing, and switching.
• Experience implementing and troubleshooting wireless controller redundancy, high availability, failover, and network resiliency.
• Experience with wireless security and authentication, including WPA2/WPA3, 802.1X, RADIUS, and enterprise NAC platforms.
• Experience integrating wireless infrastructure with enterprise networking services, including DNS, DHCP, NTP, routing, and monitoring platforms.
• Experience developing and executing engineering designs, implementation plans, migration procedures, test plans, and production deployments.
• Strong troubleshooting and analytical skills with the ability to resolve complex wireless connectivity, authentication, and network performance issues.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including experience providing technical guidance and developing engineering documentation.

Clearance Requirements

• U.S. citizenship required.
• Active Secret clearance required.
• Must meet applicable cybersecurity workforce qualification requirements for the assigned position.