Network Services Engineer

Overview

Empower AI is AI for government. Empower AI gives federal agency leaders the tools to elevate the potential of their workforce with a direct path for meaningful transformation. Headquartered in Reston, Va., Empower AI leverages three decades of experience solving complex challenges in Health, Defense, and Civilian missions. Our proven Empower AI Platform® provides a practical, sustainable path for clients to achieve transformation that is true to who they are, what they do, how they work, with the resources they have. The result is a government workforce that is exponentially more creative and productive. For more information, visit www.Empower.ai.

Empower AI is proud to be recognized as a 2024 Military Friendly Employer by Viqtory, the publisher of G.I. Jobs. This designation reflects the company’s commitment to hiring and supporting active-duty and veteran employees.

Responsibilities

DIGIT is looking for a Senior Network Services Engineer to support the design, implementation, monitoring, management, change management, software upgrades, problem/incident resolution, and root cause analysis in support of migrating one of their Data Centers to Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI).  GSA IT would like to continue building on our network upgrade successes by implementing ACI in the RTP Data Center. GSA wants to migrate from CISCO End of Life equipment to the new ACI hardware and migrate all the applications at the site.  With the goal of simplifying, securing, automating, and accelerating the GSA network deployment. ACI provides an opportunity to refresh the network hardware, increasing the underlying network security while also providing growth for expanded telecom services.

As a leading provider of advanced information technology solutions and professional services to U.S. federal government agencies, is the prime for a $807m task order in support of the General Services Administration (GSA) Office of Digital Infrastructure Technologies (IDT) DIGIT (Digital Innovation for GSA Infrastructure Technologies) task order driving digital transformation and delivering continuous improvement and business value to its customers.  The team is comprised of the best-in-class technology partners to leverage forward-leaning technologies and best practices to transform GSA’s IT capabilities and shift offerings to provide a more flexible service delivery model, completing the agency’s shift to a fully digital experience along with its adoption of advanced, emerging technologies such as intelligent automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

Responsibilities:

This position shall perform the following (to include but not limited to) activities:

• Implementing and migrating Data Center to Cisco ACI.
• Oversee and implement switch provisioning (configuration) and implementation across multiple sites, including coordinating cutover logistics and change management.
• Establish network monitoring for newly installed and replaced equipment.
• Support and maintain network equipment and configuration (routers and routing).
• Provision and configuring switches and routers.  
• Utilize and implement network orchestration tools and techniques to facilitate automated and consistent configurations, management, testing, deployment, and operations of physical and virtual devices within the network.
• Manage status, errors, and inbound and outbound traffic statistics of all routing interfaces, bandwidth utilization, and errors of all inbound and outbound LAN/WAN circuits.
• Makes technical decisions on kinds of data to be gathered and methods to be used in data collection and analysis.
• Provides technical direction, guidance, and assistance to assigned projects, suggesting efficient approaches and methods for solving problems..
• Analyzes, diagnoses, and recommends solutions to complex problems.
• Escalate issues to vendor and third-party entities, as necessary and directed by the Government.
• Generates / updates network documentation in coordination with the onsite installation resources.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with associates and client personnel at all levels.
• Produce knowledge base articles and SOPs.
• Designing and implementing an automation framework for all aspects of the application lifecycle, including build, test, and deployment
• Performing operations tasks such as monitoring application performance over time or troubleshooting issues with production applications
• Monitoring network performance to ensure that the platform can handle increased traffic from new applications or services
• Designing, building, and maintaining the systems underlying an application platform
• Developing new technologies to support existing applications or creating new applications using new technologies
• Participating in meetings with executives to discuss technical issues and propose solutions
• Reviewing code written by other engineers to ensure it meets standards for quality, security, and performance
• Collaborating with other members of the engineering team to design new features or improve existing ones
• Escalate issues to vendor and third-party entities, as necessary and directed by the Government.

Qualifications

Requirements:

• Public Trust Clearance by start date.
• ITILv4 Foundation Certification within 120 days of starting.

• 7- 12 years of experience and a bachelor's degree

•  Experience as a remote worker demonstrating time management and self-discipline with cultural change management and an agile mindset.

• Three plus years’ experience implementing, engineering, designing and migrating to CISCO ACI. 
• Considered SME with CISCO ACI.
• Possesses and applies a comprehensive knowledge across key tasks and high impact assignments. 
• Previous experience supporting and operating Software-Defined Wide Area Networks (SD-WAN) sites
• Design and develop solutions to complex applications problems, system administration issues, or network concerns. 
• Proven ability to work independently in a full and/or partial remote environment with limited supervision and may supervise/lead others.
• Possess the ability to communicate in both oral and written forms, demonstrating an ability to communicate effectively with all levels of staff as well as clients.
• Possesses and applies expertise on multiple complex work assignments. 
• Assignments may be broad in nature, requiring originality and innovation in determining how to accomplish tasks. 
• Operates with appreciable latitude in developing methodology and presenting solutions to problems. 
• Contributes to deliverables and performance metrics where applicable.
• Maintain standard working hours per the DIGIT contract and to be available for meetings, and other collaborative efforts during working hours

Desired:

• Deep understanding of Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI) architecture, including fabric components such as leaf, spine, and Application Policy Infrastructure Controller (APIC).
• Proficiency in designing, implementing, and managing Cisco ACI environments.
• Expertise in configuring and troubleshooting ACI constructs, including tenants, VRFs, EPGs, contracts, and application profiles.
• Strong knowledge of Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking protocols (e.g., OSPF, BGP, VLANs, VXLAN, and ISIS).
• Experience with integrating Cisco ACI with third-party services or external Layer 2/3 networks.
• Familiarity with Cisco ACI automation tools such as REST API, Python, Ansible, or Terraform.
• Proven ability to create and maintain scripts for operational efficiency and automation of ACI tasks.
• Proficient in using Cisco ACI tools and third-party monitoring solutions for operational visibility and performance management.
• Experience in identifying and resolving fabric and policy-related issues in a production environment.
• Understanding of fault isolation and remediation techniques within ACI fabrics.
• Experience integrating ACI with network management tools like Cisco Nexus Dashboard Insights, SolarWinds, or ServiceNow.
• Understanding hybrid environments and extending ACI to cloud platforms or other data center solutions (e.g., AWS, Azure, VMware NSX).
• Cisco Certified Specialist – ACI or related certifications.
• Preferred certifications: CCNP Data Center, CCIE Data Center, or DevNet Professional.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities with attention to detail.
• Excellent communication skills for documentation, cross-team collaboration, and end-user support.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team in a fast-paced, evolving environment.
• Experience in multi-site or stretched ACI fabric deployments.
• Knowledge of software-defined networking (SDN) concepts and other SDN solutions.
• Must be willing to work a variety of shifts, including holidays as scheduled.

Physical Requirements:The physical demands described below are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.  While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to do the following: 

• If remote, maintain home workspace in a safe manner, free from safety hazards and in line with information security policies. 
• Communicate verbally in person, over the phone or by video chat and clearly/succinctly in writing, primarily utilizing a keyboard. 
• Appear on camera for meetings with co-workers and government partners via video chat and ensure the protection of proprietary company and customer information is consistent with the company’s expectation of information security.
• Viewing computer screens and sitting for long periods of time. 
• Travel 10%, via car or plane, which requires ability to manage luggage, laptop, and briefing materials (up to 25 pounds).

About Empower AI

It is the policy of Empower AI to provide equal opportunity in recruiting, hiring, training, and promoting individuals in all job categories without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other protected class or category as may be defined by federal, state, or local laws or regulations. In addition, we affirm that all compensation, benefits, company-sponsored training, educational assistance, social, and recreational programs are administered without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity. It is our firm intent to support equal employment opportunity and affirmative action in keeping with applicable federal, state, and local laws and regulations.  Empower AI is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.