Sr. Network Architect

The Company 

At ICF, we are fearless in finding new ways to solve problems, relentlessly ensuring they pay off for our clients and committed to making a positive change in the world.  Join our community of management consultants, engineers, and architects to challenge the status quo. 

The Team  

Our Health Modernization Solutions (HMS) team collaborates with customers to articulate a vision for success and a pathway to achieve it. We know success doesn't happen by accident. It takes the right team working together on the right solutions for the client. Our team is expanding to include a Senior Network Architect/Engineer who will be a key driver in articulating the future vision and roadmap to achieve a robust and modern network for our clients. You will join other enterprise-level architects and management consultants as trusted advisors to guide the overall enterprise infrastructure, data, and customer experience to provide a robust foundation for the client to build their application modernization and cloud migration programs for the future. This team's output significantly impacts the client at the highest levels. 

The Work  

Our team will assist HHS and GSA’s Centers of Excellence (CoE) in documenting and understanding the networks' current state and the future network needs of on-premises, remote data centers, and multiple cloud environments. Your goal is to document the current state, articulate the future network vision, and provide a roadmap for a robust and modern network for our clients.  This high-visibility network engineer/architect role requires an extensive background and operational experience with legacy, current, and cloud network technology and protocols, including software-defined networking. You must also be knowledgeable and confident in leading enterprise-class network architecture programs and projects. We seek an experienced candidate to design robust, scalable, secure network architectures to support the client’s business objectives. This role requires deep technical expertise in capturing or validating the current state network, network design, roadmap development implementation, and troubleshooting, focusing on innovative technologies, cloud integration, and network security. 

Key Responsibilities and Job Duties 

• Attends client and team virtual meetings and, when required, on-site in-person meetings. 

• Contributes regularly to other workstreams and projects, such as Technology Assessment, Alternatives Analysis, North Star Architectures, Enterprise Cloud and Application Architectures, and other services as directed. 

• Works on multiple projects simultaneously, interacting with all levels of ICF, GSA, and client management stakeholders and leads. 

• Engages the GSA and client organization, manages stakeholder expectations, and fosters relationships to develop a deep and thorough understanding of the client’s enterprise. 

• Coordinates and collaborates with executive leadership, business stakeholders, various technical teams, contractors, etc., in developing technical requirements. 

• Reviews incoming network technology initiatives and collaborates with solution and application teams to optimize application architecture solution modernization plans for large- and medium-scale software development projects. 

• Possesses a bias for action when breaking down complex problems and tackling new technologies. 

• Produces a vision, strategy, and roadmap to lead network modernization efforts by applying a proven track record of technology assessments, developing a robust, secure, and operationally efficient target technology and specifications, and defining technical asset configurations. 

• Recommends and influences technology decisions and proofs of concept, where appropriate, to obtain client buy-in. 

• Serves as the network architecture and strategy champion, resolving and mitigating program issues to influence the client's adoption of proposed network solutions. 

• Authors current state, future state, and roadmap deliverables documentation, briefings, SLAs, and technical standards. 

• Provides thought leadership, guidance, and coordination with architects, engineers, technical leadership, and program teams. Encourage and influence the adoption of network architecture solutions. 

• Provides guidance and improvement opportunities and works with your team and the client stakeholders to establish a realistic and obtainable technology roadmap for the network.  

• Supports the project team on methodological aspects, ensuring high-quality discovery and data collection activities. 

• Contributes to the day-to-day workstream activities and relationships, identify opportunities, and escalate risks or other issues to the project director. 

• Provides detailed assessment and consultation regarding existing and planned offices, data center, cloud environments, connections, action plans, efficacy, and timeliness impacting the future network architecture. 

• Evaluates the ongoing refinement of performance, communications, data reporting, and other strategic management issues. 

• Authors or contributes to technical or white papers, enterprise reports, and presentations. 

• Provides recommendations for management, monitoring, and observability tools to gain insights into network performance, reliability, and utilization and proactively identify potential issues.  

• Makes recommendations and specifications for security tools to enforce zero-trust security strategies and least-privilege network access controls.   

• Remains Flexible and willing to accept a change in priorities as necessary. 

Required Qualifications  

• Bachelor’s Degree, or equivalent experience, in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related network field. 

• 5+ years of progressive network technology roles and participation in significant network modernization projects. 

• 5+ years of experience with data center infrastructure and cloud environments. 

• 4+ years of experience with enterprise-scope network architectural engagements, technical leadership at the program level, and a successful track record of delivery.  

• The candidate must be able to obtain and maintain a Public Trust credential from the GSA and the client.  

• The candidate must reside in the U.S., be authorized to work in the U.S. and perform all work in the U.S. 

• Candidate must have lived in the U.S. for three (3) full years out of the last five (5) years. 

• Excellent oral and written communication in English, including editing and proofreading skills, thought leadership, and formal presentation skills. 

• Highly developed interpersonal skills and self-motivation coupled with high attention to detail and accuracy. 

Preferred Qualifications  

• Experience with cloud-agnostic application modernizations.  

• Experience with IAM, Zero Trust, and end-to-end data security.  

• Strong qualitative and quantitative evaluation and analytical skills  

• Business development experience, including leading or contributing to technical proposals.  

• To demonstrate technical expertise and knowledge in cutting-edge networking technologies, security, and cloud infrastructure, here are some key certifications and qualifications desired: 

• Cisco Certifications: 

• CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate) 

• CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional) 

• CCIE (Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert) 

• Cloud Networking Certifications: 

• AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty 

• Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Associate 

• Google Cloud Professional Network Engineer 

• Security-Focused Certifications: 

• CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) 

• CompTIA Security+ 

• Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) 

• Networking & IT Management Certifications: 

• Juniper Networks Certifications (JNCIA, JNCIS, JNCIP, JNCIE) 

• CompTIA Network+ 

• VMware Certified Professional – Network Virtualization (VCP-NV)  

• SDN (Software-Defined Networking) Certifications: 

• Cisco Certified Specialist – Enterprise SD-WAN Implementation 

• Nokia Network Routing Specialist I (NRS I) or II (NRS II) 

• Automation and Scripting Skills: 

• Python for Network Engineers 

• Terraform or Ansible Automation Certification 

• Education: 

• Continuing Education - Staying updated through industry conferences, workshops, and additional certifications. 

Guidance:  

The goal is to get a candidate who understands/has experience with as many of the defined traits as possible.  The candidate must be knowledgeable and confident to lead enterprise-class network architecture programs and projects. This candidate will join other enterprise-level architects and management consultants to guide the overall enterprise infrastructure, data, and customer experience to provide a robust foundation for the client to build their application modernization and cloud migration programs for the future. 

Job Location: