Systems/Network Engineer
Position Summary
We are seeking a Systems/Network Engineer to support the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Marine and Aviation Operations in Newport, Rhode Island. This position will provide hands-on systems engineering, network administration, infrastructure support, and advanced technical troubleshooting for NOAA’s Marine Operations Center–Atlantic.
The engineer will support approximately 50 local users, including VIP personnel, and help maintain the reliable and secure operation of mission-critical IT services supporting NOAA ships, shore facilities, scientific operations, and enterprise systems. The role requires a versatile infrastructure professional who can work across networks, Windows and Linux systems, virtualization, cloud services, identity management, cybersecurity, and Tier 3 incident response.
Key Responsibilities
Network Administration
- Manage and troubleshoot LAN, WAN, VPN, wireless, and virtual networks.
- Configure and maintain routers, switches, firewalls, circuits, DNS, DHCP, NAT, routing, access controls, and network segmentation.
- Support Cisco, Fortinet, and similar enterprise technologies.
- Monitor network performance, resolve outages, and coordinate with NOAA teams, carriers, and vendors.
- Apply approved patches, firmware updates, and configuration changes.
- Maintain network diagrams, device configurations, IP and circuit inventories, and equipment labeling.
- Support infrastructure upgrades, capacity planning, and on-site operations.
Systems Administration
- Manage and troubleshoot Windows and Linux servers in physical, virtual, and cloud environments.
- Support VMware, Hyper-V, Microsoft Azure, and AWS.
- Administer Active Directory, LDAP, Group Policy, certificates, authentication, and access controls.
- Support single sign-on, multifactor authentication, and HSPD-12/PIV access.
- Monitor performance, storage, capacity, and system resources.
- Develop automation, configuration-management, and infrastructure-as-code solutions.
- Support tools such as Ansible, BigFix, Intune, ManageEngine, Tenable, Trellix, Apache, and Windows Deployment Services.
- Maintain system, software, license, warranty, and configuration records.
- Implement approved changes and support infrastructure modernization.
Operational and User Support
- Provide Tier 2 and Tier 3 support for network, server, endpoint, application, and infrastructure issues.
- Investigate critical or recurring problems and implement long-term solutions.
- Respond to mission-critical outages and coordinate service restoration.
- Support vulnerability scanning, patching, remediation, and security monitoring.
- Ensure compliance with federal, Department of Commerce, NOAA, and OMAO requirements.
- Provide professional support to end users and VIP personnel.
- Participate in after-hours maintenance and 24/7 on-call coverage for critical outages.
- Travel occasionally to NOAA ships, field offices, and other operational sites.
Required Qualifications
- Experience managing and troubleshooting enterprise networks and servers.
- Working knowledge of routing, switching, VPNs, firewalls, DNS, DHCP, NAT, segmentation, and network monitoring.
- Experience with enterprise network equipment, preferably Cisco and Fortinet.
- Experience administering Windows Server and/or Linux.
- Experience with Active Directory, Group Policy, identity management, and certificate-based authentication.
- Experience with VMware, Hyper-V, Azure, and/or AWS.
- Experience with patching, vulnerability remediation, performance monitoring, and configuration management.
- Strong troubleshooting, root-cause analysis, documentation, communication, and customer-service skills.
- Ability to work primarily on-site in Newport, Rhode Island.
- Availability for after-hours maintenance, critical-incident on-call coverage, and occasional travel.
- Ability to meet NOAA onboarding, badging, access, and security-screening requirements.
Required Certifications
Candidates must possess certifications appropriate to their assigned responsibilities:
- Network responsibility: Current Cisco Certified Network Associate—or a demonstrably equivalent networking certification—for an intermediate network engineering assignment.
- Systems responsibility: Current certification appropriate to the primary assigned platform, such as a Microsoft, Red Hat, virtualization, Azure, or AWS credential.
Annual Salary $95,000k-105,000k, depending on experience