Network Engineering/Operations Site Lead

Leidos is seeking a mission-focused Network Engineering Operations Manager / Site Lead to lead a team of approximately 14 network engineers supporting the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) under the Integrated Information Technology Support Services (I3TS) contract.

This is a people-leadership and operations-management role, not a hands-on keyboard engineering position. The ideal candidate is a proven leader who can establish priorities, develop personnel, maintain operational discipline, and communicate credibly with engineers, government stakeholders, and program leadership. The successful candidate will understand enterprise networking and cybersecurity well enough to ask the right questions, assess risk, remove barriers, and make sound management decisions—but will rely on the technical expertise of the engineering team for detailed design and implementation.

Military veterans—particularly former senior enlisted leaders, warrant officers, and officers with experience leading technical teams, communications units, cyber operations, or enterprise IT organizations—are strongly encouraged to apply.

Mission

DTRA’s mission requires secure, resilient, and responsive information technology. As the Network Engineering / Operations Site Lead, you will ensure the network engineering team is organized, accountable, and equipped to deliver reliable enterprise network services in a high-tempo, mission-critical environment.

You will lead through clarity, coaching, standards, and trust—developing engineers while ensuring the team meets operational commitments, cybersecurity requirements, customer expectations, and contract deliverables.

Primary Responsibilities

Lead, Develop, and Manage the Team

• Provide day-to-day leadership for a team of approximately 14 network engineers supporting enterprise operations, modernization, cybersecurity compliance, and mission requirements.
• Set clear priorities, assign work, manage competing demands, and ensure appropriate staffing coverage for operational and project requirements.
• Coach, mentor, and develop team members through regular feedback, goal setting, performance management, training plans, and career development.
• Build a culture of accountability, professional rigor, collaboration, customer service, continuous improvement, and mission ownership.
• Recognize strong performance, address performance concerns promptly and constructively, and maintain high standards of conduct and delivery.
• Foster cross-training, succession planning, and knowledge sharing to reduce single points of failure and improve team resilience.

Drive Mission Execution and Operational Discipline

• Translate government requirements, operational priorities, task orders, and program objectives into clear, executable team plans.
• Lead the team’s response to Cyber Tasking Orders (CTOs), Tasking Orders (TASKORDs), Fragmentary Orders (FRAGORDs), Information Assurance Vulnerability Management (IAVM) requirements, and Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) compliance activities.
• Establish and monitor operational metrics, service-level performance, project milestones, workload, risks, and corrective actions.
• Lead prioritization and escalation during outages, cybersecurity events, maintenance windows, modernization efforts, and other high-visibility operational activities.
• Maintain risk registers and lead risk-management discussions for network availability, modernization schedules, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, staffing, and mission impacts.
• Ensure required documentation, status reports, technical inputs, and Contract Data Requirements List (CDRL) deliverables are accurate, timely, and decision-ready.

Provide Technical Leadership Without Requiring Hands-On Engineering

• Serve as an informed leader and customer-facing representative for enterprise network engineering and operations.
• Communicate effectively with network engineers, cybersecurity personnel, program management, government stakeholders, and other technical teams.
• Understand and oversee work involving enterprise routing, switching, firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs), load balancing, network access control, unified communications, network monitoring, and secure communications systems.
• Ask informed questions, evaluate technical recommendations, identify operational or mission risks, and ensure engineering decisions align with security, availability, scalability, and mission requirements.
• Ensure the team’s network designs and changes support Zero Trust principles, cybersecurity policy, configuration management, and operational continuity.
• Coordinate with engineering leads and subject-matter experts on major upgrades, migrations, new deployments, and incident recovery efforts.

Partner With Government and Program Leadership

• Serve as the primary leadership interface for the network engineering team with government customers, program management, and technical stakeholders.
• Provide concise, candid updates on operational posture, project progress, emerging risks, staffing needs, and decisions requiring leadership attention.
• Build effective working relationships across infrastructure, cybersecurity, service management, unified communications, and enterprise application teams.
• Support labor tracking, timesheet review and approval, staffing actions, onboarding, and resource planning in coordination with program leadership.

Basic Qualifications

• Active Top Secret clearance with SCI eligibility at time of consideration.
• Bachelor’s degree and 12–15 years of relevant experience, or a master’s degree and 10–13 years of relevant experience.
  • In lieu of a degree, 12 or more years of relevant technical leadership, IT operations, network operations, military communications, cyber, or enterprise infrastructure experience will be considered.
• Demonstrated experience leading, supervising, coaching, and developing technical personnel in an operational, enterprise IT, network operations, cybersecurity, or comparable mission environment.
• Experience managing team priorities, workload, staffing coverage, performance expectations, and customer commitments.
• Ability to communicate credibly with technical teams and senior stakeholders regarding network operations, cybersecurity compliance, operational risk, and project execution.
• Working knowledge of enterprise network concepts, including routing and switching, firewalls, VPNs, network monitoring, network access control, unified communications, and cybersecurity compliance.
• Experience operating in a structured, high-accountability environment with formal tasking, deadlines, reporting requirements, and operational standards.
• Current DoD 8570/8140 baseline certification, such as Security+ or higher, at time of consideration.
• Experience supporting or managing technical reports, program status reporting, service-level agreements (SLAs), CDRLs, or similar customer deliverables.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior military service in a leadership role, especially as a senior enlisted leader, warrant officer, officer, or civilian equivalent leading communications, network operations, cyber, information technology, or technical support personnel.
• Experience supporting Department of War, Intelligence Community, federal civilian, or other cleared enterprise IT environments.
• Experience leading teams supporting 24/7 operations, mission systems, network operations centers, cyber operations, or geographically dispersed customers.
• Familiarity with CTOs, TASKORDs, FRAGORDs, IAVM requirements, STIGs, configuration management, and risk-management practices.
• Experience with enterprise networking technologies and environments, including Cisco routing and switching, Palo Alto firewalls, Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM), Cisco Nexus, Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure (ACI), or similar platforms.
• Familiarity with high-assurance cryptographic devices, including TACLANE/KG-175, and related management tools.
• Experience with Zero Trust architecture, network segmentation, micro-segmentation, and secure enterprise network modernization.
• Experience with ServiceNow, Remedy, or other IT service-management platforms.
• Advanced networking or leadership credentials, such as Cisco CCNP/CCIE, ITIL, PMP, or equivalent military technical and leadership education.

Why This Role Matters

This role is for a leader who understands that mission success depends on people as much as technology. You do not need to be the most technically hands-on engineer in the room. You do need to be the leader who can develop the team, maintain standards, make priorities clear, communicate under pressure, and ensure skilled engineers can do their best work in support of DTRA’s mission.

If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo — because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 — and moving faster than anyone else dares.

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.