The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), located at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Golden, Colorado is the nation's primary laboratory for research and development of renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

From day one at NREL, you’ll connect with coworkers driven by the same mission to save the planet. By joining an organization that values a supportive, inclusive, and flexible work environment, you’ll have the opportunity to engage through our eight employee resource groups, numerous employee-driven clubs, and learning and professional development classes.

NREL supports inclusive, diverse, and unbiased hiring practices that promote creativity and innovation. By collaborating with organizations that focus on diverse talent pools, reaching out to underrepresented demographics, and providing an inclusive application and interview process, our Talent Acquisition team aims to hear all voices equally. We strive to attract a highly diverse workforce and create a culture where every employee feels welcomed and respected and they can be their authentic selves.

Job Description

NREL's Secure Cyber-Energy Systems group is actively recruiting an experienced network architect/engineer to join the team. The successful candidate will support a broad portfolio of cybersecurity, resilience, and energy systems integration studies by developing and managing key research capabilities - working on virtual systems within the Cyber Energy Emulation Platform (CEEP) as well as helping design and manage next-generation research communication networks across NREL's powerful laboratory capabilities. It is essential that applicants have a good knowledge of the design and operation of enterprise networks at the layer-2 and layer-3 levels.

The successful candidate will participate and/or lead a broad range of research and development efforts, such as:

• Design of our multi-lab hybrid research network, collaboration services and communications technologies.
• Architecture and engineering services supporting emerging software development (frontend and backend integrations) and security initiatives into our hybrid infrastructure.
• Collaborate with our security team to design and build security controls to protect multi-lab research environment.
• Design, manage, and support rollout of products, platforms, software, hardware, or appliance-based solutions related to network, security, or service integrations.
• Design, implementation, and support of private cloud environment connected to the enterprise network (direct, VPN).
• Develops technical documentation describing the deployment, configuration, and management of network infrastructure.
• Participates in IT security audits. Responds to existing audits and ensures required controls are implemented as required.
• Interface with management and vendors to develop and implement new solutions to meet business requirements.

Basic Qualifications

This role can be hired at two different levels:

Level IV:
Relevant PhD and 4 or more years of experience . Or, relevant Master's Degree and 7 or more years of experience . Or, relevant Bachelor's Degree and 9 or more years of experience . Demonstrated in-depth knowledge of laws, regulations, principles, procedures and practices related to specific field. Excellent leadership, communication, problem solving and project management skills. Ability to use various computer software programs.

Level III:
Relevant PhD. Or, relevant Master's Degree and 3 or more years of experience. Or, relevant Bachelor's Degree and 5 or more years of experience. Demonstrates broad understanding and wide application of engineering technical procedures, principles, theories and concepts in the field. General knowledge of other related disciplines. Demonstrates leadership in one or more areas of team, task or project lead responsibilities. Demonstrated experience in management of projects. Very good writing, interpersonal and communication skills.

Additional Required Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of network technologies (routing, switching, gateways, WAN, LAN, Wireshark, TCP/IP, CDP, RIPv2, OSPF, BPG, NAT, MPLS, Multicast, VPN, WAN acceleration, Firewalls, SSL, SSO)
• Experience with layer-1/layer-2 deployment and troubleshooting of electrical and optical Ethernet links
• Experience with layer-3 deployment and troubleshooting
• Firewall rule configuration and management
• Familiarization with Linux OSs, DNS and DHCP
• Experience keeping device firmware/software upgraded and patched
• Understanding how to deploy networks with resiliency
• Good network documentation skills
• Ability to acquire a DOD Top Secret or DOE Q clearance or currently hold an active security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience networking within a private cloud environment
• Experience in the design and operation of research networks
• Experience with Software Defined Networking switches and controllers
• Experience networking with Docker containers and/or Kubernetes infrastructure
• Route policy design, configuration, and maintenance
• Use of VRFs in routers
• Basic iBGP and eBGP design, configuration, and maintenance
• Familiarization with BGP communities