Systems Engineer - Networking and Monitoring - Contingent

Aretum is a mission-driven organization committed to delivering innovative, technology-enabled solutions across defense, civilian, and homeland security sectors. The role involves leading AWS networking architecture, application load balancing, and enterprise monitoring for a Federal cloud integration solution, specifically for the Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare system.

Responsibilities:

• Design and implement AWS networking architecture including VPC design, subnets, route tables, security groups, and NACLs
• Configure Application Load Balancer (ALB) with target groups, health checks, SSL/TLS termination, path-based routing, and WAF integration
• Implement network security controls for federal compliance including network segmentation, encryption in transit, and zero-trust principles
• Design multi-AZ high availability architecture ensuring resilience during infrastructure failures
• Understand and coordinate Transit Gateway, PrivateLink, and VPC peering for secure multi-system connectivity
• Implement container networking including service discovery, ingress controllers, and network policies
• Manage VPC Flow Logs and network traffic analysis for security monitoring and troubleshooting
• Create network diagrams, boundary protection documentation, and data flow diagrams for RMF compliance
• Implement and configure enterprise monitoring platforms (Splunk, Dynatrace, and/or DataDog) for comprehensive system visibility
• Design monitoring architecture covering containers, load balancers, APIs, databases, and data pipelines
• Configure audit logging and SIEM integration for federal compliance requirements including who-did-what-when traceability
• Establish alert design, escalation policies, and incident response integration for operational excellence
• Create dashboards for technical teams, operations, and compliance stakeholders
• Integrate AWS CloudWatch, CloudTrail, and VPC Flow Logs with enterprise monitoring platforms
• Implement performance monitoring, capacity planning, and baseline establishment for anomaly detection
• Configure distributed tracing and application performance monitoring (APM) for multi-tier applications
• Design network architecture supporting zero-downtime deployments and automatic failover
• Configure load balancer health checks, connection draining, and traffic distribution algorithms
• Implement DNS failover strategies and multi-region considerations for disaster recovery
• Test and validate network failover scenarios and recovery procedures
• Monitor network performance metrics and optimize for latency, throughput, and reliability
• Implement network security controls aligned with NIST 800-53 requirements
• Configure encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+) across all network communication paths
• Apply least-privilege network access policies using security groups and NACLs
• Implement network intrusion detection and prevention monitoring
• Document network security controls and monitoring capabilities for RMF/ATO security assessment
• Configure compliance logging with appropriate retention policies for audit requirements
• Monitor and alert on security events, anomalous network traffic, and compliance violations
• Create comprehensive network architecture diagrams, IP addressing schemes, and routing documentation
• Develop operational runbooks for network troubleshooting, load balancer management, and monitoring response procedures
• Document monitoring alert thresholds, escalation procedures, and incident response playbooks
• Maintain network and monitoring configuration baselines for compliance and change management
• Collaborate with container platform team on networking requirements and service mesh integration
• Work with developers on application health check design and monitoring instrumentation
• Partner with testing team on performance monitoring and load testing metric collection
• Support security teams with network traffic analysis and security event investigation

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Information Technology, or related technical field (relevant certifications and experience may supplement)
• 5-7 years in network engineering, systems engineering, or DevOps roles
• 3+ years hands-on experience with AWS networking and load balancing in production environments
• 2+ years experience with enterprise monitoring platforms (Splunk, Dynatrace, DataDog, or similar)
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills for network and performance issues
• Attention to detail and commitment to security-first network design
• Effective written and verbal communication for documentation and cross-team collaboration
• Ability to work independently and manage concurrent networking and monitoring workstreams
• Adaptable to fast-paced, deadline-driven environment with changing requirements
• Proactive identification of network bottlenecks and monitoring gaps
• Understanding of NIST 800-53 security controls for networking and monitoring
• AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty or Solutions Architect - Professional
• Splunk Certified Admin, Dynatrace Professional, or DataDog certification
• Experience with AWS WAF, Shield, and security monitoring services
• Knowledge of service mesh technologies (Istio, AWS App Mesh)
• Federal government contracting or DoD networking experience
• Experience with network automation using Terraform or CloudFormation
• Experience in federal, DoD, or highly regulated environments
• Prior involvement in RMF/ATO processes with network security control implementation