Principal Network Access Control (NAC) Engineer

Job Summary
JCS Solutions is seeking a Principal Network Access Control (NAC) Engineer to support the modernization and integration of a large-scale, geographically distributed enterprise wireless environment supporting a Department of Defense customer. This role serves as a senior technical engineer responsible for wireless infrastructure modernization, Aruba Central implementation, controller migration, network resiliency improvements, wireless security enhancements, and enterprise network access control integration.
The successful candidate will provide technical leadership across Aruba wireless technologies, Aruba Central, Aruba ClearPass, Cisco ISE, enterprise authentication services, wireless security platforms, and monitoring integrations. This position will work closely with cloud, network, cybersecurity, identity management, and operations teams to deliver secure, scalable, and highly available wireless services.
This role requires a hands-on engineer capable of designing, implementing, testing, documenting, and transitioning enterprise wireless solutions while providing technical guidance and leadership across engineering teams.

Location: Ft. Meade, MD
Clearance: Secret
Salary: $104,000.00 - $149,000.00
Certification: Active DoD 8140/8570 IAT Level II certification.

What's in it for you:

• Join a premier technology firm specializing in innovative solutions.
• Be part of a collaborative, inclusive, and innovative work culture.
• Enjoy tremendous growth potential in a high-performing team environment.
• A robust benefits package:
  • Health, dental, and vision insurance
  • Life insurance
  • Short-and-long term disability
  • Paid time off (PTO)
  • 401k retirement plan with employer match
  • Annual Professional Development Reimbursement Program
  • And more!

What you will do:

• Wireless Architecture and Controller Migration
• Design, engineer, and implement the migration of existing Aruba wireless controllers to a centralized cloud-hosted infrastructure.
• Deploy and configure Aruba Central for centralized wireless management, configuration standardization, monitoring, and operational visibility.
• Develop controller migration strategies, implementation procedures, validation plans, and rollback processes.
• Standardize NTP configurations across wireless controllers, access points, and supporting network infrastructure.
• Evaluate and establish wireless deployment standards, including bridge versus tunnel mode and campus versus remote architectures.
• Develop standardized configurations and deployment playbooks for geographically distributed sites.
• Coordinate cloud infrastructure integration, including connectivity, routing, security requirements, and availability.
• Wireless High Availability and Network Resiliency
• Design and implement Layer 2 and Layer 3 redundancy to improve wireless availability and service continuity.
• Configure and validate controller failover, preemption, and recovery to preferred controllers following service restoration.
• Implement and troubleshoot VRRP, virtual IP addressing, and controller high-availability configurations.
• Evaluate and optimize DHCP, GRE tunnels, routing, and wireless traffic forwarding across centralized and distributed environments.
• Develop and execute failover and recovery testing to validate wireless resiliency.
• Troubleshoot complex controller, routing, and wireless connectivity issues.
• Wireless Security and Network Access Control
• Design and implement enterprise wireless security standards, including WPA3, Wireless Intrusion Detection Systems (WIDS), and identity-based access controls.
• Configure wireless security policies through Aruba Central and validate deployment to controllers and access points.
• Evaluate hardware compatibility and develop migration strategies for WPA3 adoption, including transition-mode considerations.
• Standardize wireless configurations, including 5 GHz operation, authentication, and security settings.
• Integrate wireless infrastructure with Cisco ISE, Aruba ClearPass, and enterprise identity services.
• Configure and troubleshoot 802.1X, RADIUS, EAP-TLS, certificate-based authentication, and wireless access policies.
• Coordinate identity-based policy integration with Microsoft Entra ID, VPN infrastructure, and firewall enforcement.
• Monitoring and Enterprise Integration
• Integrate Aruba Central with ScienceLogic SL1 to support wireless monitoring, alerting, device discovery, and performance visibility.
• Coordinate with monitoring engineers to establish required APIs, monitoring policies, and operational dashboards.
• Validate controller status, access point availability, authentication health, and wireless performance monitoring.
• Support integration with enterprise DNS, DHCP, NTP, routing, and security infrastructure.
• Identify opportunities to automate wireless configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
• Guest Wireless and Security Integration
• Develop secure guest wireless architecture, including network segmentation and Internet connectivity options.
• Evaluate guest authentication methods, including temporary credentials, PPSK, and IPSK.
• Support guest wireless security requirements, implementation planning, and authorization documentation.
• Coordinate technical security assessments, configuration validation, and required infrastructure approvals.
• Technical Leadership and Documentation
• Serve as a senior technical subject matter expert for Aruba wireless infrastructure and centralized wireless management.
• Provide technical direction, mentoring, and engineering guidance to network engineering personnel.
• Lead technical design reviews, implementation planning, integration testing, and troubleshooting activities.
• Identify technical risks, dependencies, and operational impacts associated with wireless modernization.
• Establish repeatable engineering standards and implementation procedures for deployment teams.
• Support production migration, validation, and transition to operations.
• Develop and maintain wireless architecture and cloud integration diagrams.
• Develop Aruba Central and controller configuration standards.
• Create controller migration procedures, failover designs, test plans, validation procedures, SOPs, migration playbooks, and operations transition documentation.

What you will bring:

• Bachelor's degree with 12+ years of relevant experience, or Master's degree with 10+ years of relevant experience.
• Additional relevant experience, education, or training may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• U.S. Citizenship required.
• Active DoD Secret security clearance.
• Active DoD 8140/8570 IAT Level II certification.
• Significant hands-on experience engineering, implementing, and supporting enterprise Aruba wireless infrastructure, including controllers, access points, and centralized management platforms.
• Experience with Aruba Central, including configuration management, controller integration, and enterprise wireless deployments.
• Strong knowledge of enterprise wireless networking, including 802.11 standards, RF fundamentals, WLAN architecture, VLANs, routing, and switching.
• Experience implementing and troubleshooting wireless controller redundancy, high availability, failover, and network resiliency.
• Experience with wireless security and authentication, including WPA2/WPA3, 802.1X, RADIUS, and enterprise NAC platforms.
• Experience integrating wireless infrastructure with enterprise networking services, including DNS, DHCP, NTP, routing, and monitoring platforms.
• Experience developing and executing engineering designs, implementation plans, migration procedures, test plans, and production deployments.
• Strong troubleshooting and analytical skills with the ability to resolve complex wireless connectivity, authentication, and network performance issues.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience providing technical guidance and developing engineering documentation.
• Must meet applicable cybersecurity workforce qualification requirements for the assigned position.

How you will wow us:

• Experience migrating Aruba wireless controllers to cloud-hosted or centrally managed environments.
• Experience with Aruba Central On-Premises or cloud-managed Aruba deployments.
• Experience implementing VRRP, controller preemption, and Layer 2/Layer 3 failover architectures.
• Experience with bridge-mode, tunnel-mode, campus, and remote wireless architectures.
• Experience integrating Cisco ISE and Aruba ClearPass with enterprise wireless infrastructure.
• Experience integrating wireless authentication with Microsoft Entra ID, Active Directory, and PKI.
• Experience implementing WPA3, WIDS/WIPS, PPSK/IPSK, and wireless security standards.
• Experience integrating Aruba Central with ScienceLogic SL1 or comparable monitoring platforms.
• Experience designing secure guest wireless networks with isolated Internet connectivity.
• Experience with wireless RF optimization, 5 GHz deployments, and high-density environments.
• Experience with Python, REST APIs, Ansible, or similar network automation technologies.
• Experience supporting security authorization activities, configuration hardening, and compliance assessments.
• Experience supporting geographically distributed enterprise networks.