IP and Optical Test Engineers

Company: By Light Professional IT Services
Location: Fort George G Meade
Posted on: January 27, 2026

Job Description:

By Light Professional IT Services LLC readies warfighters and federal agencies with technology and systems engineered to connect, protect, and prepare individuals and teams for whatever comes next. Headquartered in McLean, VA, By Light supports defense, civilian, and commercial IT customers worldwide. Position Overview By Light is seeking IP and Optical Network Test Engineers to support a future contract award on the SETI Small Business contract vehicle. Our IP and Optical Network Engineers assess, test, and recommend solutions and technologies to improve all aspects of DISN Transport systems. These technologies include network devices (Optical Transport Systems, Optical Line Systems, Optical Transponders, routers, switches, firewalls, and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), and services Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA), Access Control List (ACL), secure remote access (i.e Secure shell, Secure VPN, IPSec), and IPv6 capable devices. Network Test Engineers are responsible for all DISN aspects regarding the design review/recommendation, lab testing, evaluation/certification, and implementation/deployment as well as provide Tier 3 support for the DoD’s NIPRNet and SIPRNet backbone networks. Responsibilities Provide technical expertise in design review, lab testing & test report, implementation plan and deployment of new advanced large-scale complex DoD networks. Implement MPLS services offerings on the DISN network. MPLS services include L3VPN, L2VPN, VPLS (Virtual Private LAN service) and CsC (Carrier Supporting Carrier). Platforms tested include Juniper MX Series, Cisco ASR Series routers. Provide expertise in order to certify and support Optical systems to include optical switches, amplifiers, regenerators, Optical Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM), Optical Transport Networking (OTN), Optical Transport Unit (OTU) frames, OTN-based backbones, optical light paths, optical spectrum sharing, optical virtual private networks (O-VPNs), wavelength-based private services, Packet-Optical Transport System (P-OTS), Ethernet, Flexible Ethernet (FlexE), Carrier Ethernet. Provide technical security expertise in design, test, evaluation and deployment of advanced large-scale complex DoD networks. Review security requirements set by DoD agencies for the NIPRNET/SIPRNET network protection; Assess and analyze current NIPRNET/SIPRNET network architecture; Propose and analyze potential solutions. Conducting audits, risk assessment, threat analysis, contingency planning and implementing security standards and methods. Reviews security threats to the current DoD NIPRNet/Internet gateway IA infrastructure, architecture, and technology and determines/implements effective countermeasures IAW established policies/regulations/directives. Delivers Router and Firewall Test Plans, Test Reports, as well as Implementation Plans to provide direction for deployment in the production environment. Prepare field recommendations and Configuration Guides. Provide Tier III engineering support to field operations personnel and deliver Field Support Lessons Learned reports. Conduct market research to find products to meet requirements. Required Experience/Qualifications BS in Networking, Telecommunications, or related area required. DoD 8570-01-M IAT Level I or higher to include one of the following: A CE, CCNA-Security, CND, Network CE, SSCP Security, GSEC, SCNP, SSCP, or CISSP. Extensive experience in IP or Optical Networking. Expertise in large-scale IP/Optical & Testing with backbone routers running ISIS, BGP/MP-BGP (multi AS), MPLS routing protocols, switches and testing gear including traffic generators from IXIA and Spirent Test Center Preferred Experience/Qualifications Professional Networking Certifications such as Cisco CCNA, Juniper JNCIE or Ciena OC-P are highly preferred. Hardware certification testing, JUNOS/IOS-XR/Ciena operating system regression testing. DISN IP or Optical Design Experience Network test equipment/Traffic Generator such as IXIA and Spirent Test Center. Firewalls (Juniper/Netscreen, Cisco ASA/PIX, CyberGuard, SideWinder), VPN products (IPSec, SSL VPN). IDS/IPS (Arbor Peakflow DoS & Traffic, Top Layer, ForeScout). F5 Big-IP load balancer, BlueCoat Web Proxy. Unix (SUN/HP/BSD) Servers/Workstations, Linux, PC Servers/Workstations VMWare ESXi server. JunOS, Cisco IOS & IOS-XR, UNIX (Sun Solaris, BSD, HPUX, SCO), VMWare, Linux, FreeBSD, Microsoft OS Servers and Workstations. Certificate Authority Server, ACE/SecureID Server, TACACS, RADIUS, MS Exchange, Sendmail, Apache web server, PKI, WINS, DHCP, DNS, FTP/SFTP/TFTP, SSH, NTP, Netflow/Cflowd servers. Possess excellent interpersonal communication skills with the ability to interact with management and staff at all levels. Candidate should also have excellent verbal and written communication skills. Salary Range Based on the roles, responsibilities, and requirements, the projected pay range for this position is: $100,000 - $200,000. The annual base salary provided is a guideline for this position and is not a guarantee of compensation or salary. When extending an offer, By Light also considers other variables such as (but not limited to) work experience, education, training, skill set, internal peer equity, clearance level, and market conditions. In addition, By Light provides an extensive selection of benefits and offerings to our employees. By Light recognizes that our strength is our people. We support every employee as an individual to build strong teams across the enterprise. Our benefit package includes: Medical, Dental & Vision Coverage Wellness Program 401(k) Matching Disability (Short Term & Long Term) Employee Assistance Program Life Insurance Education & Training Generous Leave Policy (11 Federal Holidays, PTO, and Military Leave)

Keywords: By Light Professional IT Services, Bethesda , IP and Optical Test Engineers, IT / Software / Systems , Fort George G Meade, Maryland