Network Engineer – Firewall & Load Balancing at Peraton
Springfield, VA
$104,000–$166,000from the description
Jul 19, 2026
Springfield, VA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
This role sits within a Network Operations Center supporting a federal border agency, focused on maintaining and securing enterprise network infrastructure. Day-to-day work centers on F5 BIG-IP load balancing, Palo Alto next-generation firewalls and Panorama, and Cisco Firepower Threat Defense — covering configuration, policy management, SSL handling, incident investigation, and documentation. It suits an experienced network security engineer comfortable in government or mission-critical environments who can obtain a federal public trust clearance.
Senior level · 5+ years · Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 75 people in the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (network and computer systems administrators). range 15–110
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $128,188 (middle half $100,819–$156,589). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (8)
The role is listed with two primary locations (Ashburn/Springfield, VA and Orlando, FL). The CBSA reflects the DC-metro Virginia locations, which are listed first and are the more likely primary site given the DHS CBP NOC context.
The clearance section is contradictory: Basic Qualifications state candidates 'must have the ability to obtain a CBP Public Trust clearance' (not a hard gate on holding one), while Desired Qualifications state 'Active security clearance required; DHS clearance or prior DHS suitability preferred.' Because the Basic Qualifications only require the ability to obtain a clearance (not an active one), the clearance requirement is set to None. Candidates should be aware an active clearance is strongly preferred.
Degree requirement is set to None because the posting accepts a High School Diploma/GED with sufficient experience as an equivalent path — no single degree level is universally required.
The 5+ years figure in Basic Qualifications refers specifically to enterprise network engineering/security experience and is used as the overall years minimum; the overall degree-plus-experience thresholds (8/6/10/12 years) vary by education level.
SolarWinds is listed as the first example in a 'such as … or similar' list alongside PRTG, Splunk, and Wireshark; all four are captured as alternatives under one skill entry.
Python, Ansible, and Terraform appear together under Desired Qualifications as scripting/automation options; Python is the primary with the others as alternatives.
SOC confidence is Medium: the role blends network security engineering (15-1244) with significant security-analysis and policy work (15-1212). The hands-on infrastructure administration and NOC support tipped the classification toward 15-1244.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): Cisco Firepower Threat Defense, Palo Alto Prisma SD-WAN.
Read the full posting
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