Hybrid Automation Engineer – Active Secret Clearance Required

at CyKor

• Job title: Automation Engineer – Active Secret Clearance Required
• Job type: Contract
• Experience level: Mid level, Senior
• Salary: Not specified
• Degree requirement: Bachelor's Degree
• Tech skills: Ansible, Cyber Security, Firewalls, iOS, Jenkins, Python, TCP/IP, Terraform
• Location requirements: Hybrid, Alexandria, United States

About the role

• Automation Engineer developing automated solutions for configuring and maintaining network devices at USCG. Requires experience in Cisco networking and active Secret clearance.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain Ansible playbooks, roles, and collections to automate configuration and compliance for routers, switches, firewalls, and other network devices.
• Create reusable automation frameworks to support multi-vendor environments (Cisco, Juniper, Arista, Palo Alto, etc.).
• Build modular automation pipelines integrated with CI/CD tools (GitLab CI, Jenkins, or GitHub Actions).
• Develop Python scripts and RESTful API integrations for custom automation and reporting workflows.
• Collaborate with network architects to translate manual network operations into automated workflows.
• Implement infrastructure-as-code best practices for repeatable deployments and version-controlled configurations.
• Integrate network automation into change management, configuration management, and compliance enforcement systems.
• Support large-scale configuration rollouts, template-based provisioning, and software image management.
• Incorporate DISA STIG, DoD RMF, and Comply-to-Connect (C2C) standards into automation workflows.
• Automate compliance verification and reporting against federal cybersecurity policies.
• Ensure automation pipelines maintain the integrity, traceability, and security required for classified and controlled environments.
• Partner with network and security teams to identify automation opportunities and standardize workflows.
• Provide training, documentation, and code reviews for team adoption of automation practices.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, or a related field.
• 3+ years of experience in Cisco networking, with at least 3 years in a network automation role.
• Active Secret clearance.
• Strong understanding of TCP/IP, routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP), VLANs, QoS, and ACLs.
• Proficiency with Ansible, YAML, Jinja2, and Git.
• Experience automating Cisco IOS-XE, NX-OS, ASA/FTD, and wireless controllers.
• Familiarity with Python scripting for REST API integration and data manipulation.
• Experience with configuration management and CI/CD platforms (GitLab, Jenkins, GitHub Actions).
• Experience with NetBox, Nornir, or Terraform for networking is a plus.
• Familiarity with network telemetry and validation tools (pyATS, Genie, Batfish).
• Understanding of DoD networking standards, DISA STIGs, and RMF documentation requirements.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment and communicate effectively.