Network Engineer - Skillbridge

One team. Global challenges. Infinite opportunities. At Viasat, we’re on a mission to deliver connections with the capacity to change the world. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the globe communicate. We’re looking for people who think big, act fearlessly, and create an inclusive environment that drives positive impact to join our team.

This team plays a critical role in sustaining the security posture, compliance evidence, and documentation integrity across multiple networks and systems within Viasat Government.

You will be a key contributor to our Risk Management Framework (RMF) and Authority to Operate (ATO) lifecycle - hardening and validating equipment against the current DISA STIG, evaluating identifiers (CVE, IAVM, STIG IDs, CCIs) that come back from the Security team's scans, and keeping our system documentation accurate and audit-ready.

This is a high-impact role for someone who takes pride in precise, defensible work and who thrives on collaboration. Beyond executing hardening tasks, you will navigate the environment confidently - moving between physical and virtual systems, STIG checklists, and documentation repositories to trace a finding from the Security team's scan output to the affected component, through the change, and into the record of remediation. You will help uphold the standards that keep our networks accredited and operational.

The successful applicant must be self-motivated, capable of completing structured compliance work with minimum supervision, and comfortable asking the right questions in a working session before acting.

The role will require coordination with a wide range of other project teams both within and external to Viasat, including the Cyber Security Operations Center, Security Engineering, and system owners. The successful candidate must be able to represent the team clearly in working groups, scan review meetings, and audit discussions. The role may require travel to support compliance activities at operational sites.

• Performing preventative maintenance of hardware, software, and networks. This is accomplished via routine inspection, backup, physical maintenance, etc.  Collaboration with the other team members to ensure accuracy and thoroughness of pre, main, and post execution work.

• Documenting procedure creation, corrective actions, configurations, diagrams, etc. The documentation consists of trouble tickets and logs, equipment configurations, wiring diagrams, block and level diagrams, logic diagrams, rack elevation drawings, physical interconnection diagrams, backhaul circuit information, System Change Control, Corrective Action Reports. 

• Cyber and Information Assuredness.  You will work closely with the Cyber Security Operations Center, and the Security Engineering team to identify vulnerabilities, verify network impact, and remediate applicable components.  You will perform STIGs on a quarterly basis along with other RMF/ATO activities on a routine basis.

• Configuration-Level STIG Hardening. Perform hands-on configuration work on the gear that supports Viasat Government: Cisco IOS/NX-OS routers and switches, Palo Alto PAN-OS firewalls, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (shell, systemd, SELinux, auditd), Windows Server and Windows 11 (Group Policy, local policy, PowerShell), PostgreSQL and SQL Server, PDUs, security/infrastructure appliances, VMware ESXi and vCenter, VDI, and NetApp A400 (ONTAP). Pull the current running configuration, compare it against the applicable DISA STIG, apply the gap-closing changes, and confirm each setting behaves as intended before marking it closed.

• Impact Analysis from changes. Before touching a setting, understand what it controls, what it is likely to affect operationally, and what to watch for during and after the change. Flag operational risk to senior engineers and IA and help shape the mitigation, rather than applying changes blindly from the benchmark.

• Collaborate with Team & Stakeholders. Join working sessions with the team to discuss vulnerability scan results, agree on applicability and ownership for each item, and translate findings into concrete configuration work on the affected platform.

• Evidence Capture and Deliverables. Record required information using an approved template. This can include findings addressed, the exact setting changed, the validation performed, the supporting command output or screenshots, and the resulting state for each hardening action - and keep the surrounding artifacts current, including STIG checklists, POA&M entries, change control records, interconnection and rack diagrams, and Corrective Action Reports.

• 5+ years of experience administering virtualized environments (VMs), managing multi-tenant storage systems, integrated network routing/switching, and enterprise firewall policies
• Familiarity with virtualized environments (VMs), storage, routing/switching, and firewall policies (CCNA-level understanding is sufficient)
• Hands-on comfort at the command line and management console for networking gear, Linux, and Windows - able to pull a running configuration, apply a change under direction, and confirm it took effect
• Working knowledge of DoD security posture, including DISA STIGs, POA&Ms, IAVMs, and the RMF compliance framework
• Demonstrated attention to detail producing technical documentation - checklists, diagrams, change records, and audit evidence
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, with a willingness to take direction from senior engineers
• Security+ certification or equivalent that meets the DoD Directive 8570 baseline (must be able to obtain within 45 days)
• Active DoD Secret Clearance or ability to obtain when administratively feasible
• Ability to travel up to 15%
• Ability to work an on-call rotation.

• RedHat Certified Systems Administrator (RHCSA)
• VMware Certified Professional
• Windows Server AZ-800 / AZ-801
• CCNA, CCNP, or CISSP
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Information Technology or equivalent experience
• Nessus, Security Center familiarity
• Identity and access management
• Automation using Python, Ansible, PowerShell, etc.
• Identity and access management
• Experience configuring, administering, upgrading, and securing a wide variety of equipment and applications

Viasat is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, seeking to create a welcoming and diverse environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, genetics, age, or veteran status or any other applicable legally protected status or characteristic. If you would like to request an accommodation on the basis of disability for completing this on-line application, please click here.