Tier 3 Network Lead (CCNP Required)

Ardent is seeking a Tier 3 Network Lead to join our team.

This is an on-site position in Washington, D.C.

Position Description

Ardent is seeking a Tier 3 Network Lead to support the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and the technology foundation behind its historically important mission. The Museum’s ability to preserve Holocaust history, educate the public, and connect staff and visitors depends on secure, resilient, and high-performing wired and wireless infrastructure. The Tier 3 Network Lead is responsible for the performance, availability, and operational maintenance of the Museum’s wired, wireless, WAN, Internet, cloud-connectivity, and distributed antenna infrastructure. The position supports onsite operations to enable 24x7x365 enterprise escalation requirements.

Responsibilities and Duties

Lead operations, monitoring, maintenance, troubleshooting, and restoration for LAN, WAN, Internet, Wi-Fi, cloud connectivity, and distributed antenna systems across Museum-supported locations.

• Install and configure switches and routers; monitor device health, bandwidth, latency, jitter, packet loss, throughput, interfaces, access points, and circuit performance.
• Diagnose and resolve network outages, routing loops, connectivity issues, authentication failures, RF interference, hardware failures, and performance degradation.
• Apply approved firmware and software updates to network switches, routers, wireless switches, and access points in coordination with Museum change-control requirements.
• Use SolarWinds Orion and associated alert dependencies to identify actionable events, reduce alert noise, detect degrading infrastructure, and support proactive and reactive Problem Management.
• Provide expert-level routing and switching support for the Museum’s Cisco Nexus, Catalyst, ASR, regional switching, and related wired infrastructure.
• Operate and maintain Aruba Central-managed wireless infrastructure, monitor client and access-point health, maintain wireless diagrams and RF maps, and report security issues to the Museum CISO.
• Coordinate with Internet service providers, circuit providers, cloud-connectivity providers, and equipment vendors for outages, installations, upgrades, troubleshooting, restoration, and after-action reporting.
• Support network cabling, data center connectivity, equipment labeling, cable management, hardware replacement, vendor RMA activity, and approved infrastructure changes.
• Maintain accurate network diagrams, circuit and provider records, configuration records, incident documentation, change records, troubleshooting notes, and knowledge articles.
• Lead Tier 3 escalation for Priority 1 and Priority 2 incidents and provide after-hours support for failures affecting core networking, data center connectivity, AWS access, or enterprise operations.
• Collaborate with Museum technical monitors and security personnel to implement approved performance, availability, and operational requirements.

Requirements

• Current Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) certification.
• Expert-level knowledge of enterprise routing and switching.
• Demonstrated experience operating and troubleshooting complex wired, wireless, WAN, Internet, and cloud-connected network environments.
• Advanced proficiency with SolarWinds, including event monitoring, alert configuration, dependency mapping, trend analysis, and proactive fault detection.
• Hands-on experience with Cisco switching and routing platforms and enterprise wireless infrastructure.
• Experience coordinating carrier and vendor restoration, documenting root cause, and communicating status during major incidents.
• Ability to support onsite work and participate in 24x7x365 after-hours escalation for critical network incidents.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Cisco Nexus 9000, Catalyst 9200/9300/9500, ASR 1000-HX, Cisco CLI, TACACS+, and Wireshark.
• Experience with Aruba CX6300, Aruba wireless access points, and Aruba Central Cloud Management.
• Experience supporting Metro Ethernet, multiple ISP links, cloud connectivity, distributed antenna systems, and geographically dispersed offices.
• Experience in a high-availability cultural, historical, museum, nonprofit, or Federal environment.

Due to the nature of the work we support, all candidates in consideration for this role must be willing to undergo the government issued background investigation process.

Ardent is an equal opportunity employer. We will not discriminate in employment, recruitment, advertisements for employment, compensation, termination, upgrading, promotions, and other conditions of employment against any employee or job applicant on the bases of race, color, gender, national origin, age, religion, creed, disability, veteran's status, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or any other basis protected by state, local, or federal law.