Ascension LLC seeks an experienced Senior Network Engineer / Network Services Consultant to help Frederick County assess, improve, and support reliable, secure network connectivity across its departments and facilities.

The ideal candidate combines hands-on enterprise networking expertise with the ability to evaluate business needs, explain technical options, and deliver practical improvements. This role supports the availability and performance of the technology infrastructure County employees use to provide public services.

We seek a self-directed professional who works effectively with broad guidance, anticipates technical risks, prioritizes competing needs, and maintains accurate documentation. Strong candidates demonstrate sound judgment, organized planning, discretion, and clear communication with technical staff, vendors, and County leadership.

Summary of the Contractor Role

The consultant assesses existing network infrastructure, identifies performance and reliability issues, develops recommendations, and supports approved improvements within the scope of each assigned task order.

Assignments may involve network discovery, architecture review, capacity planning, troubleshooting, configuration changes, modernization planning, implementation support, and operational documentation. The consultant coordinates with County technology staff to establish requirements, manage dependencies, validate results, and transfer knowledge.

The role helps resolve problems such as intermittent connectivity, congestion, configuration inconsistencies, aging equipment, incomplete network records, and weaknesses in monitoring or recovery procedures. Success requires balancing technical performance, security, cost, maintainability, and continuity of County operations.

Anticipated Activities and Responsibilities

• Assess network architecture, equipment, connectivity, configurations, and supporting documentation to establish the current operating environment.
• Gather requirements from County stakeholders and translate operational needs into technical recommendations and acceptance criteria.
• Analyze network availability, utilization, latency, packet loss, and capacity to identify bottlenecks and improvement priorities.
• Diagnose routing, switching, wireless, firewall, VPN, and related connectivity problems using systematic troubleshooting methods.
• Develop network designs, improvement plans, equipment recommendations, and implementation approaches appropriate to the assigned scope.
• Configure approved network devices and services within authorized access and change-control procedures.
• Review network segmentation, administrative access, firmware status, and configuration practices with County security and technology staff.
• Plan implementation activities, maintenance windows, dependencies, testing, and rollback procedures to reduce service disruption.
• Coordinate with County staff, equipment vendors, telecommunications providers, and other contractors to resolve technical issues.
• Test approved changes against documented requirements and record results, outstanding issues, and corrective actions.
• Maintain network diagrams, device inventories, addressing records, configuration baselines, troubleshooting guides, and operating procedures.
• Track assignment scope, schedule, effort, risks, decisions, and deliverables, and communicate issues requiring County action.
• Recommend measurable improvements in network reliability, performance, supportability, and operational efficiency.
• Transfer knowledge to County staff through technical walkthroughs, practical guidance, and completed documentation.