Zero Trust Lead (Network)

About the role

Overview GovCIO is currently hiring a senior Zero Trust Lead (Network) to serve as the accountable technical lead for advancing DFC's Zero Trust capabilities across identity, device, network, cloud, and security domains. The role will define Zero Trust policy intent, technical standards, integration requirements, and roadmap priorities; lead cross-tower design and implementation; and ensure approved capabilities are tested, documented, operationally ready, and transitioned into production. This role is distinct from day-to-day Network Operations leadership, but requires equivalent network subject-matter expertise and is fully hands-on: the Zero Trust Lead will perform network engineering and operational tasks alongside the Network Operations team as needed. This position will be located in Washington, DC and will be hybrid.

Responsibilities

• Own the Zero Trust technical strategy and cross-tower integration model, defining policy intent, technical standards, control objectives, architecture requirements, and roadmap priorities across identity, device posture, network, cloud, endpoint, and security domains.
• Provide hands-on team operations support alongside Network Operations engineers, including installation, configuration, troubleshooting, maintenance, resilience, and optimization of Cisco routing/switching and LAN/WAN services.
• Maintain the same depth of network subject-matter expertise required to independently execute complex network engineering tasks when needed.
• Define and lead Zero Trust integration requirements for Palo Alto firewall controls, including least-privilege policy intent, identity-aware enforcement, segmentation, and alignment with Zscaler and identity controls; remain capable of performing hands-on firewall engineering and troubleshooting as part of team operations.
• Define and lead Zero Trust requirements for Zscaler ZIA/ZPA and Client Connector, including identity-aware access, least-privilege policy, application access, posture integration, and alignment with enterprise identity and network controls; provide hands-on engineering and troubleshooting support as required.
• Define and lead Zero Trust requirements for Aruba wireless and ClearPass NAC, including secure access, identity/device posture enforcement, segmentation, and integration with identity, firewall, and Zscaler controls; provide hands-on wired/wireless engineering support as required.