Sr Networking Engineer

Position Title: Senior Network Engineer

Employment Type: 6-month Contract to Hire

Work Location: Austin, Texas (5 days onsite, transitions to 3-days hybrid)

Work Authorization: USC/GC only

Role Overview:

We are looking for a Network Engineer to support its IT infrastructure and corporate expansion based on the tremendous growth it is experiencing. This role involves addressing scalability, performance, and security concerns. The Network Engineer will plan, design, and evaluate new and existing computer network systems and services, including local area networks, wide area networks, intranets, and the Internet, providing analytical, technical, and administrative support.

The organization has a major initiative to deploy new Cisco Meraki switches at its headquarters, which will be a primary focus for this role.

The ideal candidate should have strong command line and Cisco configuration experience and must be capable of managing and configuring Palo Alto Firewalls. Additionally, experience working with Aruba ClearPass is needed. The candidate will work closely with cross-functional teams and must be able to communicate effectively with vendors and executives.

Previous engineers in this role have required extensive coaching to get up to speed on the technology stack, but the company is seeking someone who can hit the ground running with minimal hand-holding. The ideal candidate will be proactive, with an ownership mentality, excited about making an impact on the overall business and regularly seeking opportunities to act as a SME or drive improvements.

Responsibilities:

• Evaluate and assess the "current state" of LAN/WAN environments and propose a roadmap for future growth.
• Implement networking best practices to ensure optimal performance, availability, and scalability.
• Configure and troubleshoot network devices, including Palo Alto firewalls, Cisco Meraki, Cisco Catalyst, VPN, and MPLS (Level 3).
• Assess the current network security posture and implement hardening solutions (firewalls, IDS/IPS, Identity and Access management).
• Implement, maintain, and troubleshoot LAN/WAN infrastructure, including physical cabling, switches, routers, firewalls, and Wi-Fi systems.
• Deploy and support new software releases, system upgrades, and patches for network infrastructure.
• Maintain knowledge of vendor products (Cisco, Meraki, Cisco Catalyst, Aruba, Palo Alto) to diagnose issues, build redundancy, and assist with future network capacity growth.
• Develop and maintain technical procedure documentation and network infrastructure diagrams.
• Work to reduce costs and improve productivity for Network Engineering and support platforms.
• Troubleshoot and solve issues, often in collaboration with vendors and support personnel.
• Ensure that the network architecture supports high availability and performance for mission-critical platforms.
• Identify areas for efficiency improvement and recommend implementations.
• Understand business functions and end-user needs, and develop solutions to support these priorities.
• Assist with IT-related projects as directed by IT Management.
• Respond to off-hour alerts, calls, and emails to ensure operational efficiency and uptime.
• Design, implement, and maintain a US-based retail and global network infrastructure.
• Monitor and administer carrier-diverse circuits using BGP for fault tolerance.

Qualifications and Attributes:

• At least 6 years of experience maintaining enterprise LAN/WAN infrastructure – Wireless, Firewalls, Routers, Switches, Controllers.
• At least 2 years of experience with networking technologies such as SD-WAN, MPLS, VRF, DMVPN, multicast, load balancing, switching, and routing.
• Knowledge of network security constructs including Layer 3/7 firewalls, IPS, VPN, and Proxy.
• Experience with hosting technologies, including hyper-converged infrastructure, VMware virtualization, VDI, and Windows Server OS.
• Experience with Active Directory, AzureAD, DNS, DHCP, NTP, and file/printing services.
• Experience with scripting for automating infrastructure deployment and metrics collection.
• Proficiency with tools such as Protocol Analyzer, SNMP, Netflow, IPAM, RADIUS, Insight IDR/Splunk, and load/stress testing.
• Expertise in Azure or other cloud technologies.
• Experience with Palo Alto, Aruba, and Meraki is a plus.
• Experience documenting network knowledge base and operational runbooks.
• Experience deploying SD-WAN infrastructure is a plus.
• Knowledge of application transport and network infrastructure protocols.
• Ability to create accurate network diagrams and documentation for design and planning.
• Ability to provide detailed information for hardware and software selection.
• Ability to quickly learn unfamiliar technologies using documentation and online resources.
• Ability to think through problems and visualize solutions.
• Team player with the ability to work with all levels of staff both inside and outside of IT.
• Self-starter who can work independently but thrives in a team environment.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.