The Sr. Network Operations Engineer is a senior technical role responsible for maintaining, optimizing, and advancing enterprise network systems, including wired/wireless infrastructure, firewalls, voice systems, and security services. This role serves as a key escalation point, process leader, and mentor within the IT organization.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership (35%)

• Mentor IT staff and provide guidance on best practices.
• Lead incident response, root cause analysis, and change management.
• Stay current with emerging technologies and drive automation.

Infrastructure & Lifecycle Management (25%)

• Collaborate with Engineering to align operational strategies with design.
• Evaluate network hardware/software for compatibility and longevity.
• Serve as a technical liaison with vendors and partners.

Network Operations & Maintenance (20%)

• Oversee daily operations and act as tier-3 escalation for network issues.
• Maintain detailed documentation and improve troubleshooting processes.
• Ensure optimal uptime through proactive performance monitoring.

Capacity Planning & Monitoring (15%)

• Monitor network performance and forecast growth needs.
• Manage vendor SLAs and service trends.
• Tune monitoring tools to ensure complete service visibility.

Project Support (5%)

• Partner with technical teams on infrastructure design and deployment.
• Ensure seamless handoff from projects to operations.
• Contribute to planning, execution, and risk management for IT initiatives.

Qualifications

Education

• Required: Associate’s degree in IT or equivalent experience; Cisco CCNA & CCNP (expired or active).
• Preferred: Bachelor’s degree in Telecommunications or related field; current CCNP.

Experience

• Required: 8+ years with Cisco networking; 4+ years in VoIP environments.
• Preferred: Experience with Arista, BGP, Azure, Cisco UC, Palo Alto, Meraki, SolarWinds, and tools like SNMP, NetFlow, PCAP.

Skills

• Strong communication and documentation skills.
• Able to work independently and lead others.
• Scripting knowledge (Bash, Python, PowerShell) a plus.
• Familiarity with cabling, voice/data infrastructure.

NextStep Recruiting provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants regardless of race, color, or applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment in every location where the company has facilities.