IP Engineer (Permanent – Onsite – Chester, NY)

A leading innovator in the telecommunications industry is actively seeking a highly skilled and analytical IP Engineer (Permanent – Onsite – Chester, NY) to join their dynamic Network Engineering department. This permanent position, located in Chester, New York, is crucial for supporting various technical teams and ensuring the robust performance and reliability of the company’s cutting-edge network infrastructure. The ideal candidate will possess strong analytical skills, exceptional communication abilities, and a proactive approach to problem-solving—qualities that are absolutely essential for aligning successfully with the organization’s strategic goals and contributing to its ongoing success in delivering high-quality telecommunication services.

IP Engineer (Permanent – Onsite – Chester, NY)

Location: Chester, New York – This is a Permanent, Onsite role, requiring daily presence at the facility.

Pay Range: $70,000 – $100,000 per year

Employment Type: Permanent

Industry: Computer and Mathematical / Telecommunications

What You’ll Be Doing: Core Responsibilities Driving Network Excellence

As an IP Engineer, you will play a critical role in the full lifecycle of the company’s IP and optical transport networks, directly impacting the quality and reliability of services delivered to customers. Your responsibilities will be highly technical and hands-on, encompassing planning, testing, implementation, and ongoing support for critical telecommunication services.

• Support Planning, Testing, and Implementation of IP and Transport Networks: You will be deeply involved in supporting the end-to-end process of planning, meticulously testing, and skillfully implementing converged IP and Transport networks. These networks are designed to deliver a range of essential telecommunication services, including High-Speed Data (HSD), Voice over IP (VoIP), and Video (e.g., IPTV, streaming). Your contribution will span the entire network lifecycle, from initial design discussions where you’ll provide technical input, to rigorous lab testing where you’ll validate new configurations and hardware, through to field implementation and cutover. This requires a comprehensive understanding of how IP protocols function over various transport layers and the specific Quality of Service (QoS), latency, and bandwidth requirements for each service type to ensure a seamless and high-quality customer experience. You will work to ensure the reliability and scalability of the backbone that carries these critical services.
• Document Test Plans and Certify Cisco IOS for Infrastructure Routers: A key responsibility will be to meticulously document test plans for the purpose of certifying Cisco IOS versions across a wide array of Cisco infrastructure routers. This involves developing comprehensive test cases for functional validation, performance testing, regression testing (to ensure new versions don’t break existing functionalities), and stress testing to ensure stability under heavy load. You will define methodologies, expected outcomes, and necessary tools for these tests. The certification process is vital to guarantee that new Cisco IOS releases maintain the stability, security, and feature set required for the company’s robust telecommunications network. Your efforts will directly contribute to maintaining a reliable and secure routing platform, which is the brain of the IP network.
• Perform Network Maintenance, Diagnostics, and Technical Support: You will be actively engaged in performing routine and emergency network maintenance, conducting advanced diagnostics, and providing expert technical support to cross-organizational teams. Maintenance tasks include scheduled firmware upgrades, configuration backups, log analysis, and performance reviews. Diagnostics will involve using advanced tools to pinpoint issues ranging from connectivity problems and routing anomalies to performance bottlenecks, often requiring deep packet inspection and traffic flow analysis. As a key technical resource, you will serve as an escalation point for complex network issues, collaborating closely with Network Operations Centers (NOC), field technicians, customer support, and other engineering teams to quickly identify, troubleshoot, and resolve incidents, minimizing service disruption.
• Prepare Test Cases and Implement Transport Topologies for Optical Designs: You will be responsible for preparing detailed test cases and executing the implementation of complex transport topologies in a lab environment to certify DWDM (Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing) and CWDM (Coarse Wavelength Division Multiplexing) designs. These optical technologies are fundamental for achieving high bandwidth and long-haul data transmission in modern telecommunication networks. Your work will involve setting up and configuring optical equipment such as transponders, mux/demux units, and optical amplifiers. You will test various aspects of the optical layer, including signal integrity, power levels, error rates, and overall link stability across diverse network configurations. This ensures the optical transport layer can reliably carry immense volumes of data.
• Work on Amplified/Unamplified Network Configurations and Interop Testing: Your role will involve hands-on work with both amplified and unamplified network configurations. This includes understanding and managing optical power budgets, dispersion compensation, and signal-to-noise ratios over varying distances. Critically, you will also be responsible for conducting interoperability (interop) testing for new optics. This involves rigorously testing compatibility between new optical modules (e.g., SFP+, QSFP28) and existing network hardware, as well as ensuring different vendors’ optics can reliably communicate within the same infrastructure. This meticulous testing prevents compatibility issues that could lead to signal degradation or service outages, ensuring smooth integration of new technologies.

What You’ll Need: Essential Qualifications and Expertise

To thrive as an IP Engineer in this challenging and critical role, you will need a strong academic foundation combined with practical experience in IP and transport networking. We are seeking candidates who possess:

• Educational Foundation in Networking: A Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or IP Networking, or a closely related field, is highly preferred. Alternatively, an equivalent combination of relevant education and practical experience that demonstrates a strong grasp of networking fundamentals and advanced concepts will be considered. This foundational knowledge is crucial for understanding the complex interplay of protocols and systems in a telecommunications environment.
• IP Network Design Experience: A minimum of 2 to 3 years of dedicated experience in IP network design is required. This experience should involve more than just configuration; it should include active participation in the architectural aspects of IP networks. This could mean designing robust subnetting schemes, developing efficient routing policies, planning for network segmentation, incorporating redundancy and high-availability solutions, and designing IP addressing plans for large-scale, multi-service telecommunication networks.
• Working Knowledge of Core Networking Protocols: You must possess a solid working knowledge of key networking protocols, including:
  • IP (Internet Protocol): Fundamental understanding of IPv4 and IPv6, addressing, and basic packet forwarding.
  • MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching): Familiarity with MPLS concepts, Label Switched Paths (LSPs), MPLS VPNs, and traffic engineering.
  • OSPF (Open Shortest Path First): Knowledge of OSPF routing protocol, area concepts, adjacency formation, and troubleshooting.
  • ISIS (Intermediate System to Intermediate System): Understanding of ISIS routing protocol, levels, adjacencies, and its role in large service provider networks.
  • BGP (Border Gateway Protocol): Working knowledge of BGP peering, attributes, path selection, and its use for inter-domain routing and Internet connectivity. Your ability to configure, troubleshoot, and understand the behavior of these protocols in a production environment is essential.
• Adaptability and Troubleshooting Acumen: The ability to rapidly learn new technologies and apply that knowledge to real-world scenarios is critical in the fast-evolving telecommunications landscape. Furthermore, you must possess strong troubleshooting skills specific to IP and transport networks. This includes methodical diagnostic approaches, understanding complex network interactions, and utilizing various tools to identify and resolve issues efficiently across both logical IP layers and physical optical transport layers.
• Highly Desirable Technical Certifications: Possession of relevant technical certifications is highly desirable and will significantly strengthen your application. This includes:
  • Cisco CCNA (Cisco Certified Network Associate): Demonstrates foundational knowledge of Cisco networking devices and general networking concepts.
  • Ciena certifications: Certifications related to Ciena’s optical transport platforms and software, which would indicate specialized knowledge in DWDM/CWDM technologies. These certifications validate your commitment to professional development and your expertise in industry-standard technologies.

What’s In It For You: Comprehensive Benefits and Career Growth

This permanent IP Engineer role in Chester, NY, offers a compelling compensation package and a robust suite of benefits designed to support your well-being, financial security, and ongoing professional development.

• Comprehensive Health Coverage: You will receive comprehensive health coverage, including robust health, vision, and dental insurance plans. These benefits are designed to ensure you and your family have access to high-quality medical care, routine dental services, and vision care, contributing significantly to your overall well-being.
• Education Enrichment and Professional Development: The organization strongly believes in continuous learning and offers an impressive education enrichment program, providing up to $5,000 per year for professional development. This benefit empowers you to pursue advanced certifications, attend specialized workshops, take relevant university courses, or participate in industry conferences, directly supporting your technical growth and career advancement in the rapidly evolving telecom field.
• Generous 401(k) Retirement Plan: You will have access to a 401(k) retirement plan with a generous company match. This provides a significant opportunity to build your long-term financial security, with the company actively contributing to your retirement savings, demonstrating a commitment to your future.
• Paid Time Off for Work-Life Balance: The company recognizes the importance of work-life balance and provides paid time off, including dedicated vacation days and holidays. This ensures you have ample opportunity to rest, recharge, and attend to personal commitments, contributing to your overall well-being and productivity.
• Ongoing Training and Development Opportunities: Beyond the education enrichment, you will have access to ongoing training and professional development opportunities directly related to your role and the latest advancements in telecommunications technology. This commitment to continuous learning ensures your skills remain cutting-edge and that you are always equipped to tackle emerging challenges.

If this IP Engineer role in Chester, New York, resonates with your technical expertise in IP and transport networks, your passion for telecommunications, and your drive for continuous growth, we wholeheartedly encourage you to explore this outstanding opportunity. You will be joining a leading provider where your contributions will directly impact the delivery of critical services to a wide customer base.

To learn more and potentially embark on a rewarding career journey with this innovative telecommunications leader, click “Apply Now.” A dedicated recruiter will be in touch with you promptly to discuss this excellent opportunity in greater detail, answer any questions you may have, and guide you through the next steps of the application and interview process. We look forward to speaking with you and discovering how your skills can help shape the future of our network!