Senior Network Engineer (Permanent – Onsite – Twin Cities Area, with Travel)

A leading organization within the Computer and Mathematical industry is seeking an exceptionally skilled and strategically-minded Senior Network Engineer (Permanent – Onsite – Twin Cities Area, with Travel) to join their core infrastructure team. This permanent position is instrumental in ensuring the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of critical information assets and systems across a complex, large-scale hybrid environment. The Senior Network Engineer will serve as a recognized Subject Matter Expert (SME) in multiple IT domains and platforms, providing indispensable infrastructure consultation for both IT-driven and broader business-focused projects throughout the organization. This role demands a proactive leader capable of steering network architecture design, resolving the most intricate technical challenges, and fostering continuous innovation.

Senior Network Engineer (Permanent – Onsite – Twin Cities Area, with Travel)

Location: Twin Cities Area (Minnesota) – This is a Permanent, Onsite role, serving as a base of operations, with required travel to data centers both within the Twin Cities area and to out-of-state locations as business needs dictate.

Employment Type: Permanent

Industry: Computer and Mathematical

Defining the Role: Strategic Contributions of a Senior Network Engineer

As a Senior Network Engineer, your responsibilities extend far beyond day-to-day operations. You will be a pivotal architect and troubleshooter, instrumental in shaping the network’s future, ensuring its resilience, and driving its strategic alignment with overarching business objectives.

• Strategic Network Architecture Design and Planning: You will lead the development and evolution of the organization’s network architecture. This involves not only understanding current infrastructure but also forecasting future needs, evaluating emerging technologies such as SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network) and Zero-Trust Security models, and integrating them into a coherent, scalable, and secure network roadmap. Your designs will directly align with core business goals, ensuring the network can support increasing data volumes, new applications, and expanding geographical footprints. This includes capacity planning, lifecycle management of network hardware and software, and ensuring designs incorporate principles of high availability, redundancy, and disaster recovery. You will assess the impact of network design on overall system performance and security, making recommendations that drive efficiency and enhance the user experience across diverse platforms.
• Complex Problem Resolution and Final Escalation Point: You will serve as the definitive final escalation point for the most critical and complex network issues. This includes diagnosing and resolving major network outages, intricate multi-vendor integration challenges, and persistent performance bottlenecks that have stumped other teams. Your expertise will be called upon for deep-dive troubleshooting, often requiring advanced packet analysis, intricate log correlation, and a systematic approach to identifying root causes in highly distributed environments. This demands a mastery of troubleshooting methodologies, the ability to work under pressure during critical incidents, and effective communication to senior leadership regarding incident status, resolution steps, and preventative measures.
• Mentorship, Leadership, and Skill Development: A significant aspect of this senior role involves actively providing mentorship and leadership to junior Network Engineers and Operations Specialists. You will guide their technical development, offering expertise, performing technical reviews of their work (e.g., configuration changes, troubleshooting steps), and fostering an environment of continuous learning and skill enhancement. This includes sharing best practices, conducting training sessions, providing constructive feedback, and empowering team members to grow their capabilities, thereby strengthening the overall network operations team.
• Policy and Standards Development and Enforcement: You will be responsible for defining and documenting comprehensive network standards, security policies, and best practices. This ensures not only operational reliability but also strict adherence to regulatory and internal compliance frameworks such as PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) and ISO 27001 (Information Security Management). Your work will include developing guidelines for network device configurations, access control lists (ACLs), firewall rules, cabling standards, network diagrams, and documentation protocols. You will ensure these policies are regularly reviewed, updated, and communicated across relevant teams to maintain a secure and compliant network posture.
• Vendor and Stakeholder Management: You will actively engage in the evaluation of new network technologies and service providers, leading vendor assessments to identify solutions that best meet the organization’s needs. This extends to negotiating contracts with vendors, ensuring favorable terms for services and equipment. Furthermore, you will collaborate extensively with cross-functional leadership on strategic budgeting for network initiatives and contribute to the long-term technology roadmaps. This requires strong business acumen, the ability to articulate technical requirements into business benefits, and effective negotiation skills.
• Network Automation and Innovation Implementation: You will champion and implement automation scripts and tools to streamline network operations and significantly reduce manual tasks. This includes leveraging scripting languages like Python for network device configuration and data manipulation, utilizing configuration management tools such as Ansible for consistent deployments, and integrating network functionalities through API calls to network controllers, orchestrators, and cloud platforms. Your efforts in automation will enhance operational efficiency, minimize human error, accelerate deployment cycles, and enable more proactive network management capabilities.
• Project Leadership for Large-Scale Initiatives: You will take a leading role in overseeing and executing large-scale IT projects specifically related to network infrastructure. These projects may include comprehensive network refreshes, complex cloud migrations involving hybrid connectivity, or global WAN deployments to new or expanding business locations. You will be responsible for project planning, resource allocation, risk management, ensuring timely delivery, and meticulously minimizing disruption to ongoing business operations. This demands strong project management skills, the ability to coordinate across multiple teams, and a focus on successful implementation.

Essential Functions: Integrated Responsibilities

Beyond the strategic contributions, the Senior Network Engineer also encompasses vital operational and collaborative functions that ensure the continuous health and security of the network infrastructure:

• Solution Design, Implementation, and Engineering: You will lead and actively participate in the design, implementation, deployment, integration, and engineering phases of new infrastructure solutions and enhancements to existing IT solutions within the assigned technology areas. This encompasses detailed planning and execution to ensure integrity and availability.
• Proactive System Monitoring and Expertise: You will leverage your subject matter expertise of baselines to monitor systems and applications for IT-related issues. Your role involves proactive monitoring to identify potential issues before they impact operations and providing expert consultation on resolutions to prevent incidents.
• Standards, Processes, and Procedures Development: You will provide invaluable guidance and contribute directly to the creation of robust standards, processes, and procedures for network operations. You’ll ensure these are accurately and timely updated, actively identifying opportunities to streamline workflows and enhance overall efficiency across the IT department.
• Escalation Prioritization and Support: You will assist the team with the prioritization of escalated alerts, service requests, and incidents based on the impact of the issue. Furthermore, you will provide critical assistance and/or training as appropriate to junior team members, enhancing their problem-solving capabilities.
• Risk Mitigation and IT Control Implementation: You will actively seek out and collaborate with IT and business stakeholders to prioritize IT risks related to the network, provide clear mitigation or remediation recommendations, and implement effective IT controls to safeguard information assets.
• Documentation and Knowledge Management: You will provide essential information to appropriate teams to ensure updated documentation and comprehensive knowledge management within assigned technology area(s), fostering a culture of shared understanding and operational consistency.
• Compliance and Operational Adherence: You will consistently comply with all Company and department policies and standards, and perform other duties as assigned, demonstrating a commitment to organizational guidelines and flexibility.

Minimum Requirements: Your Foundation for Success

To be considered for this Senior Network Engineer position based in the Twin Cities area, you must meet the following minimum qualifications:

• Education and Experience: A Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related area from an accredited institution is required, or equivalent education coupled with relevant professional experience will be considered. You must possess a minimum of 5+ years of demonstrable experience in network engineering or architecture, with a strong preference for experience gained in large-scale, complex hybrid environments (combining on-premises data centers with cloud-based networking solutions). This extensive experience should reflect a consistent track record of successful project delivery and problem resolution.
• Availability for Non-Standard Hours: The nature of critical infrastructure support requires the ability to work outside of standard daytime hours as business needs dictate. This may include scheduled maintenance windows, emergency troubleshooting, or participation in on-call rotations.
• Travel Requirements: You must have the ability and willingness to travel to data centers located within the Twin Cities area and to out-of-state locations as needed for project deployments, critical incident response, or hardware refreshes.
• Deep Technical Understanding: A deep understanding of network design principles, implementation methodologies, and the management of complex network infrastructure projects is absolutely critical. This encompasses the full lifecycle of network solutions from conceptualization to operational support.

Skills and Abilities: Your Core Competencies

Beyond the minimum requirements, the ideal candidate will embody a comprehensive set of technical and interpersonal skills:

• Exceptional Communication and Collaboration: You must possess excellent customer service, communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills. This includes the ability to clearly articulate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders, present solutions to senior management, effectively negotiate with vendors, and foster a highly collaborative environment within and across technical teams.
• Superior Problem-Solving and Troubleshooting: Demonstrated excellent problem-solving and troubleshooting abilities are paramount. You must be able to methodically diagnose and resolve highly intricate network issues, often under pressure, utilizing advanced diagnostic tools and a deep understanding of network behavior.
• Analytical and Critical Thinking: You will exhibit excellent analytical and critical thinking skills, enabling you to dissect complex network problems, evaluate various solutions, assess risks, and make informed decisions that ensure network integrity and performance.
• Adaptability in Dynamic Environments: The ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, multi-user environment is essential. This requires adaptability, resilience, and the capacity to manage multiple priorities simultaneously without compromising quality.
• Independent and Collaborative Work Ethic: You must demonstrate the ability to work independently with minimal supervision, taking initiative and ownership of tasks, while simultaneously being a strong team player who can collaboratively contribute to group projects and support colleagues.
• Industry-Recognized Certifications: Possession of highly valued industry-recognized certifications is strongly preferred. This includes certifications such as CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional), JNCIS (Juniper Networks Certified Internet Specialist), PCNSE (Palo Alto Networks Certified Network Security Engineer), and Azure Network Engineer Associate. These certifications validate deep technical expertise in specific vendor technologies and cloud networking.
• Advanced Networking Protocol Expertise: A deep understanding of networking protocols is critical, including:
  • TCP/IP Suite: Comprehensive knowledge of the entire TCP/IP stack.
  • BGP (Border Gateway Protocol): Advanced understanding of external routing, policy routing, route reflectors, and confederations.
  • MPLS (Multiprotocol Label Switching): Experience with MPLS VPNs, traffic engineering, and QoS.
  • OSPF (Open Shortest Path First): Expertise in internal routing, area types, summarization, and network design.
  • Network Security Concepts: In-depth knowledge of firewalls (packet filtering, stateful inspection, application-aware), Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS), Virtual Private Networks (VPNs – IPsec, SSL), and Network Access Control (NAC).
  • Routing Protocols: Beyond OSPF and BGP, familiarity with other protocols like EIGRP, IS-IS.
  • Switching Technologies: Deep understanding of VLANs, Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), EtherChannel/LAG, HSRP/VRRP, QoS on switches.
  • Network Management Tools: Proficiency with Network Management Systems (NMS), NetFlow/sFlow analysis, SNMP, and other monitoring tools.
• Multi-Vendor Hardware Experience: Proven experience working with hardware from multiple leading network vendors, including Juniper, Palo Alto Networks, Arista, and Cisco. This demonstrates adaptability and a broad understanding of different network operating systems and architectures.
• Preferred Azure Cloud Technologies Experience: Hands-on experience with Azure cloud networking technologies is highly preferred. This includes designing and implementing Azure Virtual Networks (VNets), ExpressRoute connections, VPN Gateways, Load Balancers, Azure Firewalls, Network Security Groups (NSGs), and understanding cloud connectivity models.
• Preferred Infrastructure as Code (IaaC) Tools Experience: Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaaC) tools such as Terraform and Bicep is highly preferred. This includes using these tools for automating network infrastructure provisioning, configuration management, and deployment in a cloud or hybrid environment, further enhancing efficiency and consistency.

If you are a highly accomplished Network Engineer seeking a challenging and rewarding permanent opportunity to leverage your expertise in a strategic capacity within the Twin Cities area (with travel), we invite you to explore this exceptional role. This position offers the chance to lead critical initiatives, mentor future talent, and significantly impact the foundational technology of a dynamic organization.

To learn more and potentially embark on this exciting career path, click “Apply Now.” A dedicated recruiter will promptly be in touch to discuss this outstanding opportunity in greater detail, answer any questions you may have, and guide you through the application and interview process. We eagerly anticipate connecting with you and discovering how your unparalleled network engineering skills can contribute to our continued success!