Sr Network Engineer

Summary:

The Senior Network Engineer (SNE) at National Heritage Academies (NHA) ensures the functionality stability and security of NHAs data voice and wireless networks and Internet connectivity. The SNE designs plans builds and supports local area networks (LANs) wide area networks (WANs) wireless networks (WLANs) Internet connectivity voice solutions and core network services including DNS and system monitoring across NHAs school campuses and offices.

The SNE works hands-on with NHAs network platforms which include Palo Alto Networks firewalls Ruckus wireless Arista networking and Cisco networking. The SNE also supports VPN tunnels load balancing and communication links and resolves hardware and software performance problems quickly and accurately.

Company Information:

National Heritage Academies (NHA) partners with communities to build and operate public charter schools. Founded in 1995 today NHA serves over 100 schools in nine states with more than 65000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Our schools are designed to eliminate the achievement gap and provide school choice to families so their children are prepared for success in college career and life. A majority of our schools consistently outperform their local district on the state test. According to the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University NHA is a leading performer among charter schools and management organizations outperforming both conventional district schools and other charter school addition according to our employee survey over 90% of respondents agree that the work they do is meaningful to them. Join our team.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Network infrastructure

• Design deploy and replace LAN WAN Wi-Fi firewall and voice network infrastructure along with supporting equipment such as UPS units.
• Plan and implement hardware software and operating system upgrades and patches including firmware lifecycle management across Arista Cisco Ruckus and Palo Alto platforms.
• Configure and maintain Arista and Cisco switching and routing including VLANs routing protocols link aggregation and redundancy.
• Deploy and support Ruckus wireless networks including controllers access points RF planning and wireless authentication such as 802.1X and certificate-based methods.
• Maintain configuration backups and restoration procedures for all network devices.
• Manage cellular and backup Internet connectivity and ensure it is used appropriately.

Security

• Participate in managing and developing NHAs network security solutions with a security-first approach to protecting student and organizational data.
• Administer Palo Alto firewalls including security policies NAT VPN content and threat prevention and logging.
• Support network segmentation access control and compliance requirements related to student data and Internet safety.

DNS management

• Administer NHAs DNS infrastructure including internal and external zones records forwarders and conditional forwarding.
• Maintain DNS records accurately and on time as schools systems and services are added moved or retired.
• Coordinate DNS with DHCP and IP address management so that naming and addressing stay consistent across campuses.
• Apply DNS security practices such as restricting zone transfers monitoring for anomalies and supporting DNS-based filtering where used.
• Troubleshoot name resolution issues and document DNS standards zone ownership and change procedures.
• Work with vendors and registrars on domain and external DNS changes as needed.

System monitoring

• Design deploy and maintain monitoring and alerting for network devices firewalls wireless systems DNS services circuits and supporting infrastructure such as UPS units.
• Track availability utilization latency and error rates and set thresholds and alerts that surface problems before they affect schools.
• Collect and review logs and events from Palo Alto Ruckus Arista and Cisco platforms and escalate security-relevant findings.
• Tune monitoring to reduce false alarms and keep monitored devices and alert contacts current as sites and equipment change.
• Use monitoring data for capacity planning lifecycle planning trend analysis and root-cause reviews after incidents.
• Produce regular performance and availability reports for leadership.

Operations and support

• Serve as the day-to-day technical focal point for network operations.
• Respond promptly to critical outages and capacity constraints and troubleshoot problem areas to resolution.
• Triage escalated network tickets from the technology support center and communicate significant issues to leadership.
• Contact Internet and voice service providers during service outages and manage them through resolution.
• Maintain current documentation of network configurations network maps processes service records and contracts.

Projects and collaboration

• Assist with and often lead network projects from planning through implementation and handoff.
• Mentor and train junior team members and occasionally lead their work.
• Communicate and negotiate with vendors outsourcers and contractors to secure network products and maintain service uptime.
• Participate in after-hours maintenance windows and on-call coverage as needed.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in network technology computer science or a related field or equivalent experience plus five years of relevant IT implementation experience.
• Strong knowledge of layer-2 and layer-3 switching and routing on Cisco and Arista platforms.
• Working knowledge of enterprise firewalls and security policy design with Palo Alto Networks experience strongly preferred.
• Working knowledge of enterprise wireless networking with Ruckus experience strongly preferred.
• Solid understanding of DNS including zone management record types resolution troubleshooting and DNS security.
• Intermediate or greater understanding of wired and Wi-Fi network protocols and how they function in an enterprise environment.
• Experience with network and system monitoring alerting and log analysis.
• Experience with configuration backups and restoration.
• Understanding of cellular Internet connectivity and its appropriate use.
• Competency with testing tools and procedures for voice and data circuits.
• A security-first mindset with a commitment to the integrity of student and organizational infrastructure and data.
• Strong organizational and documentation skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and a strong customer service focus.
• Ability to multitask and work effectively in a demanding environment.

This is an in-person position at our NHA Service Center located at 3850 Broadmoor Ave. Grand Rapids MI.

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National Heritage Academies is an equal-opportunity employer.