Sr Network Engineer

Summary:

The Senior Network Engineer (SNE) at National Heritage Academies™ (NHA) ensures the functionality, stability, and security of NHA's 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 NHA's school campuses and offices.

The SNE works hands-on with NHA's 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 65,000 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 operators. In 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 NHA's 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 NHA's 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:

- Bachelor's 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.