Senior Network Engineer

How You’ll Contribute

Who We Are

Technology is the engine providing digital experiences for National Geographic Society. From our staff to our constituents, Technology provides the power to amplify National Geographic’s impact through value-based product delivery, transformational data services, and world-class support and infrastructure services. These services include employee training and technical support, audio/visual production, device management, enterprise architecture, network management, on premise and cloud computing, information security, identity management, data management and integration, product management, user experience design, software development, systems engineering, and systems administration. Technology is comprised of five teams: Business Products, Constituent Products, Data Products, Infrastructure & Security, and Technology Support Services.


Job Description Summary

The Sr. Network Engineer is responsible for the design, implementation, maintenance, and support of our growing network infrastructure. This role will be part of a networking engineering team that is responsible for designing and developing scalable, maintainable, highly available network architectures that meet business objectives and SLAs. This role is responsible for the configuration and deployment of core and border routers, wired/wireless access for staff, guests, and special events, as well as coordination with network/infrastructure administrators for daily operational management, and tier 3 troubleshooting and resolution as needed.
The Sr. Network Engineer works with solutions architects, system administrators, consultants, partners, and vendors to build, configure, test and implement network solutions that meet the enterprise’s business needs and are aligned and consistent with enterprise IT strategies and plans. This role will collaborate with the Security Operations (SecOps) team on activities related to intrusion detection and prevention. This role will take ownership of incident tickets and service requests and work with end-users and IT staff for resolution/fulfillment. Additional responsibilities include working with server and application administrators on any issues such as latency or capacity planning.

Your Impact

Your Impact & Responsibilities

Network Management (30%)

• Perform network maintenance and system upgrades including service packs, patches, hotfixes and security configurations on any network management systems.

• Monitor performance and ensure system availability and reliability using network management systems.

• Compose network metrics on latency, high utilization, trending connectivity, and capacity planning.

• Participation in system performance analysis, system instrumentation, system administration, and change management activities.

Infrastructure Support (40%)

• Sustain the necessary data throughput rate by monitoring networking activity and maintaining existing equipment.

• Work within established configuration and change management policies to ensure awareness, approval, and success of changes made to the network infrastructure.

• Respond to network connectivity issues and resolve any wireless communication issues within the confines of the office.

• Update the network maintenance manual and submit a summary of changes to the manual each week to management.

• Collaborate with third-party support and service vendors to ensure that the network stays operational.

• Maintain the configuration of routing and switching equipment.

• Provide Level-2/3 support and troubleshooting to resolve issues.

• Collaborate with Security Operations (SecOPs) to secure network and wireless systems with policies that define and monitor access and address activities related to intrusion detection and prevention.

• Liaise with vendors and other IT personnel for problem resolution.

Network Engineering & Administration (20%)

• Design and implementation of high redundancy routing on the core and internet routers.

• Design and implementation of access layer configurations including closet switches, wireless networking, and data center switches.

• Conduct network modeling and analysis to construct a reliable, high-performance integrated network.

• Determine network bandwidth needs and recommend measures to meet those requirements.

Network Firewall Security (10%)

• Management of network firewalls to secure enterprise network infrastructure.

• Perform firewall maintenance and system upgrades including service packs, patches, hotfixes and security configurations to include implementing best practices.

What You’ll Bring

Minimum Education Required
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related discipline, or equivalent experience.

Minimum Years and Type of Experience
Minimum of four years of experience with network engineering and administration of enterprise campus networks, including access/core/border layers, wireless, and firewall.

Knowledge and Skills Required

• Proven hands-on network engineering experience and a deep understanding of networking protocols (e.g., IPSEC, HSRP, BGP, OSPF, 802.11, QoS).

• A solid understanding of the OSI or TCP/IP model with hands-on experience with monitoring, network diagnostic and network analytics tools.

• In-depth knowledge/experience with network products in particular Aruba, Brocade, Extreme, Arista, Cisco, and other major vendors.

• Knowable about high redundancy routing on the core and internet routers.

• In-depth knowledge/experience with Palo Alto firewall and other firewall vendors.

• Strong customer service, troubleshooting, and problem-solving.

• Collaborate in multiple projects concurrently from inception to completion with limited management supervision. 

• Excellent oral and written communication skills, and ability to excel in a dynamic environment subject to changes in schedules and priorities, while maintaining a positive collaboration approach with teams across organizational lines.

Desired qualifications

• Network and/or firewall related certifications or other relevant certifications are highly desired.

Supervision

No direct report

Salary Information

The National Geographic Society offers a competitive and holistic total rewards package. Our compensation structure and transparent pay philosophy are based on industry-specific market data for similar-sized nonprofit organizations.

The salary range for this position accounts for a wide range of factors including but not limited to organizational need; specific skill sets; experience and training; certifications; and more. At the National Geographic Society, individuals are typically hired at or near the starting point of the salary range for their role, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case.

The salary range for this position is $123,500.00 - $130,000.00.

In addition, the National Geographic Society offers a competitive and comprehensive benefits package that includes, but is not limited to, medical, dental, and vision insurance; engaging and comprehensive wellness program; 401(k) retirement savings plan with matching contributions after 6 months of employment; flexible paid time off benefits with up to 22 days of paid annual leave per calendar year (15 days for new hires in their first year, prorated based on the number of pay periods remaining in the year) and 10 days of sick leave; 12 paid holidays and a paid winter break between December 25 and 31 (May not apply to all roles that are required to work during high volume seasons or essential workers. Please check with the hiring manager for confirmation.); paid parental leave, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, fertility benefits; learning and development opportunities; Lifestyle Spending Account; pet adoption assistance and insurance; pre-tax transportation benefits with a generous employer subsidy; employer-paid life insurance and disability benefit; and a variety of National Geographic discounts and perks.

Job Designation

Resident - Our Resident category recognizes that certain staff need to be physically present at Base Camp to do their work. Some Resident staff must be at Base Camp every day to do their jobs, while others may only need to be physically present onsite some of the time to meet looming deadlines or to get work done and may require a unique schedule. As such, this category has been revised to provide maximum flexibility depending on what’s required for each individual role. The days Resident staff come into the office will be determined by their teams and workflow, and they should work with their supervisors to determine their specific schedule. And throughout the year, their schedule may be adjusted based on cyclical work cycles, deadlines, and/or ebbs and flows of work.

Candidates must be legally authorized to work in the United States. This position is not eligible for visa sponsorship.

We encourage you to apply even if your experience is not a 100% match with the position. We are looking for someone with relevant skills and experience, not a checklist that exactly matches the job description. We want to help you grow and in return, you help us grow into a stronger, more inclusive organization.