Associate Network Engineer Jobs in Southington, CT

LOCATION: NEWINGTON, CT.  This is an in person role, not remote, not hybrid

WORK SCHEDULE: Monday - Friday; 8:30 am - 5:00 pm

Network Engineer is an onsite position responsible for the day-to-day administration, support, monitoring, and maintenance of the organization’s multi-site network infrastructure. This position supports a highly available enterprise environment consisting of LAN/WAN infrastructure, firewalls, wireless networks, VPN connectivity, network access control, Internet and carrier circuits, and related network services.

The Network Engineer will work closely with the Security and Desktop Support teams to maintain reliable and secure connectivity across all company locations. The position will also participate in network modernization initiatives, infrastructure projects, vulnerability remediation, disaster recovery, and security and compliance activities.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on network professional with experience supporting Cisco and Meraki environments who is comfortable troubleshooting complex network issues while also identifying opportunities to improve reliability, security, performance, and cost efficiency.

What You Will Do

• Act as an escalation point of contact for Desktop Support staff.
• Maintain a high degree of customer service and adhere to all service management principles.
• Administer, monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot enterprise LAN, WAN, Internet, VPN, and wireless infrastructure across multiple company locations.
• Train and guide Desktop Support staff.
• Configure and support Cisco and Cisco Meraki switches, routers, firewalls, wireless access points, and related network technologies.
• Monitor network availability, performance, utilization, latency, packet loss, and capacity and proactively address potential issues.
• Configure and maintain VLANs, routing, switching, DHCP, DNS-related network services, ACLs, NAT, QoS, and other network services.
• Troubleshoot Layer 2 and Layer 3 connectivity issues using packet captures, logs, monitoring platforms, and other diagnostic tools.
• Maintain network equipment configurations, backups, firmware, software versions, and lifecycle information.
• Perform network equipment upgrades and replacements during scheduled maintenance windows.
• Assist with network architecture improvements and infrastructure modernization projects.
• Maintain accurate network diagrams, IP address documentation, equipment inventories, configurations, and operational procedures.
• Support network connectivity for VMware virtual infrastructure and enterprise storage systems.
• Assist with configuration and troubleshooting of VMware networking, including virtual switches, VLANs, uplinks, and network connectivity.
• Support network connectivity associated with SAN/storage infrastructure, disaster recovery environments, and data center systems.
• Participate in infrastructure migrations, server moves, storage migrations, and data center projects requiring network changes.
• Monitor network infrastructure and respond to alerts, outages, degradation, and connectivity issues.
• Participate in troubleshooting of complex incidents involving network, server, application, storage, carrier, and security components.
• Perform root-cause analysis for significant network outages and recurring issues.
• Escalate issues to vendors and carriers when appropriate and maintain ownership through resolution.
• Participate in after-hours maintenance and emergency support when required.
• Participate in an on-call rotation as required.
• Support network infrastructure associated with disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities.
• Participate in scheduled disaster recovery exercises and failover testing.
• Test and validate VPN, WAN, firewall, routing, and other network functionality during DR exercises.
• Maintain documentation necessary to recover network services following an outage or disaster.
• Support organizational compliance requirements, including SOC 2 and PCI DSS.
• Assist with gathering network-related evidence for internal, external, customer, and regulatory audits.
• Maintain network configurations and documentation in accordance with established change-management and security requirements.
• Assist with vulnerability remediation, firmware upgrades, configuration reviews, and security hardening.
• Follow established change-management procedures for production network changes.
• Participate in and, where appropriate, lead network infrastructure projects
• Ability to lift up to 50lbs.

What You Will Bring To Data Mail

• Associate’s or Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Cybersecurity, Networking, or related discipline preferred. Equivalent professional experience will be considered.
• 5-8+ years of hands-on experience administering enterprise network infrastructure.
• Familiarity with VMware networking and virtualized server environments. Certifications in Cisco networking, Microsoft, and/or VMWare ESXi preferred.
• Strong understanding of TCP/IP networking and the OSI model.
• Strong knowledge of Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking concepts.
• Experience configuring and troubleshooting VLANs, STP, routing, switching, NAT, ACLs, DHCP, DNS, and VPN technologies.
• Hands-on experience with Cisco networking equipment.
• Experience supporting enterprise firewalls and site-to-site VPNs.
• Experience with enterprise wireless networking.
• Experience troubleshooting network connectivity using tools such as packet captures, traceroute, Wireshark, logs, and network monitoring platforms.
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Active Directory and enterprise authentication concepts.
• Understanding of network security principles, segmentation, least privilege, and secure remote access.
• Ability to independently troubleshoot complex technical problems and work effectively with internal teams, vendors, and telecommunications providers.
• Strong documentation, organizational, and communication skills.
• Ability to participate in after-hours maintenance and support when required.
• Ability to quickly learn new or unfamiliar technologies and products independently, using documentation and on line resources.
• Manufacturing industry vertical experience preferred.
• Strong written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills, and the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.
• Highly self-motivated and directed.
• Team-oriented and the ability to effectively work within a collaborative environment.