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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Cloud Network Engineer

💰 $ - $

CloudNetworkingDevOpsSecurity

🎯 Role Definition

The Cloud Network Engineer is responsible for designing, implementing, securing, and operating scalable cloud networking solutions across public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and hybrid environments. This role partners with cloud architects, security, SRE, and application teams to ensure reliable connectivity, performance, and compliance for multi-region cloud services. The ideal candidate brings deep networking protocol knowledge, hands-on experience with cloud networking primitives (VPC/VNet/Peering, Transit Gateway, ExpressRoute, Cloud Interconnect), automation expertise (Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible), and a security-first mindset to deliver resilient, cost-efficient, and observable network infrastructures.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Network Engineer / Systems Engineer with cloud exposure
  • Cloud Operations Engineer / Cloud Support Engineer
  • Infrastructure Engineer with hands-on networking experience

Advancement To:

  • Senior Cloud Network Engineer
  • Cloud Network Architect / Principal Network Engineer
  • Cloud Infrastructure Engineering Manager / Director of Cloud Networking

Lateral Moves:

  • Site Reliability Engineer (SRE)
  • Cloud Security Engineer / Network Security Architect
  • DevOps Engineer (Infrastructure as Code specialization)

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design, implement, and maintain cloud network architectures (VPCs/VNets, subnetting, route tables, NAT, gateways) across AWS, Azure, and GCP to support microservices, container platforms, and multi-tier applications while ensuring high availability and minimal latency.
  • Architect and manage hybrid connectivity solutions including VPN, AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, and Google Cloud Interconnect to securely link on-premises networks to cloud environments and ensure predictable performance.
  • Implement, configure, and operate cloud transit and hub-and-spoke topologies (Transit Gateway, Azure Virtual WAN, Cloud Router) to centralize routing, security, and egress policies for multi-account/multi-project organizations.
  • Design and manage VPC/VNet peering, private endpoints, service endpoints, and DNS forwarding rules to enable secure service-to-service communication while minimizing blast radius and cross-account exposure.
  • Develop and maintain infrastructure as code (IaC) templates and modules using Terraform, CloudFormation, Bicep, or Pulumi to provision reproducible, auditable, and version-controlled cloud networking resources.
  • Implement network security controls including firewalls (Security Groups, Network Security Groups, cloud-native firewalls), IDS/IPS, Next-Gen FW integrations, network ACLs, and micro-segmentation to enforce Zero Trust and least-privilege network access.
  • Build and operate robust load balancing architectures (ALB/ELB, NLB, Azure Load Balancer, GCP Load Balancing) and global traffic management (Route 53, Azure Traffic Manager, Cloud DNS) for low-latency, resilient application delivery.
  • Configure and troubleshoot dynamic routing protocols (BGP, OSPF where applicable), route propagation, and policy-based routing in multi-cloud and hybrid environments to ensure deterministic path selection and failover behavior.
  • Lead migration planning and execution for large-scale network migrations to cloud platforms, including discovery, dependency mapping, cutover orchestration, and post-migration validation and optimization.
  • Build automation for network provisioning, change management, and compliance checks using CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins) to accelerate delivery while reducing manual risk.
  • Establish observability for networks using telemetry, metrics, flow logs (VPC Flow Logs, NSG Flow Logs), packet captures, and distributed tracing to monitor performance, troubleshoot incidents, and drive capacity planning.
  • Define and enforce network tagging, naming conventions, and governance standards to improve manageability, cost allocation, and security posture across cloud estates.
  • Collaborate with application and platform teams to design secure overlay networks for Kubernetes (Calico, Cilium, Flannel) and container platforms, ensuring pod-to-service connectivity, egress controls, and service mesh compatibility.
  • Conduct vulnerability assessments, penetration testing coordination, and remediation tracking for network components; implement automated compliance scans and hardening scripts against CIS benchmarks and enterprise policies.
  • Optimize network cost and performance by analyzing traffic patterns, consolidating transit flows, right-sizing NAT/egress resources, and recommending architectural changes such as regional replication or edge caching.
  • Develop runbooks, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and post-incident reviews for network incidents, ensuring knowledge transfer, continuous improvement, and SLA adherence.
  • Integrate cloud network services with identity and access management (IAM) controls, service accounts, and conditional access policies to secure management planes and reduce blast radius.
  • Partner with security and incident response teams to lead network-related investigations, forensic analysis of traffic logs, and rapid mitigation actions for live security incidents.
  • Provide subject matter expertise and technical review for procurement, vendor solutions, and third-party network appliances (virtual firewalls, WAF, SD-WAN) to meet enterprise SLAs and compliance needs.
  • Mentor junior engineers, provide training on cloud networking best practices, and contribute to standards, architecture reviews, and cross-team design sessions.

Secondary Functions

  • Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
  • Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
  • Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
  • Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
  • Assist in vendor evaluations and proof-of-concepts for cloud networking, SD-WAN, or firewall solutions; document technical findings and recommended architectures.
  • Contribute to documentation efforts including architecture diagrams, network inventories, and runbook updates to support operational readiness.
  • Provide on-call rotation support for escalated network incidents and participate in incident retrospectives to reduce recurrence.
  • Coordinate with procurement and finance teams on capacity planning, cost forecasting, and licensing needs for cloud networking services.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Deep expertise in public cloud networking: AWS (VPC, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, Route 53), Azure (VNet, Virtual WAN, ExpressRoute, Azure DNS), and GCP (VPC, Cloud VPN, Cloud NAT, Cloud Router).
  • Proficient with infrastructure as code tools: Terraform, CloudFormation, Bicep, or Pulumi; ability to write modular, testable, and reusable IaC.
  • Strong routing and switching fundamentals including BGP, route propagation, route filters, NAT, CIDR planning, and subnet design for multi-tenant/large-scale environments.
  • Hands-on experience with network security constructs: security groups, network policies, virtual firewalls (Palo Alto VM-Series, Fortinet, Check Point) and cloud-native WAFs and DDoS protections.
  • Experience with network automation and orchestration using Ansible, Python, Go, or similar scripting for configuration management and operational tasks.
  • Familiarity with load balancing and global traffic management solutions (AWS ALB/NLB, Azure Load Balancer, GCP Load Balancer, CloudFront, CDN integrations).
  • Knowledge of container networking and service mesh patterns (Kubernetes CNI plugins, Calico, Cilium, Istio) and how they integrate with cloud networking.
  • Proficiency in network observability and diagnostic tools: VPC Flow Logs, NetFlow, packet capture tools (tcpdump, Wireshark), Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/Opensearch.
  • Experience designing hybrid-cloud connectivity, SD-WAN integration, and working with telco partners for cross-connect and Colo services.
  • Familiarity with identity-aware network controls, IAM, RBAC, and secure access solutions such as AWS PrivateLink, Azure Private Link, Azure AD, and conditional access.
  • Competence with CI/CD pipelines and Git-based workflows for IaC lifecycle, testing, and secure change management.
  • Understanding of compliance frameworks and ability to implement network controls for standards like PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOC2, and ISO27001.

Soft Skills

  • Strong verbal and written communication skills; able to explain complex networking concepts to non-technical stakeholders and produce clear architecture and runbook documentation.
  • Effective collaboration and cross-functional teamwork with cloud architects, application owners, security, and platform teams.
  • Analytical and problem-solving mindset with attention to detail; capable of driving root cause analysis and long-term remediation.
  • Project management and organizational skills; able to lead migration activities, technical workstreams, and coordinate across multiple teams.
  • Customer-focused with the ability to prioritize work based on business impact and SLA commitments.
  • Mentorship and leadership: able to coach junior engineers, review designs, and elevate team technical standards.
  • Adaptability and continuous learning attitude to keep pace with evolving cloud networking features and best practices.
  • Strong ownership and accountability for operational readiness, incident response, and post-incident follow-through.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Network Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field; or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in Computer Science, Networking, Cybersecurity, or related discipline.
  • Relevant professional certifications such as AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty, Azure Network Engineer Associate, Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer, CCNP/CCIE, or equivalent.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Network Engineering
  • Information Security
  • Electrical / Telecommunications Engineering

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3–8 years of networking experience with at least 2–4 years focused on cloud networking.

Preferred: 5+ years designing and operating production networks combined with demonstrable experience architecting cloud-based connectivity and automating cloud network provisioning with IaC tools.

Keywords: Cloud Network Engineer, AWS VPC, Azure VNet, GCP VPC, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, ExpressRoute, BGP, Terraform, CloudFormation, Network Automation, SD-WAN, Network Security, Kubernetes Networking, Service Mesh, Load Balancer, VPC Flow Logs, Zero Trust, Hybrid Cloud, Infrastructure as Code, Network Observability.

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