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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Computer Network Engineer

💰 $ - $

NetworkingITEngineeringInfrastructureSecurity

🎯 Role Definition

A Computer Network Engineer designs, implements, operates, and optimizes enterprise-level network infrastructure to ensure secure, high-performance, and highly available connectivity across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. This role leads routing and switching implementations, configures firewalls and VPNs, performs proactive monitoring and capacity planning, troubleshoots complex multi-vendor network issues, and drives automation and standardization to reduce operational overhead and accelerate deployments. The ideal candidate balances deep technical expertise (BGP, OSPF, MPLS, TCP/IP, VLANs, IPv6), security best practices (ACLs, IDS/IPS, NAC), and strong cross-functional communication to partner with cloud, security, and application teams.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Network Technician / Network Support Specialist
  • Systems Administrator with networking focus
  • Telecommunications Technician

Advancement To:

  • Senior Network Engineer
  • Network Architect
  • Cloud Network Architect
  • Network Engineering Manager

Lateral Moves:

  • Network Security Engineer
  • Cloud Network Engineer / Cloud Infrastructure Engineer
  • Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) with networking focus

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design and implement resilient LAN/WAN architectures, including VLANs, subnetting, routing topologies, and failover strategies to meet SLA and business continuity requirements.
  • Configure, deploy, and maintain enterprise routers and switches (Cisco, Juniper, Arista, etc.) with an emphasis on routing protocols such as BGP, OSPF, and IS-IS to ensure optimal path selection and redundancy.
  • Architect and operate MPLS, SD-WAN, and VPN solutions (IPsec, SSL) to securely interconnect branches, data centers, and cloud environments while optimizing latency and throughput.
  • Plan and execute network capacity forecasting and scalability strategies based on traffic analysis, growth projections, and business initiatives to prevent congestion and bottlenecks.
  • Lead firewall architecture and policy management (Next-Gen Firewalls, ASA, Palo Alto) including rule life-cycle reviews, segmentation, and micro-segmentation to reduce attack surface.
  • Implement and manage network security controls—ACLs, IDS/IPS, DNS filtering, and NAC—to enforce policy, detect threats, and harden network infrastructure.
  • Design and manage cloud networking constructs (AWS VPC, Azure VNets, GCP VPC) including peering, Transit Gateway, route tables, NAT, and security groups to integrate cloud workloads securely with on-premises infrastructure.
  • Deploy and tune load balancing and application delivery controllers (F5, HAProxy, NGINX) to provide scalability, SSL offload, and application layer resiliency.
  • Troubleshoot complex multi-tier network issues end-to-end—packet captures, flow analysis (NetFlow/sFlow), latency, jitter, and loss—to identify root causes and implement corrective actions.
  • Develop and maintain network automation and orchestration workflows using Python, Ansible, Terraform, or native APIs to reduce manual configuration, enforce standards, and accelerate provisioning.
  • Establish and maintain network monitoring, observability, and alerting (SNMP, Prometheus, Grafana, SolarWinds, Datadog) to proactively detect incidents and reduce mean time to repair (MTTR).
  • Manage IP address planning and DHCP/DNS infrastructure to ensure robust name resolution and efficient IP space utilization including IPv6 adoption strategies.
  • Create and enforce network configuration standards, runbooks, and change management procedures to ensure consistent, auditable, and reversible network changes.
  • Perform vulnerability assessments, patching coordination, and remediation for network devices, and work with security teams to prioritize and validate mitigations.
  • Lead or participate in network upgrades, migrations, and technology refresh projects while minimizing customer impact through detailed cutover planning and rollback strategies.
  • Conduct disaster recovery planning and testing for network infrastructure, including replication, failover, and post-failover validation of routing and connectivity.
  • Manage vendor relationships for network hardware, software, and managed services; evaluate RFPs, review SLAs, and coordinate escalations to meet delivery timelines.
  • Provide 24/7 on-call support rotations or incident response leadership for major network outages, produce incident reports, and drive post-incident remediation and prevention.
  • Mentor junior network engineers and operations staff, conduct technical training sessions, and review peer configurations to raise overall team competency.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with application, security, cloud, and datacenter teams to align network architecture with application requirements and security/compliance standards.
  • Maintain comprehensive documentation of network designs, topology diagrams, IP addressing, and device configurations to ensure knowledge continuity and compliance.
  • Implement QoS policies and traffic engineering for latency-sensitive services (VoIP, video, real-time applications) to guarantee performance under congestion.
  • Evaluate and pilot new networking technologies (segment routing, intent-based networking, SDN) to recommend improvements and modernization paths that reduce cost and operational complexity.
  • Monitor vendor firmware and feature releases, plan safe upgrade windows, and validate compatibility with downstream systems and configurations.

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 security and compliance teams with network-specific evidence collection and remediation tracking for audits (PCI, SOC2, ISO).
  • Participate in procurement planning, licensing renewals, and lifecycle management for networking assets.
  • Provide network impact analysis and risk assessments for proposed application changes and infrastructure updates.
  • Create customer-facing network status communications, scheduled maintenance notices, and runbook updates to reduce business disruption.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Advanced knowledge of TCP/IP, subnetting, VLANs, IPv4 and IPv6, ARP, and DNS/DHCP fundamentals.
  • Hands-on experience with enterprise routing and switching platforms (Cisco IOS/IOS-XE/NX-OS, Juniper Junos, Arista EOS).
  • Deep expertise in routing protocols: BGP (including iBGP/eBGP and route reflectors), OSPF, and route policy implementation.
  • Strong experience with VPN technologies (IPsec, DMVPN, SSL VPN) and remote access solutions.
  • Familiarity with SD-WAN solutions (Cisco Viptela/SD-WAN, VMware SD-WAN, Fortinet SD-WAN) and WAN optimization strategies.
  • Network security skills: firewall configuration (Palo Alto, Cisco ASA, Fortinet), IDS/IPS, ACLs, segmentation, and zero trust concepts.
  • Cloud networking: designing and operating AWS VPC, Azure Virtual Network, GCP networking, including hybrid connectivity (Direct Connect, ExpressRoute, VPN).
  • Network automation and infrastructure as code: Python, Ansible, Terraform, REST APIs, and Git-based workflows.
  • Monitoring and observability tools: SNMP, NetFlow/sFlow/IPFIX, Prometheus, Grafana, SolarWinds, Datadog, or equivalent.
  • Wireless networking knowledge: enterprise 802.11 design, controllers, RF troubleshooting, and site survey basics.
  • Load balancing and application delivery (F5, HAProxy, NGINX) and SSL/TLS certificate lifecycle management.
  • Experience with QoS, traffic shaping, and traffic engineering to support real-time services (VoIP, video conferencing).
  • Understanding of MPLS, VRFs, traffic separation, and enterprise WAN architectures.
  • Proficiency with packet analysis tools (Wireshark, tcpdump) and network performance analysis methodologies.
  • IP address management (IPAM), DNS architecture, and DHCP planning.
  • Familiarity with network device lifecycle, firmware/patch management, and secure configuration baselines.
  • Experience with high-availability architectures, redundancy protocols (HSRP, VRRP), and link aggregation (LACP).
  • Knowledge of compliance and security standards affecting networks (PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOC2).
  • Relevant networking certifications (CCNA, CCNP, JNCIS, JNCIP, AWS Networking Specialty) are preferred indicators of competency.

Soft Skills

  • Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset with an ability to decompose complex network incidents into actionable tasks.
  • Clear verbal and written communication skills to translate technical concepts for non-technical stakeholders and produce crisp documentation.
  • Collaborative team player able to work across infrastructure, security, cloud, and application teams to drive cross-functional solutions.
  • Customer-focused attitude and practiced in managing expectations during incidents and change rollouts.
  • Time management and prioritization skills to handle concurrent projects, operational tickets, and on-call responsibilities.
  • Mentorship and leadership: coaching junior engineers, conducting technical reviews, and fostering knowledge sharing.
  • Adaptability and continuous learning mindset to evaluate and adopt new networking technologies and paradigms.
  • Attention to detail for configuration accuracy, change control, and audit readiness.
  • Project management skills to deliver network upgrades, migrations, and deployments on schedule.
  • Decision-making under pressure during incident response and outage situations.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Electrical Engineering, Telecommunications, or equivalent technical discipline; or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a networking or systems-related field, or industry-recognized advanced certifications (CCNP/CCIE, JNCIP/JNCIE, AWS/Azure Networking Specialty).

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science / Information Technology
  • Network Engineering / Telecommunications
  • Electrical or Computer Engineering
  • Cybersecurity / Information Assurance

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 3–7 years of hands-on enterprise network engineering experience for mid-level positions; 7+ years for senior/architect roles.

Preferred:

  • Demonstrated experience designing, deploying, and operating complex enterprise networks, implementing routing and switching at scale, managing WAN and cloud connectivity, and leading automation and security initiatives. Proven track record of incident response, capacity planning, and cross-functional collaboration.
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