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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Network Virtualization Engineer

💰 $ - $

🎯 Role Definition

The Network Virtualization Engineer is responsible for designing, deploying, operating, and optimizing virtualized network infrastructure and services across private, public, and hybrid cloud environments. This role focuses on NFV (Network Function Virtualization), SDN (Software-Defined Networking), CNFs (Containerized Network Functions), orchestration/integration with cloud and MANO platforms, and automation to deliver scalable, secure, and highly available virtual networking solutions. The ideal candidate combines deep networking expertise (BGP, OSPF, EVPN, VxLAN, MPLS, IPv6) with strong hands-on experience in virtualization technologies (VMware NSX, Cisco ACI, OpenStack Neutron, KVM, Kubernetes CNI) and infrastructure automation (Ansible, Terraform, Python).

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Network Engineer (L2/L3) transitioning to virtualization and cloud-native networking
  • Systems/Cloud Engineer with experience in Linux, virtualization and automation
  • Telecom Engineer with NFV or carrier-grade networking exposure

Advancement To:

  • Senior Network Virtualization Engineer / Lead
  • Cloud Network Architect / Principal Network Engineer
  • Network Architect — SDN/NFV Specialist
  • Engineering Manager, Network Platform or Cloud Networking

Lateral Moves:

  • Cloud Network Engineer
  • Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) with networking focus
  • Platform Engineer for Kubernetes/Infrastructure

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Design and architect end-to-end network virtualization solutions (NFV, SDN, CNF) that meet performance, scale, and security requirements for multi-tenant cloud and on-prem environments, incorporating VMware NSX, Cisco ACI, Juniper Contrail, or vendor-equivalent platforms.
  • Lead the deployment and lifecycle management of virtual network overlays using VxLAN, NVGRE, GENEVE and implement EVPN-VXLAN for multi-site connectivity, ensuring proper VLAN segmentation, tenant isolation, and multi-tenancy controls.
  • Implement and operate routing and control-plane protocols (BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MP-BGP EVPN) for data center fabrics, spine-leaf topologies, and inter-site WAN integrations, including IPv4/IPv6 routing and route-target/route-reflector design.
  • Design, onboard, and manage VNFs and CNFs (virtual routers, firewalls, load balancers, vCPE), collaborating with DevOps and platform teams to package, test, and deploy through CI/CD pipelines and Helm/Operator patterns for Kubernetes-hosted CNFs.
  • Integrate network virtualization platforms with orchestration and MANO systems (OpenStack, ONAP, OSM, TOSCA, Cloudify) and align with cloud controllers (OpenStack Neutron, AWS VPC, Azure Virtual Network) to enable automated provisioning and service chaining.
  • Develop and maintain Terraform and Ansible-based automation modules for reproducible provisioning, configuration management, and infrastructure-as-code for virtual switches, overlays, routers, and security policies.
  • Build and maintain Kubernetes network plugins and CNI integrations (Calico, Cilium, Flannel) to deliver pod-to-pod connectivity, network policies, and service mesh interoperability for containerized workloads in multi-cluster environments.
  • Implement micro-segmentation and distributed security controls using NSX Firewall, security groups, network policies, or vendor equivalents to reduce attack surface while supporting east-west traffic inspection and compliance requirements.
  • Design capacity planning, performance testing, and benchmarking strategies for virtualized network functions, including throughput, latency, CPU pinning, DPDK, SR-IOV, and NUMA optimizations to meet SLAs.
  • Troubleshoot complex production incidents across virtual and physical network layers using packet captures (tcpdump, Wireshark), flow tools (sFlow, NetFlow), logs, and tracing, driving RCA and long-term remediation.
  • Define and enforce network automation and CI/CD best practices: Git workflows, unit/integration testing for network code, merge request reviews, and automated validation of configuration drift.
  • Collaborate with platform, security, cloud, application, and operations teams to translate business requirements into network virtualization designs that support service delivery, observability, and operability.
  • Deploy and maintain monitoring, telemetry, and analytics stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/EFK, InfluxDB) to provide real-time visibility into overlay and underlay health, performance metrics, and service-level indicators.
  • Implement inter-site connectivity and hybrid cloud networking patterns (VPNs, SD-WAN, Direct Connect/ExpressRoute equivalents), ensuring secure multi-cloud routing, failover, and traffic engineering.
  • Manage vendor relationships and technical escalations for virtualization, SDN, and orchestration products; evaluate new features and coordinate product POCs to validate fit and operational maturity.
  • Produce and maintain runbooks, operational playbooks, and automation scripts to enable repeatable deployments, fast incident response, and on-call handovers for virtual networking services.
  • Lead proof-of-concepts (POCs) and lab validation for emerging technologies (SRv6, Segment Routing, UDP encapsulation, service mesh integration) and recommend migration strategies from legacy physical network designs.
  • Ensure compliance with regulatory, security, and governance requirements by implementing network segmentation, encryption (IPsec, MACsec), access controls, and audit logging across virtualized network environments.
  • Mentor and train junior engineers and cross-functional teams on virtual networking concepts, platform usage, automation practices, and troubleshooting methodologies to build organizational competence.
  • Drive continuous improvement initiatives: decommission legacy devices, consolidate overlays, reduce operational complexity, and increase automation coverage to lower MTTR and OPEX.
  • Coordinate release planning, change windows, and impact analysis for virtual network upgrades, schema changes, and migrations, ensuring roll-back plans and automated configuration validation are in place.
  • Participate in capacity forecasting and cost optimization for virtual network infrastructure, advising on resource sizing, licensing models, and cloud egress/ingress optimization strategies.
  • Design and enforce backup, recovery, and configuration management strategies for virtual network functions, controllers, and orchestration systems to ensure resilience and recoverability.
  • Translate business SLAs into measurable network performance objectives and implement telemetry-driven alerting and automated remediation policies to maintain required availability and throughput.

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 cost-benefit and TCO analyses when evaluating virtualization and cloud networking solutions and vendor alternatives.
  • Provide input into security assessments and participate in cross-functional tabletop exercises for incident response that involve network virtualization components.
  • Assist procurement and legal teams with technical evaluations and statements of work for virtual network and orchestration vendors.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • SDN and NFV architecture design and implementation — hands-on experience with VMware NSX-T, Cisco ACI, Juniper Contrail, or equivalent SDN controllers.
  • Cloud networking (AWS, Azure, GCP) and hybrid connectivity — proven experience integrating virtual networks with public cloud VPC/VNet architectures.
  • OpenStack Neutron, KVM/QEMU virtualization, and familiarity with VIM platforms and MANO stacks (ONAP, OSM).
  • Kubernetes networking and CNF lifecycle — experience with CNI plugins (Calico, Cilium), service meshes (Istio), and Helm/Operators for network functions.
  • Routing and switching protocols — BGP (including EVPN), OSPF, MPLS, ISIS, IPv6, and traffic engineering concepts (TE, SR, SRv6).
  • Overlay technologies — VXLAN, GENEVE, NVGRE and EVPN design patterns for multi-tenant data centers.
  • Automation and IaC — advanced use of Terraform, Ansible, Python scripting, and Git for configuration management and reproducible deployments.
  • Observability and monitoring — metrics, logging, tracing stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/EFK), NetFlow/sFlow, and packet-level troubleshooting with tcpdump/Wireshark.
  • Network function performance tuning — DPDK, SR-IOV, CPU pinning, NUMA awareness and benchmarking virtual network functions.
  • Security and micro-segmentation — firewall policy design, IPS/IDS integration, IPsec, MACsec, and NAC controls within virtual environments.
  • CI/CD for network functions — integrating network configs and VNFs/CNFs into pipeline-based testing and deployment flows.
  • Linux systems administration at scale — networking stack, namespaces, iproute2, tc, iptables/nftables familiarity.
  • Load balancing, NAT, and gateway services in virtualized/cloud contexts (HAProxy, NGINX, F5 or cloud LB equivalents).
  • Telemetry and analytics tooling for capacity planning and SLA measurement.
  • Vendor product evaluation and POC validation skills; ability to write technical proposals and solution comparison documents.

Soft Skills

  • Strong analytical and problem-solving mindset with the ability to decompose complex networking issues and drive root-cause analysis.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication; able to produce clear architecture documents, runbooks, and stakeholder briefings.
  • Collaboration and cross-functional influence across DevOps, Security, Cloud, and Product teams.
  • Project and time management — able to prioritize and deliver projects under tight timelines with minimal supervision.
  • Mentorship and knowledge-sharing to develop junior engineers and improve team capability.
  • Customer-focused orientation with emphasis on SLA delivery and operational excellence.
  • Adaptability to fast-changing technologies and the agility to adopt new tools and patterns.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

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

Preferred Education:

  • Master's degree in Networking, Computer Science, Telecommunications, or related domain.
  • Professional certifications (highly desirable): CCNP/CCIE (Data Center/Enterprise/Service Provider), VMware VCP/VCAP (NSX), AWS Advanced Networking, Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA), Red Hat/Juniper certifications.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Computer Science
  • Electrical / Electronic Engineering
  • Telecommunications / Network Engineering
  • Information Systems / Cloud Computing

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 3–8 years of progressive networking experience with at least 2–3 years focused on network virtualization, SDN, or NFV technologies.

Preferred:

  • 5+ years designing and operating complex virtualized or cloud-native network environments.
  • Demonstrated experience with vendor platforms (VMware NSX, Cisco ACI, Juniper Contrail), orchestration (OpenStack/ONAP/OSM), and Kubernetes networking.
  • Proven track record in automation (Ansible/Terraform/Python), performance optimization (DPDK/SR-IOV), and production troubleshooting.
  • Experience working in agile/DevOps environments and participating in CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure and network function delivery.
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