Principal/ Senior Network Engineer (L3 Support; Regional Role)

Salary: $50,000 – $70,000 per month

Principal/ Senior Network Engineer (L3)

Role Overview

The Principal/Senior Network Engineer (L3) leads the technical operation, troubleshooting, and continuous optimization of enterprise network environments. Serving as the highest escalation tier (Level 3), this position manages multi-vendor routing, switching, perimeter security, and wireless infrastructures. The position acts as a primary technical authority during critical outages, mentors junior teams, and executes complex infrastructure projects in alignment with ITIL frameworks.

Key Responsibilities

Tier-3 Operations & Escalations: Serve as the senior escalation point for unresolved network incidents from L1/L2 teams, performing root cause analysis (RCA) and driving long-term remediations.

Incidents & Major Outages: Lead technical bridges during major incidents, executing packet captures, path analyses, and log diagnostics to restore services within strict SLAs.

Multi-Vendor Network Administration: Manage and maintain enterprise routing, switching, and wireless platforms (Cisco, Juniper, Cisco Meraki, UniFi).

Perimeter Security & Firewalls: Configure, optimize, and maintain next-generation firewalls (Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet FortiGate) alongside VPNs, NAT policies, and security profiles.

Core Protocols & Connectivity: Troubleshoot dynamic routing protocols (BGP, OSPF), VLANs, STP, VRFs, and high-availability configurations across LAN, WAN, and SD-WAN architectures.

Projects & Change Management: Design and execute upgrades, hardware refreshes, and network migrations; draft detailed implementation and rollback plans following ITIL Change Management.

Mentorship & Documentation: Provide technical guidance to junior engineers, publish standard operational procedures (SOPs), and maintain up-to-date network topology documentation.

Technical Skills & Qualifications

Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree or Diploma in IT, Computer Science, or Network Engineering with 5–8+ years of hands-on L3 enterprise networking experience.

Certifications: CCNP Enterprise/Security, JNCIP, PCNSE, or NSE 4–7 preferred.

Routing & Switching: In-depth knowledge of TCP/IP, BGP, OSPF, STP, VRF, QoS, and LACP.

Perimeter Security: Direct experience with Palo Alto PAN-OS, Fortinet FortiGate (FortiManager/FortiAnalyzer), and IPsec/SSL VPNs.

Wireless & Branch: Management of Cisco Meraki, UniFi, and enterprise wireless deployments.

Process & Soft Skills: ITIL v3/v4 operational fluency; strong stakeholder management under pressure.

Working Conditions

Participation in an on-call rotation and off-hours scheduled change windows.

Occasional travel to regional data centers or branch offices.