Senior Network Engineer

About Reflex

Established in 2000 in South Africa, Reflex has evolved from modest origins to become a distinguished provider of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions. We specialise in delivering innovative ICT solutions across various industries, earning a sterling reputation for our excellence in the retail sector and beyond. With a robust network of partnerships, we pride ourselves on our ability to swiftly address the technological needs of our clients.

Our portfolio of ICT solutions spans various industries. Reflex Carrier understands what is needed to build, manage, and operate complex backbone networks simply. Our solutions are tailored for Fibre Network Operators (FNO), Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and those looking for comprehensive Managed Connectivity solutions.

On the other hand, our Enterprise Solutions take the complexity out of technology, allowing you to focus on what you do best. We provide seamless, high-performance solutions for connectivity, communications, workplace management, cloud, and cybersecurity services.

Together, both divisions reflect our core values of expertise, clarity, and client-centricity. We take pride in being large enough to offer extensive support while remaining small enough to provide personalised service. At Reflex, our clients are at the centre of everything we do, and we’re committed to delivering reliable, jargon-free solutions that drive your success.

Role Description

The Senior network support engineer provides advanced technical support across Reflex managed client environment, taking ownership of complex incidents and escalations.

The role requires broad technical competence and exceptrional logical reasoning. The senior network support engineer is required to understand each client’s network environment in detail and needs to be able to establish how components interact, trace the flow of traffic and systematically identify where and why a service is failing.

A central responsibility is to develop junior engineers through active participation in invesgations, supported by clear documentation, practical troubleshooring guides and standard operating procedures.

Management, optimization and stability of the Relfex core network remain the responsibility of the Architecture and Platfrom team, this role will collaborate with that team where invesigations identify dependencies on core services.

Key duties and responsibilities:

Structured troubleshooting and technical ownership

• Take ownership of complex client support support requests and incidents escalated by Tier 1 and Tier 2 engineers.
• Establish the scope, business impact symptoms and relevant changes associated with each incident.
• Build and validate a logical picture of the client’s environment, including network topology, traffic paths, service dependencies and administrative boundaries.
• Investigate methodically by developing hypothses, testing assumptions and using evidence to isolate the cause of a fault.
• Distinguish between symptoms and underlying causes, avoiding unsupported assumptions and unnecessary configuration changes.
• Coordicnate investgations across internal teams, clients, service providers and vendors while retaining ownership of the support ticket.
• Confrim service restoration with appropriate testing, document the resolution and identify actions to prevent recurrence.

Understanding client environments

• Develop and maintain an understanding of each supported client’s network architecture and critical services.
• Interpret existing documentation and identify missing, outdated or contradictory information.
• Translate complex environments into clear network diagrams, traffic flows and service dependency records.
• Understand how routing, switching, firewalls, DNS, DHCP, authentication and application connectivity influence service delivery.
• Recognize when a fault lies within the client environment, a third party service or the Reflex core network, and escalate with supporting evidence.

Mentoring and junior engineer development

• Actively involve Tier 1 and Tier 2 engineers in invesgations and incident resolution.
• Explain the reasoning behind diagnostic steps, the evidence being sought and how results influence the next action.
• Delegate appropriate investigative tasks while providing guidance and reviewing findings.
• Use each escalated incident as an opportunity to strengthen junior engineers’ technical knowledge and troubleshooting discipline.
• Conduct incident walkthrough and knowledge sharing sessions to reinforce learning.
• Identify recurring skills gaps and contribute to targeted training and development.

Document and standard operarting procedures.

• Maintain clear incident records covering symptoms, impact, findings, diagnostic steps, changes mde and resolution.
• Create and maintain practical SOPs, troubleshooting guides, escalation procedures and knowledge base articles.
• Ensure procedures include prerequisists, decision points, expected results, validation steps and rollback guidance where applicable.
• Update client documentation when invesigations identify changes or previously undocumented dependencies.
• Convert repeat incidents and common support requirements into repeatable procedures that junior engineers can follow.
• Validate procedures with the engineers who will use them and improve documentation based on their feedback.

Service quality and collaboration

• Communicate clearly with clients and internal stakeholders throughout an investigation.
• Provide concise escalations containing the problem statement, relevant topology, evidence, test completed and assistance required.
• Work closely with other tchenical specialists to resolve incidents spanning multiple environments.
• Floow change management, security and client access procedures
• Participate in an agreed after hours support roatation where required.

Qualifications, Experience and capabilites:

• Required Education:
  • Grade 12 (Matric).
  • Minimum 7 years' experience in enterprise networking, technical support, managed services or network operations.
  • Minimum 3 years' experience operating as a Senior Network Engineer, Escalation Engineer or Technical Lead.
  • Demonstrated experience supporting multi-vendor enterprise environments.
    • Experience working within an MSP, ISP, Systems Integrator or outsourced services environment.
  • Experience supporting routing, switching, firewall, wireless and WAN technologies in production environments.
  • Proven experience mentoring and developing junior technical staff.
  • Demonstrated experience producing technical documentation, SOPs and troubleshooting guides.

• Required Certifications
  • Fortinet NSE 4 / FCP Network Security.
  • Fortinet NSE 5 / FCP Security Operations.
  • Cisco CCNP Enterprise.
  • Cisco CCNA Enterprise.
  • Aruba Certified Professional.
  • Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate.
  • CompTIA Network+ (where higher certifications are not yet achieved).
  • ITIL v4 Foundation.

• Beneficial Education
  • Diploma in Information Technology, Business Administration, or a related field.
  • Fortinet NSE 6 / FCSS.
  • Cisco CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure.
  • Palo Alto PCNSE.
  • Meraki Specialist Certifications.
  • VMware VCP.
  • Microsoft Azure Network Engineer Associate (AZ-700).

• Essential Technical Competencies, Capanilities and Attributes
  • Strong practical understanding of routing, switching, VLANs, subnetting, wireless networking and WAN connectivity.
  • Strong firewall, NAT, VPN and network segmentation troubleshooting skills.
  • Understanding of DNS, DHCP and authentication dependencies.
  • Ability to trace traffic across multiple devices and services using packet captures, logs, routing tables and monitoring tools.
  • Ability to investigate latency, packet loss, jitter, intermittent connectivity and application access issues.
  • Broad understanding of server, endpoint, virtualisation and cloud environments sufficient to investigate issues across technical boundaries.
  • Ability to work effectively across different client architectures and multi-vendor environments.
  • Exceptional logical reasoning and a disciplined, evidence-based approach to troubleshooting.
  • Ability to form and explain an accurate mental model of an unfamiliar technical environment.
  • Strong questioning skills and the ability to distinguish confirmed facts from assumptions.
  • Ownership, persistence and sound judgement during complex investigations.
  • Ability to teach, guide and challenge junior engineers constructively.
  • Excellent technical writing and a demonstrated commitment to documentation
  • Clear communication with both technical and non-technical audiences.Willingness to seek specialist input when required and incorporate it into the wider investigation.

• Required Skills
  • Strong organisational and scheduling skills.
  • Attention to detail with a focus on accuracy in documentation, stock records, and billing data.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
  • Ability to work well under pressure and meet tight deadlines.
  • Attention to detail and high level of accuracy.
  • Planning, organising, and time management skills.
  • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
  • Innovative and proactive.
  • Responsible and results-driven.
  • Positive attitude and passion for service delivery.
  • Team player with strong collaboration skills.
  • Professional appearance and approach.

• Other Requirements
  • Own, reliable transport and valid driver’s license.
  • Willing to travel domestically and internationally if required.

Willing to work overtime when necessary.