Job Description

Job Description

The Network Automation Engineer contributes to the installation, configuration, administration, and support of Virginia Tech residential, and campus networks and associated services. Virginia Tech networks utilize multiple vendor routing, switching, and wireless technologies. The campus core and border consist of a sophisticated architecture that serves as the high-speed backbone for network services that meet the operational, academic, social, and research needs of over 33,000 students and 8,000 faculty/staff. The position reports to a Network Engineering and Operations (NEO) manager working closely with members of NEO and often interacts with other programs within Virginia Tech’s Network Infrastructure and Services (NI&S) and other units of the University. The Network Automation Engineer is expected to:

- Assist in day-to-day operational activities necessary for deployment, maintenance, and management of networking systems and technologies including equipment installation, configuration changes, and software updates
- Develop, implement, and operationally maintain automation and orchestration systems in multiple environments (on-premise, remote, and cloud) to standardize and simplify the deployment, configuration, maintainability, and management of network infrastructure to improve staff efficiencies and service reliability and ensure compliance with security and operational standards
- Troubleshoot automation issues throughout the entire technology stack
- Contribute to projects and tasks, promoting DevOps principles where relevant
- Provide excellent customer service and technical support to diagnose, troubleshoot, and resolve network issues
- Expand on relevant skill sets by actively participating in approved professional development opportunities such as training sessions and conferences
- Participate in a 24/7 on-call rotation

Telecommuting: Hybrid – must be physically on campus during on-call shifts and as projects and operational duties demand.

The successful candidate will be required to have a criminal conviction check.

Required Qualifications

- Master of Science degree in Telecommunications, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science
- 4 years of professional or academic experience with Linux systems administration and networking concepts to troubleshoot and optimize infrastructure components
- 3 years of experience in an enterprise environment at a major research university
- 2 years of experience with relevant LAN/WAN technologies and protocols including spine-leaf topologies, BGP, EVPN and VxLAN; network management applications and experience using - Application Program Interfaces (APIs), programming, and scripting languages used in network management tool integration
- 1 year of experience with Infrastructure as Code, GitLab and CI/CD processes; containerization and orchestration technologies (e.g. Docker, Kubernetes)
- JNCIA-DevOps certification to demonstrate domain knowledge of network and automation technologies.