Network Engineer II / III

JOB DESCRIPTION:

The Network Operations Network Engineer II is a key element within the Rackspace Infrastructure team and is expected to provide a high level of technical expertise to ensure the uptime and maintenance of critical networking systems. A Racker in this role takes ownership of complex network issues and ensures they are resolved and/or successfully documented and handed off to an oncoming shift. The Network Engineer II actively monitors the Rackspace network at all levels, from top of rack to edge, using various tools and communicates and resolves issues identified or escalates them to the appropriate level. The Racker also responds to issues escalated to Network Operations via tickets and phone calls from internal customers and is expected to engage directly with external customers via public ticket comments and phone conversations to ensure problem resolution. The Racker accepts and takes ownership through to resolution of issues escalated by other Network Operations Engineers and creates training and mentoring opportunities for those engineers as appropriate. Technical issues can include troubleshooting latency, packet loss, and poor performance; responding to DDoS attacks; identifying and resolving switch and router hardware and software failures; identifying and resolving configuration inconsistencies; identifying and escalating problems with networking platforms or technologies; planning and conducting complex maintenances to ensure standardization and uptime; and managing Internet providers and connectivity.

The Network Operations Engineer will create and maintain customer loyalty by providing Fanatical Support above and beyond customer expectations.

JOB REQUIREMENTS:

• Key Accountabilities

• Provide exceptional customer support via the ticketing system and phone
• Detect events in a timely manner using monitoring tools
• Mitigates DDoS attacks to protect customer and shared infrastructure
• Document planned and unplanned network events in appropriate tracking and turnover systems
• Troubleshoot and resolve network events and create event documentation accordingly
• Take ownership of level-appropriate customer requests and issues and engineer escalations, seeing them through to resolution
• Escalate support requests to next level engineers and communicate with Incident Management as appropriate
• Escalate to vendors and follow up as needed to ensure problem resolution
• Adhere to Change Management and Maintenance policy and process
• Participate and provide input to Root Cause Analysis
• Take ownership of projects self-identified or assigned and ensure proper and complete documentation and resolution
• Review, assist in defining, and sign off on policy and process standards

Key Performance Indicators

• Ticket Contribution and Phone Availability: Provide correct and helpful expertise to resolve issues, maintaining high ticket evaluations results
• High level of first pass yield and success on written, quality checked, tested, and executed maintenances
• Prompt and correct responses to network events
• Maintain proficiency in troubleshooting, tools, and technologies

PERSON SPECIFICATION:

• The Network Operations Network Engineer II has an intermediate to advanced aptitude with:
• All supported network platforms (Cisco 2900, 3500, 3700, 4900, 6500, ASR1k, ASR9k, Nexus 3k, Nexus 6k, Nexus 7k, Arista 7000, etc…)
• All supported Layer 2 and 3 protocols and features (STP, HSRP, VLANs, CDP, port-channels, OSPF, BGP, MPLS, DWDM, etc…)
• Monitoring systems (Arbor, Zenoss, Syslog, SolarWinds, WhatsUp Gold, etc…)
• The Network Operations Network Engineer II:
• Is able to handle multiple tasks and prioritize work under pressure
• Is comfortable and proficient in delegating tasks to other engineers
• Is detail-oriented in documenting information and able to own customer issues through resolution
• Demonstrates strong problem-solving skills coupled with a desire to take on responsibility
• Has a desire to expand personal technical knowledge and mentor other engineers to expand knowledge
• Identifies were process can be improved and engages managers and other teams to implement those improvements
• The ideal candidate possesses:
• A minimum of 3 years of recent networking experience in a command-line oriented environment
• At least 18 months of experience with responsibility for configuration and problem resolution of OSPF and/or BGP
• CCNP-level aptitude
• A minimum of 12 months of experience in a customer service role
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Critical thinking skills and the ability to provide solutions with precision during high-pressure situations
• Schedule flexibility to include working a weekend day regularly and holidays as required by the business