Data Center Network Engineer

Job Title: L3 Data Center Network Engineer

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and manage enterprise-grade

  data center network infrastructure

  , including core/distribution/access switches, routers, firewalls, load balancers, and VPN gateways.
• Plan and maintain

  redundant, high-availability (HA)

  configurations for firewalls (Fortinet, pf Sense, Cisco ASA, Palo Alto, etc.), switches (vPC, MLAG, stacking), and routers.
• Oversee

  network segmentation (VLANs, VRFs, ACLs, and routing domains)

  and enforce zero-trust network principles.
• Manage

  routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP)

  , static routing, NAT, and IPsec/GRE/SSL VPNs across multiple data centers and cloud edge environments.
• Implement

  firewall policies, NAT rules, WAF configurations, and IDS/IPS

  systems while ensuring compliance with organizational security frameworks (ISO 27001 / RBI / NPCI / PCI DSS).
• Monitor, analyze, and optimize

  network performance

  using SNMP, NetFlow, Zabbix, or equivalent tools; perform deep packet inspection and traffic analysis using Wireshark/tcpdump.
• Coordinate with systems and virtualization teams to ensure seamless integration of

  VMware / Proxmox / Hyper-V / Ceph

  infrastructure with the data center network.
• Manage

  multi-site connectivity

  , inter-VLAN routing, and redundancy (HA pairs, VRRP, CARP, HSRP).
• Define and maintain

  network topology documentation, IP addressing schemes, and change control records

  .
• Participate in

  disaster recovery and business continuity planning

  , including DR site replication and network failover testing.
• Automate routine configuration and monitoring tasks using

  Ansible, Python, or REST APIs

  where possible.
• Lead

  root-cause analysis (RCA)

  for major incidents and propose long-term corrective actions.
• Evaluate and recommend

  new technologies, hardware platforms, and architecture improvements

  for scalability and security.

Qualifications & Skills

• 6 to 10 years of experience in enterprise or data center networking.
• Strong knowledge of

  L2/L3 protocols

  , VLANs, link aggregation, spanning-tree, routing policies, and firewall rulebases.
• Hands-on experience with

  Fortinet, Cisco, pfSense, Palo Alto, Mikrotik, or TP-Link Omada

  platforms.
• Familiar with

  Linux networking (netplan, bonding, nftables, iproute2)

  and

  virtualized environments (VMware / Proxmox)

  .
• Experience with

  load balancing, NAT, VPNs, and multi-WAN/BGP failover setups

  .
• Knowledge of

  network automation tools (Ansible, NAPALM, Python scripts)

  is a strong plus.
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills using CLI and packet-level analysis tools.
• Good documentation and communication skills for coordination with security, DevOps, and server teams.