IT Engineer - Network

Equity Residential•Chicago, IL

6d•$111,000 - $136,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The IT Network Engineer designs, secures, and maintains Vivmark Residential’s reliable, highly available hybrid network across datacenters, corporate offices, residential properties, and public cloud. The role focuses on enterprise routing and switching across Cisco (including Meraki), Juniper, Arista, and Palo Alto platforms, with working knowledge of application delivery, cloud networking, and DDI. Security is incorporated into network design and operations in collaboration with Security Operations, including segmentation, inspection, encryption, and access control. The engineer manages assigned infrastructure initiatives, including load balancing and edge technologies such as F5 and Cloudflare, and DDI technologies such as Infoblox. The role provides technical expertise on project teams and to network engineering counterparts across the merged organization, as well as infrastructure support through standard escalations. The engineer anticipates industry developments such as SASE and zero-trust networking and recommends solutions for current and future infrastructure needs. The role follows an onsite schedule Monday through Thursday, with remote work permitted on Fridays. It may require after-hours or weekend support for maintenance windows and incident response, participation in an on-call rotation, and travel to Chicago-area datacenters and other company locations as needed.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent experience.
At least seven years of related experience in enterprise IT environments performing infrastructure engineering, planning, implementation, and management, with network engineering as the primary focus.
Cisco CCNA certification or equivalent demonstrated knowledge.
Expert knowledge of enterprise routing and switching, including BGP, OSPF or EIGRP, VRFs, VLANs, and high-availability design, on Cisco platforms and at least one additional vendor such as Arista or Juniper.
Strong cyber awareness and a security-first approach to design and change; working knowledge of firewalls, segmentation, TLS inspection, VPN, DDoS mitigation, and zero-trust and SASE concepts.
Working knowledge of load balancing and application delivery, including TLS and PKI concepts.
Working knowledge of Azure cloud networking, including virtual networks, private connectivity, VPN, hybrid DNS, and routing.
Experience with DDI, wireless networking, and network monitoring tools.
Experience with scripting and automation using Python, PowerShell, Ansible, or Terraform.
At least one year of project management experience, including managing cross-functional projects, making project decisions, monitoring progress, and reporting results.
Ability to independently turn ambiguous requirements into documented, implemented, and supportable designs.
Ability to plan infrastructure requirements two to four years ahead, adapt to changing technology, and apply it to business needs.
Strong technical knowledge of networks, network topologies, and advanced troubleshooting; ability to resolve infrastructure issues and manage performance and capacity.
Experience communicating effectively with a broad range of end users and management levels; strong customer service and ability to explain complex problems or situations.
Good judgment, analytical ability, follow-up, and organizational skills.
Ability to conduct and prepare feasibility studies, including cost, time, and resource estimates, and complete cost-benefit analyses.
Ability to provide after-hours or weekend support and participate in an on-call rotation.
Ability to travel to Chicago-area datacenters and other company locations as needed.
Ability to meet professional business dress expectations; wear a property uniform if required.
Ability to converse verbally by phone and in person, interpret and communicate detailed instructions, and use a computer and read written communications.
Ability to lift, push, pull, or carry up to 15 pounds; may need to climb stairs depending on the property structure.

Nice To Haves

CCNP Enterprise certification.
Hands-on experience with F5 Distributed Cloud or BIG-IP and Cloudflare.
AWS networking experience, including Direct Connect and Transit Gateway.
Palo Alto firewall experience.
Infoblox experience.
Juniper Mist wireless experience.
Cisco WLC and Meraki wireless experience.

Responsibilities

Design, configure, and manage enterprise routing and switching across datacenters, corporate offices, and residential properties using Cisco, Arista, and Juniper platforms.
Manage internal and external routing using BGP, iBGP, OSPF, and EIGRP, including multi-homed internet edge, VRF-based segmentation, and datacenter interconnects.
Administer wired and wireless networking at properties and offices, including Juniper Mist, Cisco wireless LAN controllers, and Meraki; maintain 802.1X wireless authentication in partnership with the Identity team.
Administer DNS, DHCP, and IP address management through Infoblox and support external DNS services.
Maintain network monitoring, alerting, and capacity reporting, and act on trends before they become incidents.
Manage internal and internet-facing application delivery, including F5 Distributed Cloud load balancing and Cloudflare DNS, WAF, TLS, and tunnels.
Manage TLS and certificate lifecycle for load-balanced and proxied services with the Identity team; troubleshoot application delivery across edge, firewall, load-balancer, and server layers.
Design, implement, and support hybrid connectivity between on-premises environments and Azure and AWS, including private connectivity, VPN, virtual networks, routing, and segmentation.
Support cloud network security constructs, including network security groups, virtual firewalls, private endpoints, and hybrid DNS resolution.
Use automation and infrastructure as code to build, deploy, audit, and back up network and cloud network configurations.
Partner with Security Operations on network segmentation, firewall policy, TLS inspection, VPN, and zero-trust access; maintain awareness of threats and apply it to network design and operations.
Harden network devices, maintain current firmware and software, and support vulnerability remediation, patching, and lifecycle planning.
Support security incident response through traffic analysis, log review, packet capture, and containment actions on network devices.
Secure the network management plane and support audits and compliance requests for network controls.
Recommend, plan, and manage hardware and software implementations related to assigned infrastructure components.
Participate in IT projects to improve or upgrade infrastructure; evaluate technology and recommend solutions for business needs and cost effectiveness.
Deliver assigned projects, provide accurate status reports, and coordinate project work with project teams and Infrastructure Group members.
Research, evaluate, and recommend infrastructure technologies and manage their implementation.
Maintain infrastructure compatibility and compliance with regulations, contracts, and licensing agreements.
Develop and maintain procedures, runbooks, network diagrams, and installation and operations documentation; contribute to technical standards and procedures.
Participate in network disaster recovery design and testing.
Provide third-level support to IT personnel and end users as needed; monitor and analyze problems to restore stable performance efficiently.
Collaborate with network engineering counterparts on integration, coexistence, and consolidation, providing technical guidance and knowledge transfer.
Coordinate tasks, mentor team members, and build cross-technology knowledge across Enterprise Infrastructure Operations.
Liaise with vendors and carriers, analyze situations, and recommend solutions.
Represent the company professionally and perform other duties as necessary.
Provide after-hours or weekend support for maintenance windows and incident response, including participation in an on-call rotation.
Travel to Chicago-area datacenters and other company locations as needed.