Network and Telecom Engineer

Smithfield Foods, Inc.•Smithfield, VA

43d

About The Position

As a Network and Telecommunications Engineer at Smithfield Foods, you will play a key role in designing, implementing, and supporting enterprise-wide network and telecommunications systems. You will be responsible for managing and maintaining standards, ensuring security, and overseeing administration and monitoring processes to provide a stable and reliable platform for business operations. This role supports both on-premise and cloud-based voice and application services, with accountability for performance, capacity planning, and issue resolution. You will collaborate with IT teams and vendors to deliver technical solutions that align with infrastructure strategy and governance, while creating and maintaining documentation to support existing, updated, and new solutions deployed across the Smithfield enterprise.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Telecommunications, Network Engineering, Information Technology Management, or a related technical field, with 2+ years of relevant experience; or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
Current Cisco CCNA and/or Cisco CCDA certification required; additional certifications such as Cisco CCNP preferred.
Experience supporting cloud migrations and maintaining network security through proper VPN and firewall configuration.
Strong technical, analytical, and interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate clearly, professionally, and in a customer-friendly manner.
Excellent organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple priorities in a business environment.
Availability to respond to customer needs, including installation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of equipment issues.
Respectful, approachable, and team-oriented, with the ability to build strong relationships and thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic environment.

Responsibilities

Lead the enterprise design, build, and administration of network platforms to ensure stability, scalability, and performance (Cisco a plus).
Manage and optimize enterprise network environments across key technologies, including routing (BGP, EIGRP, OSPF), switching (spanning tree, VLAN, VTP), services (DNS, DHCP, SMB, subnetting, NetFlow), VPN (SSL/IPSec), SD-WAN, wireless, and telecom/VoIP. Support multi-cloud networking (AWS, Azure preferred) including security groups and NSGs (Cisco and Fortinet a plus).
Use monitoring and diagnostic tools (Cisco DNA, SolarWinds, ThousandEyes, Wireshark) to evaluate network performance, troubleshoot issues, and maintain reliability.
Leverage orchestration tools and programming skills (Ansible a plus) to automate network processes and services, enhancing efficiency and consistency.
Configure, install, upgrade, and maintain client/server network software and telecom systems, ensuring functionality and minimizing downtime.
Analyze and resolve complex issues by identifying root causes, implementing efficient solutions, mitigating risks, and translating business requirements into technical solutions.
Partner with Security, Enterprise Architecture, and other IT teams to integrate secure and reliable solutions aligned with organizational needs.
Work independently with the flexibility to adapt to changing technologies and learn new systems quickly while mentoring peers through knowledge-sharing.
Maintain clear documentation of network design, standards, and procedures while effectively communicating technical information to peers and leadership.
Provide on-site support and project implementation with up to 25% travel as required.
Administer network and telecommunications systems to ensure availability and reliability for authorized users.
Provide technical assistance by responding to inquiries from staff, administrators, service providers, and vendors. As well as troubleshoot issues with network hardware/software, telephones, and security systems to restore service.
Maintain the Company's telecommunications infrastructure, including PBXs, call accounting, Automatic Call Distribution (ACD), voicemail, interactive voice response, video conferencing systems, and MS Teams.