Network Consultant

Nesco Data Center•Bethesda, MD

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Nesco Data Center is seeking a Network Consultant in the Greater Bethesda MD area. This is part-time position working Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 8:30am - 4:30pm. The Senior Network Consultant provides scheduled, proactive technical consulting services to optimize, maintain, secure, and document network infrastructure and supported systems in alignment with evolving business and technology objectives. This role focuses on preventative maintenance, network performance optimization, systems administration, security configuration, troubleshooting, and technical documentation. The consultant works with designated operational leaders and technical stakeholders to prioritize initiatives, maintain system stability, identify recurring issues, and recommend improvements to the supported technology environment.

Requirements

Senior Network Consultant
Scheduled, proactive technical consulting services
Optimize, maintain, secure, and document network infrastructure and supported systems
Preventative maintenance
Network performance optimization
Systems administration
Security configuration
Troubleshooting
Technical documentation
Work with designated operational leaders and technical stakeholders
Prioritize initiatives
Maintain system stability
Identify recurring issues
Recommend improvements
Configure and optimize physical and virtual switches
Configure, troubleshoot, and optimize firewall rules, VPNs, network address translation (NAT), port forwarding, and access control lists.
Administer and optimize supported storage area network (SAN) infrastructure.
Configure and maintain routing functionality on supported edge devices.
Monitor network performance, analyze trends, identify bottlenecks, and recommend or implement appropriate optimizations.
Monitor UPS health and capacity, configure centralized management, and maintain shutdown policies for supported systems and devices.
Apply approved firmware updates, security patches, service packs, and zero-day security updates to supported equipment and systems.
Periodically test failover capabilities, redundancies, and other established continuity safeguards.
Periodically rotate credentials on supported equipment in accordance with established security practices.
Maintain cloud-based and on-premises directory services, including object, organizational unit, and group policy additions, modifications, and deletions.
Perform email account provisioning, modifications, and deactivation.
Troubleshoot and perform minor configuration changes to DNS, DHCP, network printing, and other basic supported infrastructure services.
Configure network printers and administer on-premises or cloud-based print services.
Perform approved configuration changes to improve the performance, security, and reliability of supported servers, services, and systems.
Maintain accurate documentation of supported systems, configurations, and changes performed.
Create and maintain custom infrastructure diagrams to supplement automated documentation and assist technical personnel with troubleshooting and ongoing maintenance.
Track supported server and software inventory, licensing information, and relevant lifecycle dates, including end-of-support and end-of-life milestones.
Identify recurring technical issues, investigate root causes, and recommend corrective actions to improve reliability and reduce repeat incidents.
Track, renew, and implement public key certificates on supported systems.
Conduct proactive maintenance and analyze system trends at appropriate intervals based on the requirements of each supported technology.
Apply approved in-place updates, service packs, and security patches to supported systems, excluding major-version upgrades.
Produce work reports detailing completed tasks, configuration changes, identified risks, and recommendations for projects or major improvements outside the defined service scope.
Perform test restores to validate the integrity and recoverability of backups for supported systems.
Assist with restoring data to supported systems following accidental deletion or corruption, using an approved available backup solution.
Communicate with operational leadership to provide input on technical initiatives, task prioritization, maintenance activities, and recommended improvements.
Use the designated IT service management platform when applicable.

Nice To Haves

End-User Support: Direct end-user help desk and desktop support services.
Unsupported Equipment: Support for equipment without an active vendor support agreement.
Unapproved Technologies: Support for software, hardware, or technologies not explicitly identified in the approved technology inventory or service scope.
Unstable Software Releases: Support for systems running software versions that are not considered current, stable, or appropriately supported.
Major Changes and Projects: Changes requiring extensive project management, specialized subject-matter expertise, significant risk mitigation, or resources beyond the capabilities of a qualified generalist may require a separate scope of work.
New System Configuration: Initial configuration, deployment, or implementation of new systems.
Third-Party Changes: Documentation updates for changes made by other vendors or to equipment and systems outside the defined support scope.
Network Hardware Inventory: Tracking licenses and inventory for networking hardware.
Database Administration: Database administration, maintenance, and specialized database management.
Training: Formal training for end users or other organizational personnel.
Major Version Upgrades: Major operating system, application, or platform upgrades. These may require a separately defined project scope.
Backup Management: Ongoing backup administration and backup-service maintenance are excluded unless specifically included under a separate backup service agreement.

Responsibilities

Configure and optimize physical and virtual switches, including port security, VLANs, IP helper settings, link aggregation, and other supported equipment features.
Configure, troubleshoot, and optimize firewall rules, VPNs, network address translation (NAT), port forwarding, and access control lists.
Administer and optimize supported storage area network (SAN) infrastructure.
Configure and maintain routing functionality on supported edge devices.
Monitor network performance, analyze trends, identify bottlenecks, and recommend or implement appropriate optimizations.
Monitor UPS health and capacity, configure centralized management, and maintain shutdown policies for supported systems and devices.
Apply approved firmware updates, security patches, service packs, and zero-day security updates to supported equipment and systems.
Periodically test failover capabilities, redundancies, and other established continuity safeguards.
Periodically rotate credentials on supported equipment in accordance with established security practices.
Maintain cloud-based and on-premises directory services, including object, organizational unit, and group policy additions, modifications, and deletions.
Perform email account provisioning, modifications, and deactivation.
Troubleshoot and perform minor configuration changes to DNS, DHCP, network printing, and other basic supported infrastructure services.
Configure network printers and administer on-premises or cloud-based print services.
Perform approved configuration changes to improve the performance, security, and reliability of supported servers, services, and systems.
Maintain accurate documentation of supported systems, configurations, and changes performed.
Create and maintain custom infrastructure diagrams to supplement automated documentation and assist technical personnel with troubleshooting and ongoing maintenance.
Track supported server and software inventory, licensing information, and relevant lifecycle dates, including end-of-support and end-of-life milestones.
Identify recurring technical issues, investigate root causes, and recommend corrective actions to improve reliability and reduce repeat incidents.
Track, renew, and implement public key certificates on supported systems.
Conduct proactive maintenance and analyze system trends at appropriate intervals based on the requirements of each supported technology.
Apply approved in-place updates, service packs, and security patches to supported systems, excluding major-version upgrades.
Produce work reports detailing completed tasks, configuration changes, identified risks, and recommendations for projects or major improvements outside the defined service scope.
Perform test restores to validate the integrity and recoverability of backups for supported systems.
Assist with restoring data to supported systems following accidental deletion or corruption, using an approved available backup solution.
Communicate with operational leadership to provide input on technical initiatives, task prioritization, maintenance activities, and recommended improvements. Use the designated IT service management platform when applicable.