Network DevOps engineer

LeadStack Inc.•Palo Alto, CA

17h•Hybrid

About The Position

LeadStack Inc. is recruiting a Network DevOps Engineer for a three-month contract with possible extension, based in Palo Alto, California, with a hybrid schedule requiring three days onsite per week. The role is described in the posting as a mid-level Network Engineer within Global Infrastructure and Platform Services (GIPS), supporting corporate and datacenter network infrastructure for a client’s global workforce and production environments. The engineer will design, deploy, and operate campus and datacenter networks, owning infrastructure across access switching, wireless LAN, spine-leaf fabrics, and next-generation firewall policy. The position works closely with Security, IT, and Cloud Engineering teams and encourages use of AI tools for troubleshooting, documentation, and automation. The role covers corporate and campus networking, datacenter networking, Palo Alto Networks firewall and remote-access services, monitoring, incident response, and automation. The position is located at the Palo Alto headquarters and is listed as hybrid in the recruiting details; the job description also labels the role onsite.

Requirements

4–6 years of hands-on enterprise network engineering experience.
Proficiency with Palo Alto Networks NGFWs and Panorama, including security policy management, zone-based segmentation, and GlobalProtect VPN.
Understanding of BGP, OSPF, STP/RSTP, VLANs, LACP, and Layer 2/Layer 3 design.
Experience designing and supporting enterprise wireless networks using Cisco Meraki, Aruba, or equivalent, including familiarity with 802.11ax/Wi-Fi 6 and RF optimization.
Working knowledge of datacenter networking concepts such as spine-leaf architecture, VxLAN/EVPN, and high-availability failover.
Strong troubleshooting methodology and ability to resolve complex, multilayer production issues.
Effective written and verbal communication skills, including ability to produce clear runbooks and incident postmortems.

Nice To Haves

Relevant certifications such as PCNSE, CCNP Enterprise, CWNA/CWSP, or equivalent.
Experience with network automation using Python, Ansible, or Terraform.
Familiarity with public cloud networking (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and hybrid connectivity solutions such as Direct Connect, ExpressRoute, and VPN.
Exposure to load balancers including F5, AVI/NSX ALB, or NGINX and application delivery in datacenter environments.
Experience with 802.1X/NAC platforms such as Cisco ISE, Aruba ClearPass, or equivalent.
Comfort using AI tools such as Claude or Copilot for network operations, documentation, and automation tasks.

Responsibilities

Design and maintain corporate LAN infrastructure, including access, distribution, and core switching, VLANs, STP, and QoS for Palo Alto headquarters and remote offices.
Manage and optimize controller-based and cloud-managed wireless LANs, including site surveys, RF planning, SSID design, and client troubleshooting.
Administer 802.1X network access control, certificate-based authentication, and guest network segmentation.
Operate and evolve datacenter networking, including spine-leaf architecture, BGP, VxLAN/EVPN overlays, and high-availability designs.
Monitor datacenter capacity and latency baselines to maintain network stability and performance.
Partner with Server, Storage, and Platform Engineering teams on rack-and-stack connectivity, new service deployments, and capacity expansions.
Manage Palo Alto Networks NGFW platforms, including PA-Series, Panorama, and SCM, along with security policy, App-ID, URL filtering, Threat Prevention, and WildFire integration.
Administer GlobalProtect VPN and Prisma Access for remote access and enforce zero-trust network segmentation between zones.
Review firewall rules, remove unused policies, and support periodic security audits.
Monitor network health using SNMP, streaming telemetry, and NetFlow/sFlow; resolve incidents and conduct root-cause analyses.
Develop and maintain automation scripts and configuration management workflows using Python, Ansible, and Terraform.
Use AI-assisted tools to accelerate log analysis, runbook generation, and network documentation.
Produce clear runbooks and incident postmortems.