Network DevOps engineer

VARITE • Palo Alto, CA

1d • Onsite

About The Position

VARITE is seeking a Network DevOps Engineer for an onsite, 3-month assignment in Palo Alto, California, with a possible extension. The role is within Global Infrastructure and Platform Services (GIPS) and focuses on designing, deploying, and operating corporate and datacenter network infrastructure supporting a global workforce and production environments. The engineer will own the lifecycle of campus and datacenter networks, including switching, wireless LAN, spine-leaf fabrics, and next-generation firewall policy, while supporting reliable, secure, and scalable on-premises infrastructure. The position collaborates with Security, IT, Cloud Engineering, Server, Storage, and Platform Engineering teams. AI tools may be used to accelerate troubleshooting, documentation, and automation.

The client is a cloud data management and data protection company providing backup, disaster recovery, and data archiving solutions across on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. The assignment pays $60–$80 per hour on W2. VARITE describes itself as an award-winning minority business enterprise established in 2000, providing consulting and staffing services to Fortune 1000 companies and government agencies, with more than 850 global consultants.

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.
• Solid understanding of routing and switching fundamentals, including 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.
• Familiarity with 802.11ax/Wi-Fi 6 and RF optimization.
• Working knowledge of datacenter networking concepts, including spine-leaf architecture, VxLAN/EVPN, and high-availability failover.
• Strong troubleshooting methodology and ability to resolve complex, multi-layer production issues.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills, including the 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 such as 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 the Palo Alto headquarters and remote offices.
• Manage and optimize controller-based and cloud-managed wireless LAN infrastructure, 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 networks, 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, and administer 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 observability tooling such as 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.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Participation in a company-sponsored retirement savings plan.
• Legal service plans offering access to attorneys for legal advice and representation.
• Competitive compensation, equity, and comprehensive benefits are mentioned; employee eligibility may apply to the benefits package.

What This Job Offers

• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed