Enginr, Principal Network

EDFT•Houston, TX

12d

About The Position

The Principal Network Engineer is a senior individual contributor and technical authority for EDF Trading North America’s enterprise network. The role owns network architecture, engineering standards, and lifecycle planning, and leads complex network initiatives with infrastructure, cloud, cybersecurity, application, business, and operations teams. It is accountable for architectural direction, major technical decisions, and network reliability, resiliency, security, scalability, and performance. The engineer also advises IT leadership on network risks, options, and business impacts. The position owns enterprise network architecture and lifecycle across LAN, WAN, data center, wireless, voice, remote access, and cloud connectivity. It establishes technical strategy and standards, leads design reviews, evaluates technology and business needs, and recommends cost-effective solutions. The role also mentors engineers, oversees vendors and service providers, and supports budgeting, forecasting, audits, and compliance. The position participates in an on-call rotation, may perform maintenance outside normal business hours, and travels to North American sites as needed to support network infrastructure installation and maintenance. It requires the ability to install and support a wide variety of enterprise network components, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Business, or a related field.
Typically eight or more years of progressive enterprise network engineering experience, including ownership of network architecture and design in a multi-site enterprise environment.
Demonstrated experience leading complex network initiatives from design through implementation, including setting technical direction for other engineers and partners.
Proven experience leading critical incident response and root-cause analysis in enterprise network environments.
Experience developing network standards, designs, and technical documentation.
Experience supporting budgeting and forecasting for network infrastructure, services, or projects.
Must be NERC-CIP certifiable.
Expert-level knowledge of enterprise routing and switching, including BGP, EIGRP, OSPF, VDC, VPC, OTV, FabricPath, and Spanning Tree.
Expert-level knowledge of firewalls, including ACLs/ACEs, NAT, application filtering, and web filtering.
Expert-level knowledge of VPN technologies, including IPsec, SSL, and DMVPN.
Expert-level knowledge of VoIP and video conferencing technologies, including CUCM, Unity, and TelePresence.
Expert-level knowledge of wireless controllers and access points.
Expert-level knowledge of AAA technologies, including TACACS, RADIUS, and 802.1X.
Expert-level knowledge of QoS, including policy and class maps, ToS, CoS, and DSCP.
Expert-level knowledge of WAN optimization.
Expert-level knowledge of private WAN and public internet access methods, including MPLS (PIP, AVPN), Metro Ethernet, VPLS, dark fiber, cellular, and satellite.
Expert-level knowledge of network management technologies, including SNMP, Syslog, NetFlow, NBAR, and SolarWinds.
Recognized technical expertise and ability to advise on network architecture and design.
Ability to solve complex problems creatively and independently and coordinate solutions across diverse business and technology groups.
Ability to influence change and promote best practices without relying on direct authority.
Ability to anticipate business needs and understand how technology changes affect business processes.
Ability to prioritize and execute work effectively in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
Ability to communicate complex technical concepts, risks, and recommendations to non-technical audiences, including leadership.
Strong stakeholder management, negotiation, and persuasion skills.
Strong coaching skills and commitment to developing others.
Strong ownership and accountability, high attention to detail, and commitment to continuous learning and professional growth.
Professional written and verbal communication skills.
Proficiency with Visio, Word, and Excel for network diagramming and documentation.
Ability to participate in an on-call rotation and perform systems maintenance before and after normal business hours when required.
Ability to travel to North American sites as needed to lead and support network infrastructure installation and maintenance.
Ability to install and support a wide variety of enterprise-level network components, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Palo Alto Networks technologies.
Experience with Arista Networks technologies.
Experience with private cloud connectivity to AWS and Azure.
Experience with virtualization and SAN technologies, including FC, FCoE, and iSCSI.
Experience with trader turret technologies, including IPC and BT.
Experience in the energy commodity marketing and trading industry.
Experience leading or directing the work of technical teams.

Responsibilities

Lead complex network initiatives, from scope definition and resource estimation through design, implementation, and operational handoff.
Own network capacity planning, performance monitoring, and optimization.
Design and implement high-availability and disaster-recovery strategies for network services; participate in disaster-recovery testing and business-continuity activities.
Identify, assess, and reduce network risks, including vulnerabilities, single points of failure, and aging or end-of-life infrastructure.
Serve as the top-level escalation point for complex network issues and lead technical responses during critical incidents.
Lead root-cause analysis for major and recurring network issues and drive corrective actions.
Lead network changes through change management, including risk assessment, implementation planning, and back-out planning.
Define and maintain network and telecom documentation, diagrams, and operational procedures; ensure operational readiness and knowledge transfer for new solutions.
Establish operational dashboards and reporting for network health and performance.
Support audit and compliance activities with network documentation and evidence, and lead remediation of network-related findings.
Provide technical oversight of vendors, service providers, and strategic technology partners, including service performance, escalations, and circuit orders and turn-ups.
Contribute to budgeting and forecasting for network services, circuits, and lifecycle refresh; manage project budgets when serving as project lead.
Drive continuous improvement of network operations, processes, and tools.
Own enterprise network architecture, engineering, and lifecycle across LAN, WAN, data center, wireless, voice, remote access, and cloud connectivity environments.
Set enterprise network architectural direction and technical strategy aligned with business and technology needs.
Define, govern, and maintain network standards, reference architectures, and engineering practices.
Lead high-level design reviews and make or recommend major technical decisions, including platform selection and network-service technical footprints.
Evaluate technology trends, platforms, and business needs, and recommend cost-effective solutions supported by cost-benefit, risk, and impact analysis.
Partner with infrastructure, cloud, cybersecurity, application, business, and operations teams to gather requirements and align network solutions with business and system goals.
Communicate technical risks, options, recommendations, and business impact to IT leadership and business stakeholders.
Mentor and guide network engineers through design reviews, coaching, and knowledge sharing, and direct other engineers’ work on assigned initiatives as needed.
Perform other duties as assigned.