Sr Network Engineer, SD-WAN

Ardent Health Services•Brentwood, TN

About The Position

Ardent Health is a leading provider of healthcare in growing mid-sized urban communities across the U.S. With a focus on people and investments in innovative services and technologies, Ardent is passionate about making healthcare better and easier to access. Through its subsidiaries, Ardent delivers care through a system of 30 acute care hospitals, 24,000+ team members and more than 280 sites of care with over 1,800 affiliated providers across six states. POSITION SUMMARY: The Senior Network Engineer, SD-WAN is responsible for leading the design, deployment, and support of enterprise healthcare wireless networks, with a primary focus on Cisco technologies and a secondary focus on Fortinet solutions at clinic locations. This role ensures secure, high-availability connectivity for critical clinical applications, compliance with healthcare standards, and seamless integration across hospitals and remote sites.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Information Systems / Computer Science.
Additional years of experience may substitute for the required education on a year-for-year basis.
7+ years’ experience with Cisco routing, switching with a strong focus on wireless products.
4+ years of experience working in Information Systems, preferably in the healthcare industry.
CCNP Certification
Experienced in configuring Cisco Catalyst and AireOS wireless controllers
Experienced in configuring FortiAPs, Fortiswitch, and Fortigate platforms
Experienced in configuring and troubleshooting 802.1x with Cisco ISE
Experienced in working critical issues with Cisco and Fortinet TAC organizations
Experienced in configuring wireless clients
Experienced in collecting wireless packet captures
Experience with implementing QOS/COS
Experienced with site survey and design tools such as Ekahau
High proficiency in the configuration and troubleshooting of advanced wireless networks including RF spectrum analysis, and interference remediation.
High proficiency in Radio Channel Planning, Wireless Bridging
Highly Proficient in the operation and analysis of LAN and WAN packet captures, and Network Analysis
Proficient with DNS, DHCP, WINS configuration and troubleshooting

Responsibilities

Design and implement advanced SD-WAN and SASE architectures.
Optimize application-aware routing, traffic engineering, and security policies.
Provide expert-level troubleshooting for complex LAN/WAN, SD-WAN, and SASE issues across multi-vendor platforms (Cisco, Fortinet, etc.).
Lead the configuration, deployment, and lifecycle management of network platforms using vendor specific centralized management and orchestration tools.
Engineer and deploy new branch locations, including zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) and secure cloud connectivity.
Develop and fine-tune traffic management, network segmentation, and Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) policies.
Ensure seamless interoperability between SD-WAN, SASE, cloud networks, and traditional infrastructure.
Maintain comprehensive network documentation, emphasizing automation and version control.
Act as a technical lead, mentoring junior engineers and promoting best practices.
Actively participate in project planning and architectural reviews.
Develop and review complex network change scripts, leveraging automation tools (e.g., Ansible, Python).
Collaborate with security, cloud, and application teams for end-to-end network integrity and compliance.