Principal Network Systems Engineer

VSG Recruitment; Hamilton; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

VSG Recruitment is supporting a Canadian technology company seeking a senior network engineer to act as a technical authority. You will build realistic network test environments, reproduce complex failures, analyze network behaviour, and advise engineering and product teams.

The role focuses on hands-on work with network equipment, configurations, packet captures, telemetry, and debugging difficult technical problems without people management duties.

Qualifications

• At least seven years hands-on network engineering experience.
• Deep knowledge of switching, routing, VLANs, multicast, QoS, and traffic flows.
• Experience diagnosing complex problems using packet captures, telemetry, and logs.
• Ability to document configurations and provide technical guidance across teams.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain network lab and test environments for product development, investigation, validation, and demonstrations.
• Configure and troubleshoot switches, routers, endpoints, VLANs, multicast, QoS, routing, timing systems, and traffic flows.
• Reproduce failures involving packet loss, timing, multicast, congestion, misrouting, firmware, configuration changes, and device replacement.
• Capture and analyze packets, flow data, telemetry, logs, configurations, monitoring data, and timing information.
• Identify root causes, meaningful signals, edge cases, and system limitations.
• Define test scenarios, expected outcomes, and validation requirements.
• Document configurations, system behaviour, test conditions, findings, and recommended solutions.
• Advise engineering, product management, leadership, and customer-facing teams.
• Support selected customer demonstrations, pilots, and field-validation activities.
• Use scripting, APIs, and automation where appropriate.

Skills

Network engineering

Root-cause analysis

Documentation

Independent work

Customer-facing guidance

Tools

Packet capture tools

Telemetry/monitoring

Scripting/automation

Job description

About The Company

VSG Recruitment is supporting a Canadian technology company that develops practical, reliable solutions for complex IP media and IT infrastructure.

You will serve as a senior individual contributor and technical authority, building realistic network test environments, reproducing complex failures, analyzing network behaviour, and advising engineering and product teams.

This is not a people-management or traditional enterprise IT position. The role requires someone who enjoys working directly with network equipment, configurations, packet captures, telemetry, traffic, and difficult technical problems.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and maintain network lab and test environments for product development, investigation, validation, and demonstrations.

• Configure and troubleshoot switches, routers, endpoints, VLANs, multicast, QoS, routing, timing systems, and traffic flows.

• Reproduce failures involving packet loss, timing, multicast, congestion, misrouting, firmware, configuration changes, and device replacement.

• Capture and analyze packets, flow data, telemetry, logs, configurations, monitoring data, and timing information.

• Identify root causes, meaningful technical signals, edge cases, and system limitations.

• Define test scenarios, expected outcomes, and validation requirements.

• Document configurations, system behaviour, test conditions, findings, and recommended solutions.

• Advise engineering, product management, leadership, and customer-facing teams.

• Support selected customer demonstrations, pilots, and field-validation activities.

• Use scripting, APIs, and automation where appropriate.

Required Experience

• At least seven years of hands-on experience in network engineering, systems integration, network validation, network performance, field engineering, escalation engineering, or a related role.

• Deep knowledge of switching, routing, VLANs, multicast, QoS, traffic flows, and packet behaviour.

• Strong experience configuring and troubleshooting switches, endpoints, and networked devices.

• Experience diagnosing complex problems using packet captures, telemetry, logs, flow data, monitoring tools, and direct testing.

• Experience building or supporting lab, validation, integration, staging, customer, or field environments.

• Ability to reproduce technical problems and create controlled test scenarios.

• Strong root-cause analysis, documentation, and communication skills.

• Ability to work independently and provide confident technical guidance across teams.

Relevant Technical Experience

Experience in one or more of these areas is valuable:

• Broadcast, media, or AV-over-IP

• Telecommunications or carrier networks

• Data centres and high-performance networks

• Industrial networking or operational technology

• Critical infrastructure

• Low-latency network environments

• Network monitoring and observability

• Equipment validation and interoperability testing

• Field engineering or technical escalation

Broadcast or media experience is not required. Strong experience in another complex networked or operational-technology environment is equally relevant.

Preferred Qualifications

• SMPTE ST 2110, ST 2022-7, AES67, Dante, NDI, or related technologies

• PTP/IEEE 1588, NTP, synchronization, or timing distribution

• NetFlow, sFlow, IPFIX, SNMP, streaming telemetry, logs, or metrics

• IGMP, PIM, multicast routing, and traffic engineering

• High-throughput, real-time, or low-latency networks

• Network observability, performance analytics, or monitoring platforms

• Python, SQL, APIs, scripting, automation, or data-processing tools

• Network automation or configuration management