Lead Network Engineer – Enterprise Infrastructure-28764

Rush University Medical Center; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 70,000 - 104,000; Full time

Job summary

Rush University Medical Center is seeking a Lead Network Engineer to spearhead network services across LAN, WAN, and data center environments. You will serve as the technical lead, mentor teammates, and own design, implementation, and optimization of enterprise networking platforms.

The role emphasizes Cisco expertise, strong problem solving, and building secure, scalable, and highly available networks to support patient care, research, education, and administrative operations in a 24x7

Qualifications

• 7+ years in large WAN networking environments.
• Strong knowledge of routing and switching, TCP/IP, and security policy baselines.
• Experience with security devices and VPN technologies.

Responsibilities

• Lead network team projects and mentor engineers.
• Act as escalation point for projects and operations issues.
• Plan upgrades, design standards, and documentation for Network Services.
• Ensure network performance, security, and availability in a 24x7 healthcare environment.
• Collaborate with management and other teams on infrastructure initiatives.

Skills

Cisco routers

Cisco switches

WAN networking

TCP/IP

BGP

EIGRP

HSRP

MPLS

SD-WAN

Firewall security

Education

Bachelor's degree in Networking

Associate degree in Networking

Tools

Syslog

NetFlow

SolarWinds

Plixer Scrutinizer

TACACS

Job description

Hospital: Rush University Medical Center

Department: IT Infrastructure

Work Type: Full Time (Total FTE between 0.9 and 1.0)

Shift: Shift 1

Work Schedule: 8 Hr (8:00:00 AM - 5:00:00 PM)

Rush offers exceptional rewards and benefits learn more at our Rush benefits page (https://www.rush.edu/rush-careers/employee-benefits).

Pay Range: $50.68 - $75.51 per hour

Rush salaries are determined by many factors including, but not limited to, education, job-related experience and skills, as well as internal equity and industry specific market data. The pay range for each role reflects Rush’s anticipated wage or salary reasonably expected to be offered for the position. Offers may vary depending on the circumstances of each case.

Summary

Join Rush University Medical Center as a Lead Network Engineer and play a critical role in supporting and advancing the network infrastructure that powers one of the nation's leading academic health systems. In this highly visible leadership position, you will serve as the technical lead and primary escalation point for Network Services, helping ensure the reliability, security, and performance of a complex 24x7x365 healthcare environment.

As a subject matter expert in enterprise networking, you will lead the design, implementation, optimization, and support of mission-critical technologies across LAN, WAN, wireless, datacenter, cloud, and security platforms. You'll collaborate with technical and business leaders across the organization to drive strategic initiatives, improve operational processes, enhance network performance, and deliver innovative solutions that support patient care, research, education, and administrative operations.

This role offers the opportunity to lead major infrastructure projects, mentor fellow engineers, influence technology standards, and help shape the future direction of Rush's network services portfolio. The ideal candidate is a hands-on technical leader with deep Cisco networking expertise, strong problem-solving abilities, and a passion for building secure, scalable, and highly available network solutions.

If you're looking for an opportunity to combine technical leadership, enterprise-scale networking, and meaningful work that directly supports patient care and organizational success, we encourage you to apply.

Responsibilities

• Lead network team projects both internal and external supporting and enhancing the business.
• Provide mentorship and guidance to fellow engineers.
• Serve as an escalation for issues arising from projects and operational tasks.
• Maintain and enhance the existing processes and workflows.
• Assist and help organize engineering workloads within the team to ensure timely project delivery.
• Monitor the network to ensure security of data and access privileges.
• Analyze and resolve network hardware and software problems in a timely and accurate fashion and provide end-user assistance and training where required.
• Conduct research on network products, services, protocols, and standards in support of network procurement and development efforts.
• Develop strategies and plan for infrastructure growth based on business demands.
• Develop standards to help reduce error and reducing mean time to resolution for outages.
• Plan and design tangible solutions that will improve performance of services within the Network Services portfolio.
• Plan network hardware upgrades, maintenance fixes, and vendor-supplied patches.
• Define metrics, monitor, and test and troubleshoot network performance and provide network performance statistics and reports.
• Plan, deploy, maintain, and support the hospitals local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), Datacenters, Cloud infrastructure, including routers, firewalls, switches, VPN appliances, wiring and other hardware as assigned.
• Recommend, schedule, and perform network improvements, upgrades, and repairs.
• Collaborate with IT management and staff, departments and other agencies in the development, deployment, and support of new network-based programs and applications.
• Provide guidance and technical support to peers and serve as an escalation point for help desk related issues.
• Develop, maintain, and ensure the accuracy and completeness of network related technical documentation as needed. Help drive a consistent set of standards for equipment, configuration, and operational procedures.
• Coordinate with other team members, departments and agencies to deliver solutions and configuration items without impacting hospital operations and or patient safety.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Subject matter expert for Cisco routers and switches platforms supporting LAN, WAN, Datacenter
• Bachelors Degree and 7 years of relevant experience in Networking or An associates degree and 9 years of relevant experience
• 7+ years of operational systems and support experience in a large networked WAN environment
• Strong knowledge of network protocols and concepts such as Spanning tree, EIGRP, BGP, HSRP, VOIP, QOS, TCP/IP, 802.1q, 802.1x, MPLS, DNS, Syslog, TACACS, SD-WAN, OSPF
• Ability to work with network security devices such as Cisco IDS/IPS devices, F5, Firepower, Juniper, Palo Alto, ASA, and ACS with an understanding of how to baseline and set alerting features of IDS signatures and work with security policies
• Demonstrated ability on WAN infrastructure consisting of a mixture of MPLS, Point to Point, Internet and DMVPN technologies utilizing SD-WAN appliances
• Experience with network access control technologies such as 802.1x
• Working knowledge of remote access VPNs (IPSEC, global protect, DMVPN)
• Proficient with monitoring and logging tools for access management and troubleshooting using tools such as Syslog, ACS, Netflow (Plixer scrutinizer) Solarwinds and protocol analyzers
• Prior experience using industry established project management techniques in accomplishing strategic objectives
• Experienced with ITSM functionalities such as change control, CMDB, ticket system
• In depth understanding of disaster recovery, design, implementation, and testing
• Strong knowledge of routing and switching technologies
• Strong knowledge of IP Addressing and Subnetting, including design and implementation
• Strong knowledge of DNS and DHCP, including design and implementation
• Strong knowledge of VLANs and networking to support servers and storage
• Strong knowledge of supporting large wireless networks environment with Cisco and Meraki
• Experience with Quality of Service, for Voice and Video
• Ability and availability to work occasional nights/weekends assignments as necessary.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and within a team environment to ensure performance, reliability, and security in a dynamic 24-7-365 production network environment
• Some travel may be required
• Customer focused attitude
• Excellent communications skills both written and verbal

Preferred Job Qualifications

• CCNP is a huge plus
• Experience with Cisco DNA, ACI, SDN
• Experience with automation
• Past leadership experience

Rush is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics.