Network Engineer

ESP Enterprises, Inc.; Columbia (MD); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

ESP Enterprises, Inc. is seeking a well‑rounded Network Engineer to design, implement, and support enterprise and client networks across LAN/WAN and wireless environments.

The role emphasizes hands‑on Cisco routing and switching, firewall administration, and security best practices, with after‑hours and on‑call duties. You will work with local and client IT teams, monitor network performance, and help deploy upgrades, migrations, and security patches.

Qualifications

• Five+ years of hands-on enterprise network engineering or administration.
• Strong Cisco routing and switching experience.
• Experience with Barracuda firewalls and security appliances.
• Solid TCP/IP knowledge and network fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Design, configure, and troubleshoot LAN, WAN, WLAN, VPN, and internet connectivity.
• Configure Cisco routers/switches, ASA firewalls, and wireless controllers.
• Administer and troubleshoot Barracuda firewalls and security appliances.
• Diagnose complex network issues using logs, captures, and monitoring tools.
• Coordinate with providers and client IT teams to resolve issues.
• Support planned maintenance, migrations, and upgrades.
• Develop network diagrams and documentation.

Skills

Hands-on network engineering

Cisco routing & switching

Firewall administration

TCP/IP fundamentals

Client communication

Tools

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall

Cisco ASA

Cisco Nexus

SolarWinds

Job description

NETWORK ENGINEER

Job Description

We are seeking a well‑rounded, hands‑on Network Engineer responsible for the design, implementation, administration, troubleshooting, and ongoing support of enterprise and client network environments. The ideal candidate will have strong experience with Cisco routing, switching, firewalls, wireless, and network security, along with experience supporting Barracuda and other networking and security platforms. This position requires a professional who can troubleshoot complex network issues independently, communicate effectively with clients and internal technical teams, and maintain ownership through resolution. This is an operationally focused position. The Network Engineer must be willing and able to provide after‑hours, weekend, and on‑call support for outages, maintenance windows, upgrades, implementations, and critical client issues.

Position Summary

Full‑Time

On‑call, evenings, weekends, and planned maintenance windows

Key Responsibilities

• Design, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot enterprise LAN, WAN, WLAN, VPN, and internet connectivity.
• Configure and support Cisco routers, Catalyst and Nexus switches, ASA firewalls, wireless controllers, and related Cisco technologies.
• Administer and troubleshoot Barracuda firewalls and security appliances.
• Configure and troubleshoot routing protocols, including BGP, OSPF, and EIGRP, as applicable.
• Configure and support VLANs, spanning tree, access control lists, NAT, site‑to‑site VPNs, remote‑access VPNs, DHCP, DNS, SNMP, and network segmentation.
• Diagnose complex network, firewall, routing, wireless, and connectivity problems using packet captures, logs, monitoring systems, and other diagnostic tools.
• Monitor network availability, capacity, utilization, security, and performance.
• Provide advanced troubleshooting and escalation support for production network incidents.
• Work directly with local support teams and client technical teams to diagnose and resolve network issues.
• Coordinate with internet service providers, telecommunications providers, hardware vendors, and third‑party support organizations.
• Support client implementations, production cutovers, network migrations, hardware replacements, and technology upgrades.
• Participate in network security activities, vulnerability remediation, patching, firmware upgrades, and configuration reviews.
• Develop and maintain network diagrams, IP addressing documentation, configuration standards, operating procedures, and troubleshooting documentation.
• Participate in disaster recovery and business continuity testing involving network infrastructure.
• Provide technical guidance and mentoring to other infrastructure and support personnel.
• Evaluate new networking and security technologies and recommend improvements.
• Participate in an after‑hours and on‑call rotation and respond to critical network incidents as required.
• Perform planned maintenance and production changes during evenings, overnight maintenance windows, or weekends when necessary to minimize client impact.

Required Qualifications

• Five or more years of hands‑on enterprise network engineering or network administration experience.
• Strong hands‑on experience with Cisco routing and switching.
• Strong experience administering and troubleshooting Cisco ASA firewalls.
• Strong understanding of TCP/IP and enterprise networking fundamentals.

Network Engineer Job Description

• Experience with routing protocols such as BGP, OSPF, and EIGRP.
• Experience with VLANs, STP/RSTP, NAT, ACLs, VPNs, DHCP, DNS, SNMP, and network segmentation.
• Experience supporting enterprise wireless networking.
• Experience troubleshooting complex network problems across multiple sites.
• Strong understanding of network security principles and firewall policy management.
• Ability to use logs, packet captures, monitoring systems, and other diagnostic tools to identify root cause.
• Ability to independently manage technical issues from initial diagnosis through resolution.
• Strong written, verbal, documentation, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Ability to communicate effectively with clients, vendors, engineers, developers, management, and local support personnel.
• Ability and willingness to work outside normal business hours, including evenings and weekends, and participate in an on‑call rotation.

Preferred Qualifications

• Cisco CCNA certification required or strongly preferred; CCNP Enterprise preferred.
• Experience with Barracuda CloudGen Firewall or other Barracuda security technologies.
• Experience with Cisco Nexus and Catalyst switching and Cisco wireless technologies.
• Experience with Cradlepoint and Digi cellular routers or gateways.
• Experience with network monitoring platforms such as SolarWinds.
• Experience with Palo Alto Networks or other enterprise firewall platforms.
• Familiarity with VMware, Nutanix, Microsoft Windows Server, and virtualized infrastructure is beneficial but is not the primary focus of this position.
• Experience supporting geographically distributed networks and remote client locations.
• Experience with ITIL‑based incident, problem, and change‑management processes.
• Experience with enterprise ticketing platforms such as ServiceNow.

After‑Hours and Client Support Requirement

This position supports business‑critical and client‑facing network infrastructure. The Network Engineer must be available to participate in an on‑call rotation and provide evening, overnight, and weekend support when necessary for critical incidents, planned maintenance, system implementations, network cutovers, and client support. The engineer will work collaboratively with local support personnel, remote technical teams, and client IT organizations to restore services and resolve network issues.

Core Competencies

• Advanced technical troubleshooting and root‑cause analysis
• Customer service and client‑facing communication
• Accountability and ownership of incidents through resolution
• Ability to prioritize multiple issues in a production environment
• Clear technical documentation and change‑control discipline
• Collaboration across local, remote, vendor, and client teams
• Adaptability and willingness to learn new networking and security technologies