Network Engineer (2 roles)

The Talance Group; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

The Talance Group is seeking a Network Engineer to support the operation, reliability, and evolution of our global network infrastructure from our Houston hub. You will help enhance resilience, performance, and security across enterprise, data center, cloud-connected, and SD-WAN environments.

Join a collaborative Network Operations team delivering secure, reliable connectivity for business, research, and operations worldwide.

Qualifications

• 3–5 years of experience in enterprise/datacenter/cloud-connected networks
• Experience configuring and troubleshooting production network infrastructure
• Strong understanding of routing, switching, WAN and security fundamentals
• Familiarity with Arista, Cisco, Palo Alto or Juniper products is a plus
• Excellent problem-solving and communication skills

Responsibilities

• Support and troubleshoot enterprise network infrastructure across WAN/LAN/WLAN/datacenter
• Monitor data center operations and network health
• Deploy and monitor routing, switching, firewall and security platforms
• Investigate incidents and contribute to root-cause analyses
• Collaborate on network projects, migrations and upgrades
• Maintain accurate network diagrams, standards and procedures
• Support security, resilience, compliance and lifecycle management
• Participate in on-call rotations and after-hours maintenance

Skills

BGP

OSPF

VLANs

QoS

VPNs

TCP/IP

Routing

Switching

Scripting

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related

Tools

Monitoring platforms

Job description

Job Summary

We are seeking a Network Engineer to support the operation, reliability, and evolution of our global network infrastructure. Based within the Network Operations team at the Houston HPC Hub, this role supports enterprise, data center, cloud-connected, security, and SD-WAN environments. You will contribute to operational activities, infrastructure projects, and technology lifecycle initiatives while helping enhance the resilience, performance, and security of our global network services.

About the Team

You will join our global Network Operations team, responsible for delivering secure, reliable, and high-performing connectivity services that support our business, operational, and research activities worldwide. Working closely with infrastructure teams, vendors, and business stakeholders, you will contribute to the development and maintenance of our data center, cloud, enterprise, WAN, wireless, and network security platforms.

The team combines deep technical expertise with a collaborative, practical, and service-focused culture. We value ownership, clear communication, continuous learning, and teamwork across regions.

Key Responsibilities

• Support, maintain and troubleshoot enterprise network infrastructure across WAN, LAN, wireless, data center, cloud-connected and security environments.
• Monitor daily data center operations.
• Deploy, configure and monitor routing, switching, firewall and network security platforms.
• Investigate network incidents, contribute to root cause analysis and support preventative improvement actions.
• Monitor network availability, performance, health and capacity across critical services.
• Participate in infrastructure projects, hardware refreshes, migrations and service improvement initiatives.
• Work with senior engineers to implement network enhancements and introduce new technologies.
• Maintain accurate technical documentation, diagrams, standards and operational procedures.
• Support network security, resilience, compliance and lifecycle management activities.
• Collaborate with vendors, service providers and internal stakeholders to support operational and project requirements.
• Participate in an on-call support rotation and occasional out-of-hours maintenance activities.

Qualifications

Required

• Approximately 3–5 years' experience supporting enterprise, datacenter, cloud-connected or service provider network environments.
• Hands-on experience configuring, supporting and troubleshooting production network infrastructure.
• Good understanding of routing, switching, WAN, firewall and network security fundamentals.
• Practical knowledge of technologies such as BGP, OSPF, VLANs, QoS, VPNs and TCP/IP.
• Experience using monitoring, alerting or operational management platforms.
• Strong troubleshooting, analytical and problem-solving skills, with a practical and service-focused approach.
• Ability to work effectively within a collaborative technical team and build strong working relationships.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Demonstrates ownership, accountability and reliability in delivering work.
• Comfortable working in a global, multicultural and highly technical environment.

Preferred

• Experience with Arista, Aruba/HPE, Cisco, Dell, Palo Alto or Juniper technologies.
• Exposure to SD-WAN and hybrid networking environments.
• Familiarity with Azure networking or cloud connectivity solutions.
• Knowledge of data center networking technologies such as VXLAN, EVPN or MLAG.
• Experience with telemetry, observability or performance monitoring platforms.
• Experience with scripting or automation.
• Industry certifications such as CCNA, CCNP, ACSP, ACMP, or PCNSA.
• Degree in Computer Science or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• Curious and motivated to continuously develop technical knowledge and skills.
• Proactive in identifying opportunities for improvement and resolving issues.
• Able to balance operational responsibilities with project-based work.
• Committed to continuous learning and professional development.