OT Network Engineer

Alava Consulting; La Porte (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Alava Consulting in La Porte, Texas, seeks a Senior OT/IT Network & Cybersecurity Engineer for a direct-hire role. The candidate will design, implement, secure, and support OT/IT infrastructure connecting remote industrial sites to a centralized Monitoring & Diagnostics center, with emphasis on secure data connectivity and low-latency data flows.

The role demands hands-on industrial networking experience, OT cybersecurity expertise, NERC CIP compliance, and familiarity with industrial protocols.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience supporting industrial OT/IT systems within critical infrastructure such as power generation, manufacturing, oil & gas, or data centers.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end secure data connectivity between remote industrial sites and the centralized M&D center.
• Design and support reliable, secure, low-latency data flows between industrial sites and centralized monitoring infrastructure.
• Configure and maintain industrial network infrastructure, including routers, firewalls, secure gateways, servers, and edge devices.
• Configure and troubleshoot IPsec VPN tunnels, including IKEv2, NAT traversal, QoS, and fragmentation.
• Implement segmented OT network architectures across Control System, DMZ, and Enterprise environments.
• Establish secure connectivity with DCS, control systems, vibration monitoring, emissions systems, and other industrial monitoring platforms.
• Stand up, harden, and support centralized M&D infrastructure, including servers, virtualization platforms, firewalls, historians, analytics engines, and visualization tools.
• Ensure OT network architecture complies with NERC CIP requirements for segmentation, access controls, monitoring, and incident response.
• Troubleshoot network connectivity, data integrity, latency, and system availability issues across domestic and international sites.
• Serve as a technical advisor for OT connectivity, cybersecurity, and data architecture decisions.
• Collaborate with engineering, reliability, and analytics teams to support monitoring and diagnostic initiatives.

Skills

OT/IT networking

Cybersecurity engineering

NERC CIP compliance

IPsec VPNs

Industrial protocols

Edge/DMZ architecture

Tools

Firewalls

Routers

Secure gateways

IPsec VPNs

Industrial edge devices

DCS/SCADA integration

Job description

NO THIRD PARTIES, MUST BE LOCAL TO HOUSTON AREA, NO SPONSORSHIP

Alava Consulting is seeking an experienced Senior OT/IT Network & Cybersecurity Engineer for a direct-hire opportunity with one of our clients in La Porte, Texas.

This position will be responsible for designing, implementing, securing, and supporting OT/IT infrastructure connecting remote industrial sites with a centralized Monitoring & Diagnostics (M&D) center. The role requires strong hands-on industrial networking experience combined with OT cybersecurity, NERC CIP, and industrial control system expertise.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end secure data connectivity between remote industrial sites and the centralized M&D center.
• Design and support reliable, secure, low-latency data flows between industrial sites and centralized monitoring infrastructure.
• Configure and maintain industrial network infrastructure, including routers, firewalls, secure gateways, servers, and edge devices.
• Configure and troubleshoot IPsec VPN tunnels, including IKEv2, NAT traversal, QoS, and fragmentation.
• Implement segmented OT network architectures across Control System, DMZ, and Enterprise environments.
• Establish secure connectivity with DCS, control systems, vibration monitoring, emissions systems, and other industrial monitoring platforms.
• Stand up, harden, and support centralized M&D infrastructure, including servers, virtualization platforms, firewalls, historians, analytics engines, and visualization tools.
• Ensure OT network architecture complies with NERC CIP requirements for segmentation, access controls, monitoring, and incident response.
• Troubleshoot network connectivity, data integrity, latency, and system availability issues across domestic and international sites.
• Serve as a technical advisor for OT connectivity, cybersecurity, and data architecture decisions.
• Collaborate with engineering, reliability, and analytics teams to support monitoring and diagnostic initiatives.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience supporting industrial OT/IT systems within power generation, manufacturing, oil & gas, petrochemical, data centers, or other critical infrastructure environments.
• Strong hands-on industrial networking experience, including IP addressing, routing, VLANs, network segmentation, and traffic management.
• Experience designing and supporting secure OT architectures aligned with NERC CIP or equivalent cybersecurity standards.
• Strong experience with firewalls, secure gateways, IPsec VPNs, and encrypted site-to-site communications.
• Working knowledge of industrial communication protocols such as OPC UA, Modbus TCP, DNP3, or similar industrial protocols.
• Experience securely transferring operational data from protected OT environments.
• Experience supporting industrial data historians, time-series platforms, analytics systems, and SCADA/HMI supervisory software.
• Experience working with industrial process and equipment data.
• Hands-on experience installing, configuring, and commissioning OT hardware such as routers, firewalls, servers, and edge gateways.
• Familiarity with the NERC CIP compliance lifecycle, including asset identification, risk assessment, controls, and audit evidence preparation.
• Ability to work independently in complex, high-stakes industrial environments with minimal supervision.
• Power generation or gas turbine experience is a plus but not req