OT Network Engineer for Generation Plants & SCADA

Southern Company; Birmingham (AL); Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Southern Company is seeking a Generation OT Network Engineer to design, implement, and support secure OT network infrastructure across Generation facilities. You will work on SCADA/DCS networks, configure switches/routers, and ensure reliable plant connectivity while coordinating with cybersecurity and vendor teams.

Must have hands-on experience with Cisco routing/switching, Palo Alto firewalls, OSPF/BGP, and packet analysis.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree preferred; an associate degree may be considered.
• Typically 3–5 years of progressively responsible network engineering or administration experience.
• Experience in OT, industrial control, SCADA, utility or critical infrastructure environments.
• Experience with Palo Alto firewalls; DNP3, Modbus, OPC, ICCP, historian connectivity or RTAC is preferred.
• Network automation or scripting experience is preferred.
• Relevant Cisco, Palo Alto certifications are preferred.

Responsibilities

• Design standardized OT network architectures for control systems and vendor systems.
• Engineer routing, switching, segmentation, firewalls, redundancy, and secure remote access.
• Configure, install, test, and commission switches, routers, and related equipment at generation sites.
• Support factory and site acceptance testing, outages, and project turnover.
• Troubleshoot outages and degraded communications using packet analysis and protocol inspection.
• Execute changes with planning, validation, rollback, and documentation processes.
• Apply Generation cybersecurity requirements and applicable NERC CIP controls to OT networks.
• Maintain diagrams, IP records, firewall documentation, configurations, and lifecycle plans.
• Partner with plant personnel, project teams, cybersecurity, and vendors.
• Provide escalation support and participate in after-hours/on-call rotation.

Skills

TCP/IP

Subnetting

Network security

Wireshark

VPNs

Routing & switching (Cisco)

OSPF/BGP

Documentation

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, CS, IS, Networking, or related field

Tools

Cisco routing/switching

Palo Alto firewalls

Wireshark

Job description

Southern Company is seeking a Generation OT Network Engineer to design, implement, and support secure OT network infrastructure across Generation facilities. You will work on SCADA/DCS networks, configure switches/routers, and ensure reliable plant connectivity while coordinating with cybersecurity and vendor teams.

Must have hands-on experience with Cisco routing/switching, Palo Alto firewalls, OSPF/BGP, and packet analysis.