Sr Network Automation Engineer

Mid American Energy Company, a Midwest utility, provides regulated electric and natural gas service to more than 1.6 million customers in Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. The company owns and operates a portfolio of power-generating assets, approximately 61% of which is wind generation. Mid American Energy Company is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion or religious creed, age, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status (except as required by law), gender (including gender identity and expression), sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, genetic information, physical or mental disability, veteran or military status, familial or parental status, marital status or any other category protected by applicable local, state or U.S. federal law.

Employees must be able to perform the essential functions of the position, with or without an accommodation. Mid American Energy Company has an exciting career opportunity available. Take the next step in your career and apply now!

Bachelor's degree in management information systems (MIS), computer science, or related technical field; or equivalent work experience. (Typically four years of related, progressive work experience would be needed for candidates applying for this position who do not possess a bachelor's degree.)

A minimum of six years of experience in network engineering or network automation

* Automation engineering, infrastructure engineering, platform engineering, or software engineering

* Strong experience with Python, REST APIs, JSON/YAML, and scripting best practices.

* Experience with automation and IaC tools such as Ansible, Terraform, Git‑based workflows, and CI/CD.

* Solid understanding of enterprise networking:

* Routing: BGP, OSPF, EIGRP

* Switching: VLANs, STP, LACP, VRFs

* Firewalls:
Palo Alto, Fortinet, Cisco ASA (or similar)

* Wireless networks

* SD‑WAN platforms

* Familiarity with cloud networking concepts (AWS, Azure).

* Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem‑solving skills.

Preferred Skills

* Experience with Cisco IOS/IOS‑XE/NX‑OS, Juniper, or Extreme networks.

* Exposure to observability systems (Splunk, Solar Winds, Thousand Eyes, etc.)

* Experience building CI/CD pipelines for network automation.

* Certifications such as CCNA/CCNP, Dev Net Associate/Professional, or cloud fundamentals.

Soft Skills

* Strong written and verbal communication abilities.

* Collaborative mindset with the ability to work across diverse technical teams.

* Proactive, self‑starting approach with a focus on continuous improvement.

* Comfortable operating in a fast‑paced, transformation‑driven environment.

Work Location:

Onsite at one of the listed locations; remote candidates may be considered.

Automation & Tooling

* Build, maintain, and enhance automation workflows using Python, Ansible, REST APIs, Git, and CI/CD pipelines.

* Automate device onboarding, configuration deployment, health checks, compliance validation, and monitoring processes.

* Integrate automation with observability, reporting, and orchestration platforms.

Network Engineering Support

* Collaborate on the design and delivery of automated solutions for LAN/WAN, wireless, firewalls, data centers, SD‑WAN, load balancers and cloud networking.

* Support modernization programs such as SD‑WAN pilots, cloud connectivity initiatives, lifecycle hardware refreshes, and telephony automation.

Operational Excellence

* Reduce operational overhead through repeatable, automated workflows.

* Assist operations teams by automating pre‑checks, post‑checks, and verification tasks for network changes.

* Enable consistency and reliability across distributed network environments.

Documentation & Standards

* Create and maintain documentation for automation modules, scripts, workflows, templates, and processes.

* Contribute to network engineering standards, design documents, diagrams, and runbooks.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration

* Partner with Platform Engineering on tooling, dashboards, CI/CD pipelines, and observability systems.

* Support Voice & Carrier Services engineering in automation initiatives.

* Work closely with operations and data center teams to ensure compatibility and adoption of automated workflows.