Senior Network Engineer, Operations (Network Operations Center

Join the team that connects California to the world — advancing education and research statewide by providing the world-class computing network essential for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth. Our organization operates the California Research and Education Network (CalREN), a high-capacity computer network with more than 8,000 miles of optical fiber. The network serves over 20 million users across California, including the vast majority of K-20 students, together with educators, researchers, and individuals at other vital public-serving institutions.

Bring your IT career and technical expertise to help support the California Research and Education Network (CalREN), a high-bandwidth, fiber-optic network that serves over 20 million users. CENIC is a nonprofit governed by its member K-12 schools, libraries, community colleges, universities, and other public-serving institutions. Its mission is to advance education and research by providing a world-class network essential for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth.

** We are looking for Network Engineers at various levels: mid-career > senior > technical expert > and leadership roles! Please see our career center for other positions available.**

Reporting to the Manager of Operations, the Senior Network Engineer, Network of Operations, provides operational support for CENIC’s advanced services network to advance CENIC’s organizational goals and objectives of a high-performance, open, and secure network. The Senior Network Engineer will function as a point of escalation, providing technical leadership and decision-making to on-shift staff and/or escalating issues, both internally and externally, as necessary.

Proactively monitoring the CENIC networks to detect and resolve problems and ensure uninterrupted operations of the networks.

Monitor daily workflows to ensure timely execution of next action items.

Review notifications for accuracy and relevancy of included information.

Review turnover reports, scheduled maintenance, and the general state of the network.

Provide oversight of all ongoing outages, providing technical insight and guidance to Network Engineers.

Monitor hardware and software vendor advisory notices for potential impact.

Participation in Triage shifts as needed.

Problem troubleshooting and resolution, including interaction with carriers, vendors, and CENIC’s senior-level engineering group

Serve as the point of contact for major incidents involving multiple sites or backbone services and determine the best course to resolution.

Take ownership of complex problems involving our member sites or backbone services.

Draft clear and concise announcements for network outages.

Investigate, document, and perform root cause analysis of incidents or complex problems.

Compile post-mortem reports to be shared with leadership and members, identifying areas for improvement.

Evaluate all risk exposures and collaborate with teammates on best paths to resolution.

Problem troubleshooting and resolution with CENIC associates.

Respond to service requests via phone and ticketing system.

Prepare announcements for maintenance activities and network outages.

Backup escalation for external escalations when the Lead Engineer is unavailable.

Planning, evaluating, and executing network maintenance activities.

Assist the network administrators in coordinating the shipment of equipment to network sites.

Assist network administrators with announcements about maintenance activities.

Approves change control requests from Network Engineers.

Participates in advanced maintenance tasks.

Serve as a subject matter expert for a technology(s) used on CalREN or a toolset that Operations utilizes

Stay current on emerging trends by self learning and collaborating with the engineering team.

Ensure documentation is current and updated; provide training to the team when needed

Participation in updating and revising policies, procedures, technical reports, documentation, and internal training material.

Maintain accurate inventory for network equipment.

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