Onsite Cisco Catalyst & NMS Engineer

Zachary Piper Solutions is seeking a Cisco Catalyst Specialistto support a long-term DOD program focused on enterprise network management, automation, and reliability. This position is 100% onsite in Norfolk, VA. The Cisco Catalyst Specialist will support large-scale enterprise networks by designing, deploying, and optimizing Network Management Systems (NMS), with a primary focus on the Cisco Catalyst platform, Catalyst Center/DNA Center, Catalyst SD-WAN, and IOS-XE.

This role bridges traditional network engineering with network automation to improve visibility, reliability, lifecycle management, and operational efficiency across a large enterprise environment.

Responsibilities of the Cisco Catalyst Specialist include:

• Design, deploy, configure, and optimize enterprise Network Management Systems (NMS) supporting large-scale Cisco network environments
• Implement and maintain Cisco Catalyst Center (formerly DNA Center) and associated network management and orchestration platforms
• Design highly available NMS environments, including HA, disaster recovery, backup, and platform resiliency
• Configure and optimize SNMP, Syslog, Net Flow, IPFIX, RMON, and streaming gRPC telemetry for enterprise network monitoring and visibility
• Integrate NMS platforms with Cisco ISE for role-based access control (RBAC) and secure network administration
• Support the full lifecycle of Cisco Catalyst switches and routers, including provisioning, configuration, stacking, upgrades, patching, and migrations
• Develop and maintain configuration templates, blueprints, and automated workflows within Cisco Catalyst Center for enterprise LAN/WLAN environments
• Utilize Software Image Management (SWIM) capabilities to support operating system upgrades and patch compliance across large device populations
• Develop migration plans and runbooks for transitioning legacy network infrastructure to modern Cisco Catalyst environments
• Monitor network health and performance through NMS dashboards, alerts, telemetry, and assurance capabilities
• Analyze network anomalies, client health, device performance, and connectivity issues to support root cause analysis and resolution
• Monitor key network metrics including link utilization, memory, temperature, PoE, device health, and availability
• Integrate network monitoring and telemetry with platforms such as Service Now and Splunk/SIEM
• Troubleshoot complex network issues using NMS packet capture, telemetry data, sensor information, and Wireshark
• Develop network automation workflows using Python, Ansible, and REST APIs
• Leverage Cisco Catalyst Center APIs to automate bulk network configuration, provisioning, monitoring, and operational workflows
• Implement Cisco Plug and Play (PnP) and Zero Touch Provisioning (ZTP) capabilities
• Support enterprise network configuration validation, change management, troubleshooting, and lifecycle activities
• Collaborate with network engineering, systems, cybersecurity, and operations teams to improve network reliability and automation
• Develop and maintain technical documentation, configuration standards, migration procedures, and operational runbooks

Qualifications of the Cisco Catalyst Specialistinclude:

• 7+ years of experience in enterprise network engineering, network management, or related infrastructure engineering
• 3–5+ years of dedicated experience supporting enterprise Network Management Systems (NMS)
• Strong hands-on experience with Cisco Catalyst Center / DNA Center
• Experience with Cisco Catalyst switches, routers, and IOS-XE
• Experience with Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN
• Strong understanding of enterprise networking concepts including OSPF, EIGRP, BGP, VLANs, STP, Layer 2/Layer 3 networking, and routing/switching
• Experience with modern Cisco architectures including SD-Access, VXLAN, and Trust Sec
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