Junior Network Administrator

Junior Network Administrator Job Overview

The Junior Network Administrator is responsible for supporting the day-to-day operation, monitoring, maintenance, and reliability of the organization's network infrastructure. This role focuses on supporting network connectivity, switches, routers, firewalls, wireless infrastructure, and network monitoring platforms while helping ensure availability, security, and performance.

Working under the guidance of senior IT staff, this role partners with IT Operations, Security, the Service Desk, and other technical teams to maintain reliable network services and assist with troubleshooting, changes, and operational support.

This is an entry-level role designed to build foundational experience in network administration, monitoring, troubleshooting, change management, and operational best practices.

• Assist in the installation, configuration, and maintenance of:
  • Network switches, routers, and related infrastructure
  • Firewalls, VPN connectivity, and network access components
  • Wireless access points and supporting network services
• Perform routine network monitoring and health checks using approved monitoring tools, including Solar Winds
• Respond to network alerts, incidents, and service requests in a timely manner
• Troubleshoot connectivity, VLAN, DNS, DHCP, routing, latency, and circuit-related issues

• Support daily operation of enterprise network services to help ensure uptime and reliability
• Assist with network firmware updates, maintenance activities, upgrades, and approved changes
• Maintain network documentation, diagrams, device inventories, configurations, and operational procedures
• Assist with carrier, ISP, and vendor troubleshooting and participate in maintenance windows and high-availability/failover validation under senior guidance

• Follow established security, change-management, and network administration policies and procedures
• Assist with firewall rule changes, network access controls, segmentation, and related configuration tasks
• Support vulnerability remediation efforts involving network devices, firmware, and configuration changes
• Escalate security concerns, suspicious network activity, or incidents as needed

• Monitor network availability, performance, bandwidth, and capacity using Solar Winds and other approved tools
• Assist in identifying and resolving performance bottlenecks, packet loss, latency, link failures, and connectivity issues
• Document incidents, troubleshooting actions, and contribute to root cause analysis
• Participate in on-call rotation and planned maintenance activities (if applicable)

• Work closely with:
  • IT Operations and Infrastructure teams
  • Security and senior network engineering resources
  • Help Desk / Service Desk and business technology teams
• Escalate complex issues and higher-risk network changes to senior administrators or engineers
• Continuously develop networking skills through hands-on experience, mentoring, training, and certification study

• 0-2 years of experience in IT support, network support, systems administration, or related field
• Basic experience with:
• Troubleshooting endpoint and network connectivity issues
• TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, and common enterprise network services
• Working with tickets, incidents, technical documentation, and escalation processes

• Foundational understanding of:
  • Switching and routing concepts, VLANs, subnets, and IP addressing
  • TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, firewalls, VPNs, and wireless networking fundamentals
  • Network availability, redundancy, and high-availability concepts
• Familiarity with:
  • Network monitoring and alerting tools such as Solar Winds
  • Firmware, patch, configuration, and change-management processes
  • Network documentation, diagrams, device inventories, and backup/configuration concepts

• Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting ability
• Good communication skills with both technical and non-technical users
• Ability to follow processes, document work clearly, and recognize when escalation is required
• Willingness to learn and grow through hands-on network administration experience

• Associate or Bachelor degree in IT, Computer Science, Networking, or related field
• Relevant certifications (or working toward):
  • CompTIA Network+, Security+, Cisco CCNA, or similar networking certification
  • Vendor-specific network, firewall, wireless, or cloud networking certifications
• Exposure to enterprise switching, routing, firewalls, wireless networks, VPNs, and cloud networking
• Familiarity with ticketing systems, IT service management, and formal change-management processes