Sr. Network Engineer - (C.19.18) Michaels Stores, Inc.
Irving, TX

Job Description

We are currently recruiting for a Sr. Network Engineer located in our Support Center (Global Headquarters) located in Irving, TX.

What will you be doing?

The Senior Network Engineer is responsible for the planning, engineering and support of Michaels network infrastructure. This position is the primary resource for implementation, validating designs with the Architecture team, maintenance and support of Michaels LAN, WAN, and network security for the corporate, Data Center, Distribution Center / Artistree and store facilities.

Primary Responsibilities:

How will you do it?

* Network Adds, Moves, Changes and Project Support
* Consult with architecture and project (infrastructure and application) teams to understand requirements for new network builds
* Provide Level of Effort estimates, hardware software estimates and detail tasks lists to project managers to incorporate in their project plans and budgets.
* Perform network builds necessary to support project requirements while meeting approved project budgets and timelines
* Ensure all builds meet approved standards and requirements
* Provide peer reviews of builds performed by other engineers
* Provide requirements to technical teams to support build including power, cabling, server, storage and security configuration
* Document new builds and upgrades to support effective transition to support.
* Partner with support team to ensure new capabilities are smoothly integrated into established operational process including monitoring, maintenance, backups, and failover / disaster recovery
* Provide support to both application and infrastructure project teams to ensure systems are correctly sized and meet configuration standards
* Responsible for detailing tasks and level of effort for project managers to include in an overall project scope

3rd Level Support

* Serve as point of escalation for complex systems network issues
* Subject matter expert in all of the following technologies required: Routers, Firewalls, Switches, Wireless, Load Balancers, and other network related devices
* Serve as technical liaison for 3rd party, managed service support team
* Proactively manage the technologies within their assigned areas including providing recommendations for improving service and escalating areas that may impact service availability
* Research and bring to manager operational best practices for monitoring and maintaining network health

Internal Consulting / Team Liaison

* Partner with Architecture and Support teams to establish and revise standards and processes as required
* Develop and recommend technical strategies and solutions to maintain and/or expand system functionality in conjunction with the Architecture team
* Review and analyze existing network infrastructure services for opportunities to reduce costs through removal of excess or inappropriate services
* Function as the delegate and liaison for the manager covering their areas of expertise

Vendor Management

* Primary support to manager for vendor relationship for network services, support, and equipment
* Identify opportunities for contract negotiations, and identifying errors or omissions in billing
* Serve as primary contact for Network Expense Management provider
* Establish and ensure vendor accountability for service levels with key providers
* Partner with providers to ensure that data and voice network technology is positioned to meet current and anticipated demand for voice services.
* Work closely with the Network Expense Management vendor on provisioning and decommissioning network services for new and closing stores/ facilities

Job Requirements

Skills Required:

* BS/BA degree, Computer Science, Engineering, Masters preferred or equivalent work experience implementing and operating enterprise level data center and/or office networks
* 8-10 years' experience supporting complex server infrastructure environments
* CCNP, CCIE RS certifications preferred.
* Strong OSI layer 2 knowledge and practical experience, including various flavors of Spanning Tree, ARP, QoS, OTV, VDC, VPC etc.
* Thorough understanding of networking technologies, including administration of enterprise routers, switches, firewalls and load balancers (OSI layers 4-7).
* Comprehensive knowledge of OSI layer 3 networks and protocols, including broadcast, multicast, any cast concepts, routing, etc.
* Expertise with various routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP)
* Understanding of network security methodologies as a whole, including but not limited to: ACLs, stateful firewalls, VPNs (tunneling, IPsec, PPTP, etc.)
* Fluency with common network admin and intrusion detection tools such as Rancid, OpenNMS, Nagios, SolarWinds, Ethereal/Wireshark, Nmap, Nessus, Netflow, Syslog, Radius, etc.
* Administrative scripting skills (Perl, Power shell, UNIX shell scripting, Python, etc.)