Network Engineer - Consultant (Hybrid)

Job Title: Network Engineer - Consultant (Hybrid)

Location: Columbia, SC

Duration: 12+ Months

Job Description:

This Contractor demonstrates an expert knowledge of designing, implementing, and support of agency VMWare solutions. This individual will need to work with various application and infrastructure groups to understand requirements for each area of the organization. Design documentation will need to be produced documenting final deployment details along with support procedures as needed. This contractor will be an expert in some or all of the fields of networking, virtual environments, security, encryption, network automation, Microsoft server, and networking environments. The intent of this work order is to provide implementation and maintenance support on the network and networked systems at the Client. Under general supervision, the contractor will serve as an engineer reporting directly to a functional manager. Contractor will be a team member that ensures the stability and integrity of data, and server services through monitoring, maintenance, support, and optimization of all server infrastructure. This individual has 24/7 on-call responsibilities shared with the group.

General duties include effectively researching and providing guidance leading to solutions with our strategic direction initiatives that include but are not limited to monitoring system infrastructure and security; assist in supporting disaster recovery/failover scenarios.

Daily Duties / Responsibilities:

Non-Technical:

• Effectively interact and communicate with peer to Director-level IT professionals.
• Provide feedback to team regarding product issues, enhancements and new features.
• Must have initiative, drive and be a self-starter.
• Ability to ask pertinent questions of others.
• Proactively seek to identify, communicate and implement process related improvements.
• Effectively manage multiple tasks and activities concurrently and able to provide periodic status updates to key stakeholders.
• Collaborate extensively with peers and management to resolve client issues while actively contributing to a growing knowledge network that improves the effectiveness of our team and the information available to our clients.
• Prioritize numerous issues of varying severity and effectively manage the resolution of all issues within accepted service levels. This includes ownership of the data entered into the Helpdesk system and appropriately updating both client and appropriate employees of status of all issues on a timely basis.
• Good customer skills, be attentive to detail, and responsive to customer tickets.

Technical:

• Troubleshoot and recommend technical solutions.
• Develop workaround solutions as appropriate.
• Perform equipment and software upgrades.
• Install, configure, test, monitor, and maintain system and application hardware, and software.
• Diagnose and resolve problems related to hardware and software; and escalate complex issues to other groups or vendors for resolution.
• Maintain familiarity with current computer and network products.
• Adhere to corporate information security guidelines and promote information security among coworkers
• Performs other duties and special projects as assigned.

Required Skills (rank in order of Importance):

• 13+ Years of Experience in IT
• 3+ Years of Government Experience (Federal/State/Local Municipality)
• VMware Certified Professional VCP certification required, 5+ years equivalent experience in VMware.
• 8+ Years of Experience with Enterprise environments with known issues on both the SAN and VMware front.
• 8+ Years of Experience with VMware ESX administration.
• Experience with Capacity planning based on technical analysis research.

Preferred Skills (rank in order of Importance):

• Experience with NIST, PCI, or a Pub 1075 environment
• Working technical knowledge of current network hardware, protocols, and Internet standards, including, TCP/IP, DNS, and DHCP.
• Advanced knowledge in Windows Server 2012, 2016, and 2019

Additional Skills:

• Highly self-motivated, a team player and attention to detail.
• Strong interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills.
• Able to effectively prioritize tasks in a high-pressure environment.
• Strong customer service skills.

Required Education/Certifications:

• A bachelor's degree in information technology systems, computer science, or related field.