Network Engineer

Role:Network engineer Location: Plano, Texas. 4 days in office. Duration: 6 months Contract Experienced Senior Network Engineer with hands-on experience in enterprise network infrastructure, data center networking, and hybrid cloud connectivity. The role requires strong expertise in Cisco Nexus switching and routing, enterprise firewall management (Fortinet Forti Gate and Palo Alto), and hybrid connectivity solutions including Azure Express Route. The ideal candidate will be responsible for designing, implementing, and supporting secure and highly available network environments across on-premises data centers and cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure. The engineer will support critical infrastructure services, ensure secure network operations, troubleshoot complex connectivity issues, and maintain reliable routing for enterprise applications and database backup systems. Key Responsibilities Design, implement, and maintain enterprise data center network infrastructure including switching, routing, and segmentation. Configure and manage Cisco Nexus switches supporting Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking, including VLANs, vPC, STP, and high availability architectures. Implement and troubleshoot routing protocols such as BGP and OSPF to ensure stable and optimized traffic routing. Manage and administer Fortinet Forti Gate and Palo Alto firewalls, including security policies, NAT configuration, VPN connectivity, and traffic inspection. Support infrastructure-level network security, ensuring proper network segmentation, firewall enforcement, and secure access controls. Configure and maintain hybrid connectivity between on-premises data centers and Microsoft Azure using Azure Express Route and VPN.Troubleshoot complex network, firewall, and cloud connectivity issues affecting servers, applications, and database systems. Support enterprise infrastructure services including SQL database connectivity, backup routing, and application traffic flows. Monitor network health and performance using network monitoring and observability tools, ensuring high availability and minimal downtime. Perform traffic path analysis, routing validation, firewall log analysis, and root cause analysis during production incidents. Collaborate with infrastructure, cloud, security, and system engineering teams to support enterprise IT operations. Required Skills Hands-on years of experience in enterprise networking and network engineering. Strong hands-on experience with Cisco Nexus switching platforms in data center environments. Deep understanding of Layer 2 / Layer 3 networking concepts including VLANs, trunking, routing, and network segmentation. Experience with routing protocols such as BGP and OSPF.Hands-on experience managing Fortinet Forti Gate and Palo Alto firewall platforms. Experience configuring and supporting Azure networking services including Azure Virtual Networks and Azure Express Route. Strong troubleshooting skills in hybrid network environments (on-premises + Azure cloud).Experience supporting enterprise infrastructure networks, server connectivity, and secure application traffic routing. Experience with data center high availability architecture and redundancy design. Experience with network monitoring tools and infrastructure observability platforms. Knowledge of enterprise security best practices and network segmentation strategies. Experience supporting critical enterprise systems including database and backup traffic routing.