Network Engineer

 Role: Network Engineer Lead/Architect
Location: Wahington, DC(Remote)
Duration: 6+ months Contract
Client: Cognizant
Position Type: W2
Key Responsibilities & Skills:

• Assess current-state enterprise LAN, WAN, WLAN, Data Center and hybrid/cloud connectivity.
• Strong hands-on architecture experience with Cisco enterprise switches and wireless Access Points.
• Strong knowledge of VeloCloud SD-WAN architecture and design.
• Review core, distribution and access-layer architecture, topology and segmentation.
• Assess routing, switching, redundancy, convergence and failover design.
• Evaluate MPLS, Internet, VPN, SD-WAN and hybrid connectivity architecture.
• Review wireless architecture for coverage, capacity, resiliency and scalability.
• Assess network security architecture, including segmentation, trust boundaries, firewalls and IDS/IPS integration.
• Review DNS, DHCP and IPAM services and dependencies.
• Identify physical and logical single points of failure across devices, circuits, power and network paths.
• Evaluate overall network availability, resiliency and disaster recovery readiness.
• Assess network performance, capacity and future scalability.
• Evaluate operational maturity covering monitoring, logging, alerting and observability.
• Assess alert fatigue, incident response readiness and troubleshooting processes.
• Review configuration management, change control and network documentation practices.
• Identify architectural gaps, technical debt, operational risks and constraints.
• Develop current-state and conceptual future-state architecture diagrams.
• Define target design principles around resiliency, simplicity, security, automation and scalability.
• Recommend practical improvements based on business impact, risk, complexity and dependencies.
• Develop a prioritized network transformation/remediation roadmap with high-level implementation phases.
• Conduct technical discovery and architecture workshops with customer stakeholders.
• Produce an Enterprise Network Assessment Report and Gap Analysis.
• Prepare and deliver an executive-level presentation of key findings, risks and recommendations.
• Must be capable of translating technical findings into business risk and operational impact.
• Strong stakeholder management, documentation, presentation and consulting skills required.
• 15+ years of enterprise networking experience preferred, with significant network architecture/assessment experience.
• CCNP/CCIE Enterprise or equivalent expertise preferred.