Senior IT Network Engineer

NAVA Software is looking for a Senior IT Network Engineer

Details:

Title: Senior IT Network Engineer

Duration: 6 months contract to hire

Location: Houston TX - Onsite required 3x week

Fortinet Firewalls & switches and BGP routing skills are absolute MUST HAVES

Seeking an experienced Senior IT Network Engineer with deep expertise in designing, deploying, operating, and troubleshooting enterprise networks. In addition to the usual responsibilities expected of a high-level network engineer, this role demands hands-on experience with Fortinet firewalls and switches and strong BGP routing skills.The ideal candidate will serve as one of the top technical authorities in our networking team, mentor junior engineers, influence architecture decisions, and participate in strategic infrastructure planning.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and maintain scalable, reliable network architectures (LAN, WAN, data center, campus).
• Configure, manage, and troubleshoot Fortinet (FortiGate, FortiSwitch, etc.) firewall and switch appliances across multiple sites.
• Implement, monitor, and optimize BGP routing (both internal BGP and external BGP peering) in multi-homed and large-scale environments.
• Lead network upgrades, migrations, and refresh projects (hardware, firmware, topology).
• Develop and enforce best practices for network security, segmentation, high availability, redundancy, QoS, and traffic engineering.
• Work closely with security teams to integrate network and security policy (firewall rules, VPNs, IPS/IDS, etc.).
• Perform root-cause analysis of complex network incidents; produce post-mortems, document findings, propose improvements.
• Mentor and coach junior network engineers; lead knowledge-sharing sessions and internal training.
• Stay abreast of industry trends, emerging protocols, and best practices; evaluate new network technologies and vendors.
• Participate in capacity planning, forecasting, budgeting, documentation, and procurement of network gear.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (systems, cloud, applications, operations) to ensure network alignment with business goals.

Required Qualifications & Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field (or equivalent experience).
• 7+ years of experience as a network engineer in enterprise environments.
• Strong hands-on experience with Fortinet appliances, including FortiGate firewalls, FortiSwitch switches, and associated Fortinet ecosystem tools (e.g. FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, etc.).
• Deep understanding and real-world experience with BGP routing, including:
  • eBGP and iBGP peering
  • Route reflection, route maps, policy control
  • Path manipulation, prefix filtering, communities, AS-path prepending
  • Troubleshooting BGP convergence and route flapping
• Solid proficiency with other routing and switching protocols: OSPF, EIGRP, ISIS, MPLS, VLANs, STP, EtherChannel, etc.
• Experience with network redundancy, failover, link aggregation, load balancing.
• Strong firewall rule design, NAT, VPN (site-to-site, remote access), and security policy implementation.
• Proficiency in network monitoring, telemetry, logging, alerting (e.g. SNMP, NetFlow, sFlow, syslog, etc.).
• Scripting or automation skills (Python, Ansible, etc.) to assist in network provisioning, audits, and repetitive tasks.
• Strong troubleshooting skills, with a methodical approach to diagnosing complex network issues.
• Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, for interacting with technical teams, stakeholders, and vendors.
• Ability to lead projects, make architectural decisions, and work under pressure.

Preferred / Bonus Skills

• Certifications: Fortinet NSE (especially NSE 4, 5, 6), Cisco CCNP/CCIE, Juniper JNCIP/Expert, etc.
• Experience in cloud networking (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform) and hybrid network design.
• Familiarity with SD-WAN, segment routing, software-defined networking (SDN).
• Experience with automation/orchestration frameworks (e.g. using APIs, Terraform, etc.).
• Experience with network security technologies (IDS/IPS, next-gen firewall features, DDoS mitigation).