Manager, Network Systems

Overview & Context
The Ride Show Networks (RSN) team is responsible for the design, integration, and validation of industrial and show-related network systems that enable communication between ride vehicles, show systems, and game systems across themed attractions.
The environment blends industrial automation (Rockwell, Siemens, Beckhoff TwinCAT) with show-system networking (QSC, ETC, AV, lighting), forming a converged plant-wide Ethernet backbone.

Deliverables & Responsibilities

• Full network design documentation — topology diagrams, IP schemas, traffic-flow maps, cable schedules.
• Hardware procurement (switches, firewalls, cabling) and vendor coordination for rack/stack installations.
• Configuration and validation of all connected systems.
• Acceptance Testing (FAT/SAT) — automated testing, signature collection, and documentation turnover to doc control.
• Ongoing maintenance of deliverables to reflect vendor and system changes.
• Vendor liaison: translate network concepts for non-networking disciplines (controls, AV, show vendors).
• Cross-system integration support for attractions (e.g., ride vehicles, show lighting, game logic).

Core Stack & Systems

• Industrial Automation: Rockwell (CIP, EtherNet/IP), Siemens, Beckhoff TwinCAT
• Show System Integration: QSC Q-SYS (audio), ETC (lighting), AV systems
• Networking Hardware: Cisco switches, Palo Alto firewalls
• Infrastructure: Windows Active Directory, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, virtualization (VMware, Hyper-V)
• Protocols & Concepts:
  • QOS (Quality of Service)
  • PRP (Parallel Redundancy Protocol)
  • PTP (Precision Time Protocol)
  • Static routing (no EIGRP/OSPF)
  • VLANs, subnetting, firewall rule management
  • Infrastructure as code (Python scripting, APIs for automation and validation)