Lead Network Engineer (Design)

Wolters Kluwer Global Business Services (GBS) is designed to provide services divisional business units in the areas of technology, sourcing, procurement, legal, finance, and accounting. GBS promotes team collaboration using best practices around a specific focus area to drive results and enhance operational efficiencies. There is a constant endeavor to benchmark against best-in-class industry standards to improve the quality of deliverables, increase cost savings, enhance productivity, and reduce time to market for products and applications.

This position is part of the GBS IT Infrastructure Division that provides holistic support for numerous IT domains including Project Management, Hosting (including Cloud Computing), Network, Telecom, Unified Communications, End User Computing, and Information Security.  The GBS Network Design Engineering team oversees Wolters Kluwer’s Enterprise Network, spanning multiple public/private clouds, data centers, and offices in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.

As part of this team, the Lead Network Design Engineer will be responsible for design, solutioning, and implementation of an SDN-based Enterprise Network which spans over 100 global locations and is integral to the company's success. You will provide reactive support for escalated networking issues and proactive project support to enable our SD-WAN based Enterprise Connectivity Transformation initiatives.

Our Lead Network Design Engineers are required to be Subject Matter Experts within the fields of traditional, cloud, and software defined networking and can translate highly technical subjects to stakeholders whilst engaging, steering, and guiding mid-level Network Design Engineers in delivering network projects and solutions.

Our Lead Network Design Engineer’s primary focus is to collaborate with Network Architects on high level architectural network designs and synthesize them into deployable low-level designs for sub-domains related to Network technologies including both emerging and traditional technologies.  They are required to prove out and test network designs, solutions, and tools through Proof-of-Concept activities, and ensure the delivery of these deployments is transitioned to operational networking teams effectively and consistently with accompanying artifacts including design and standard operating procedure documentation to ensure operational continuity as the deployments go to production. 

This is a hands-on role and presents an exciting opportunity for anyone passionate about working with large-scale Enterprise Networks, especially with a focus on public cloud technologies.

Essential Duties and responsibilities

Strategy and Architecture:

• Uses appropriate tools, including logical models of components and interfaces, to contribute to the development of network designs. Produces detailed component specifications and translates these into detailed low-level designs for implementation. Provides advice on technical aspects of enterprise networking and ensures that relevant technical strategies, policies, standards, and practices (including security) are applied correctly.
• Maintains an in-depth knowledge of emerging and traditional network technologies and provides expert advice regarding their application. Can supervise specialist consultancy as well as internal network engineering activities.
• Takes responsibility for the design, procurement, installation, upgrade, operation, control, maintenance, monitoring, and effective use of network infrastructure components. Ensures that operational problems are identified and resolved.  Provides appropriate status and other reports to specialists, users and managers. Ensures that operational procedures and working practices are fit for purpose and current.
• Provides expertise and support on use of networking methods and tools.

Development and implementation:

• Designs and deploys first-of-a-kind infrastructures and tools for networks which meet business needs and considers target environment, performance, security requirements, and existing systems.
• Translates high-level designs into low-level designs and produces detailed low-level design and standard operating procedural (SOP) documentation.
• Takes responsibility for first-of-a-kind installation projects, providing effective team leadership, including information flow to and from the customer during project work. Monitors the effectiveness of installations and ensures that appropriate recommendations for change are made.
• Designs test cases and creates test scripts and supporting data, working to the specifications provided. Interprets, executes and records test cases in accordance with project test plans. Analyses and reports test activities and results. Identifies and reports issues and risks.
• Participates in and follows all Governance processes including Engineering Review Council (ERC).
• Uses the tools and techniques for specific areas of release and deployment activities. Administers the recording of activities, logging of results and documents technical activity undertaken. May carry out early support activities such as providing support advice to initial users.
• Research and develop new WK Network Services and Standards for SD-WAN, WAN, ISP, and other network transports including emerging network technologies.
• Develops new network transport services to support emerging WK application requirements such as IP Video, connectivity to cloud hosting providers, unified communications integration, QoS, etc.
• Research and develop solutions that require integration of security, EUC and network technologies.
• Develops technical transformation plans, business cases and Carrier Contract changes as needed to foster adoption of new data transport technology.
• Synthesizes network technical, service management, and functional requirements specifications.
• Integrates infrastructure from M&A activity into WK centralized network tools and contracts.
• Develops and manages all network service engineering plans and strategies.
• Develops long range strategy for network equipment, networks, and tools.
• Manages all documentation related to network infrastructure.
• Maintains knowledge of applicable network technologies by reviewing technical literature and attending training.
• Drives conversion of legacy and non-standard networks and services to the WK Global Standard set of services.
• Utilizes common DevOps and CI/CD tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, Jenkins Octopus Deploy, GitHub Enterprise, etc.

Delivery and Operation:

• Manages and assures all network ITIL processes are followed (e.g., Change, Request, Problem).
• Monitors network component capacity and initiates actions to resolve any shortfalls according to agreed procedures. Applies techniques to control the demand upon a particular network resource or service.
• Provides technical expertise to enable the correct application of operational procedures.
• Uses network management tools to determine network load and performance statistics.
• Utilizes system administration tools as required to manage, monitor, and maintain network systems.
• Contributes to the planning and implementation of maintenance and installation work for first-of-a-kind deployments, including building and management of network systems and components in virtualized computing environments.
• Implements agreed network changes and maintenance routines.
• Identifies operational problems and contributes to their resolution, checking that they are managed in accordance with agreed standards and procedures.
• Provides reports and proposals for improvement, to specialists, users, and managers.
• Develops RFIs, RFQs and RFPs, and manages vendor response processes.
• Creates Business Cases for new networks, network services, and network upgrades.
• Drives internal WK and vendor resources to improve availability and performance of al network services.
• Monitors outsourcing relationships, performance, and workflows to assure the outsourced service meets WK needs   Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
• Coordinates with WK Sourcing and Legal teams to develop / modify new service contracts.
• Coordinates with other region Network Service Leads to ensure global standards are met and that global projects are architected, designed, and implemented consistently.
• Interfaces with other WK and Vendor domain experts and project managers to develop and deliver solutions that cross multiple technical domains.

Other Duties

• Performs other duties as assigned by management

Experience:

• 10 or more years in a technical network position
• 5 or more years as a Network Engineer
• 5 or more years of experience in a large, global environment
• Experience working in a DevOps or oriented IT environment highly desirable

Other Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Software Defined Networking (SDN)
• SD-WAN and traditional WAN and LAN technology design
• DNS and SSL Certificates
• Automated, virtualized, software defined (Infrastructure as Code), devops implementation experience is highly desirable
• Network Monitoring and Observability
• Cloud networking and cloud connectivity, preferably with Azure and/or AWS
• Internet Connectivity
• Routing Protocols (eBGP/iBGP/OSPF)
• Network Security (Zero Trust, ZTNA, ZTA, Micro Segmentation, etc.)
• Web Content Filtering (zScaler, Fortigate, etc.)
• Wireless Access (WAPS)
• IP Addressing (Schemas, VLANS, DNS, DHCP)
• Remote Access Services (Client VPNs, etc.)
• Extranets and Site to Site VPNs 
• MPLS Network – Routing and Circuits
• Voice and video over IP (VVoIP)
• Quality of Service/Experience (QoS/QoE) and Class of Service (CoS)
• Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) and Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN)
• WAN Optimization
• Firewalls
• Load Balancers
• Unified Communications including Audio, Web, and Video Conferencing
• SIP
• Switching technologies
• Network Management tools such as SolarWinds, CloudFlare, InfoBlox, Zabbix, ThousandEyes, PRTG, etc.
• Experience provisioning and managing networks with automation tools including Ansible and/or Terraform
• Experience automating devices like zScaler, Fortinet, Arista, Juniper, Cisco, Palo Alto, Ciena, F5, etc.
• Experience on SD-WAN products such as Cisco, VeloCloud, Viptella, etc.
• Experience with Network Policy & Network Access control tools such Cisco ISE
• Knowledge of Compliance and Data Privacy

Soft Skills Required:

• Experience leading a team of mid-level engineers
• High aptitude for technology
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• Project management skills: Agile, financial/budget management, scheduling, and resource management

Preferred

• Experience with POC (Proof of Concept) Network designs
• Experience working with low level designs

Travel Requirements

Position may require domestic and international travel, 15-20%

Physical Demands

Normal professional office environment.

Benefits:

Diversity Matters

Wolters Kluwer strives for an inclusive company culture in which we attract, develop, and retain diverse talent to achieve our strategy. As a global company, having a diverse workforce is of the utmost importance. We've been recognized by employees as a European Diversity Leader in the Financial Times, as one of Forbes America’s Best Employers for Diversity in 2022, 2021 and 2020 and as one of Forbes America’s Best Employers for Women in 2021, 2020, 2019 and 2018. In 2020, we placed third in the Female Board Index, and were recognized by the European Women on Boards Gender Diversity Index. Wolters Kluwer and all of our subsidiaries, divisions and customer/departments is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action employer.