Network Cloud Engineer

AHEAD builds platforms for digital business. By weaving together advances in cloud infrastructure, automation and analytics, and software delivery, we help enterprises deliver on the promise of digital transformation.

At AHEAD, we prioritize creating a culture of belonging, where all perspectives and voices are represented, valued, respected, and heard. We create spaces to empower everyone to speak up, make change, and drive the culture at AHEAD. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and do not discriminate based on an individual's race, national origin, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, marital status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law, whether actual or perceived. 

We embrace all candidates that will contribute to the diversification and enrichment of ideas and perspectives at AHEAD. 

AHEAD is currently seeking a System Engineer to join the Enterprise Cloud Services team. The successful candidate should have several years in a system engineering role, with hands-on experience working with various datacenters and enterprise level technologies and applications. Must be flexible in technology exposure and willing to stretch beyond what they currently know. The ideal candidate will need to possess exceptional team player skills, while also being self-motivated and driven to consistently deliver outstanding customer support. Additionally, the selected candidate will have demonstrated experience with troubleshooting production problems as well as implementing, upgrading and maintaining enterprise level systems and services.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

• Act as technical interface to AHEAD Clients to facilitate effective delivery of Datacenter and Cloud related services:
• o Datacenter & Collocation Management
• o Infrastructure-as-a-Service
• o Backup-as-a-Service
• o Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service
• Design, implement, troubleshoot, analyze, and maintain internal and external customer environments.
• Create, request, and present technical specifications and requirements.
• Perform hardware and software installations, upgrades and maintenance.
• Participate in after-hours maintenance and on-call rotation.
• Identify, research, and resolve technical problems.
• Support Level 2 and Level 3 Engineers for problems identified with systems and network, and act as an escalation point for Managed Services support technicians.
• Standard system administration duties including equipment installation, System/Application install and patch management, log analysis, etc.
• Interface with third party vendors as liaison between client and vendor.
• Utilize superior customer service skills to provide a first level interface for AHEAD clients.
• Plan and implement system automation to improve service efficiency and consistency.
• Create thorough documentation records of design specifications and instructional manuals as necessary to enable Managed Services personnel to be effective in understanding and managing client delivered services.
• Collaborates with other professionals to ensure high quality deliverables within organization guidelines, policies, and procedures.
• Engage in continuous learning to stay abreast of new and emerging technologies.

Education and/or Work Experience Requirements:

• 7-9 years of prior IT experience; prior experience working for a service provider a plus
• Prior customer service experience
• Working experience with one or more infrastructure monitoring, alerting, and ticketing platforms
• Working experience managing & implementing virtualization technologies - vSphere, Hyper-V, Prism
• Working experience managing & implementing network virtualization technologies – NSX-T preferred.
• Experience working with dynamic Routing protocols such as BGP/OSPF/ISIS/EIGRP
• Working knowledge of service provider networking including various MPLS technologies such as SR/LDP/RSVP-TE
• Experience with various firewalls including Cisco ASA/FTD, Palo Alto Networks, and FortiGate
• Knowledge of Provider edge networking configurations and requirements a plus
• Experience working in a service provider NOC supporting multiple customers
• Working experience of basic Linux administration such as managing file permissions, adding users, or setting up basic services
• Team player with excellent communication skills and the ability to manage assignments independently
• Nurturing personality and the desire to help in the development and mentoring of level 1 technicians
• Ability to achieve successful outcomes in handling difficult situations and to work with various customers and management levels
• Analytical and troubleshooting skills
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment
• Shows initiative and acts independently to resolve problems
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and follow through on projects to completion
• Works effectively both as a team member and independently
• Effectively utilizes tools to resolve issues and escalates appropriately
• Proficient in documentation creation leveraging Microsoft Visio & Office.
• Ability to work independently, prioritizes existing projects, and proactively determine areas requiring additional attention, monitoring, or maintenance
• Excellent written, communication, and problem-solving skills are a must
• Experience with VMware vCloud Director a plus
• Experience with Zerto Virtual Replication a plus
• Experience with Public Clouds (AWS/Azure) a plus
• Experience with Automation/Orchestration/scripting (Ansible/Python/PowerShell) a plus

Relevant Industry/Vendor Certifications:

• CCNP Service Provider
• VMware vSphere Certifications a plus
• Azure/Amazon Certifications a plus

Why AHEAD:

Through our daily work and internal groups like Moving Women AHEAD and RISE AHEAD, we value and benefit from diversity of people, ideas, experience, and everything in between.

We fuel growth by stacking our office with top-notch technologies in a multi-million-dollar lab, by encouraging cross department training and development, sponsoring certifications and credentials for continued learning.

USA Employment Benefits include: 

- Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance 

- 401(k) 

- Paid company holidays 

- Paid time off 

- Paid parental and caregiver leave 

- Plus more! See benefits https://www.aheadbenefits.com/ for additional details. 

The compensation range indicated in this posting reflects the On-Target Earnings (“OTE”) for this role, which includes a base salary and any applicable target bonus amount. This OTE range may vary based on the candidate’s relevant experience, qualifications, and geographic location.