Lead Network Engineer

Company Description

The Lonestar Education And Research Network (LEARN) is the Research & Education (R&E) network serving Texas. LEARN provides a cutting-edge network infrastructure that connects to national and international R&E networks, enabling seamless global collaboration. As part of the LEARN community, members benefit from access to high-performance networking and opportunities to engage with academic, research, and technology-focused communities. LEARN's mission supports education, research initiatives, and technological advancement through state-of-the-art connectivity solutions.

Role Description

The Lead Network Engineer focuses on ensuring the reliability, availability, and operational

excellence of LEARN’s WAN, ISP, and managed service environments, while guiding engineering

execution across packet, optical, security, automation, and service operations domains. The

Lead Network Engineer is responsible for the quality, consistency, and operational readiness of

the enterprise-wide mission-critical systems and infrastructure.

The Lead Network Engineer operates within an IT service management environment and is

accountable for technical coordination, quality control, and continuous improvement of IT

processes, such as incident response, change execution, documentation, and member

communications.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Design and implement advanced configuration of network routers, switches, and

firewalls, as well as network management tools and related systems.

• Develop and execute technical plans, timelines, and milestones, including creation of

conceptual and detailed solution designs, conducting impact and risk assessments, and

analyzing alternatives.

• Provide technical leadership and guidance for network engineering activities, ensuring

consistent execution aligned with architectural standards, operational processes, and

service objectives.

• Review and validate technical designs, change requests, risks and impact assessments,

implementation approaches, and engineering work products for accuracy,

completeness, and operational readiness.

• Provide technical leadership during service-affecting incidents, coordinating

troubleshooting, escalation, and restoration activities across engineering teams,

vendors, and service providers.

• Oversee operational process execution by monitoring incident response and restoration

performance against service expectations, identifying process gaps, systemic issues, or

documentation deficiencies, and driving continuous improvements.

• Ensure adherence to established documentation standards, including SOPs, MOPs,

• network designs, diagrams, and system records

OTHER DUTIES

• Operate and model, with a high degree of ownership, accountability, professionalism,

and process discipline in a collaborative engineering environment, reinforcing a culture

of ownership and continuous improvement.

• Provide mentoring, coaching, and day-to-day technical guidance to Network Engineers.

• Conduct peer reviews of engineering work and provide constructive feedback to support

professional growth and operational discipline.

• Ensure timely, accurate, and consistent communications to LEARN members, and

internal stakeholders during incidents and service degradation events.

• Serve as a technical SME point of contact for LEARN members during complex projects,

incidents, and operational discussions.

• Translate technical issues, risks, and remediation plans into clear, actionable

communications for non-technical audiences when needed.

• Work closely with project management office, engineering peers, staff, vendors, and

partners across K–12, higher education, and research networks.

• This position requires field work and provides escalation support for operational

responsibilities, including on-call rotation and incident response.

This job description is not designated to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities,

duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities,

and activities may change at any time with or without notice.

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor's degree 5 years' experience or 9 years of equivalent combination of

education and experience.

• Network Engineering certifications are preferred.

• Proven working experience with network routers and switches is required, (Juniper and

Nokia experience is preferred).

• Proven working experience developing service-provider solutions, incorporating WAN

router configurations utilizing logical systems, BGP in a multi-homed environment, IPv4,

IPv6, ISIS, OSPF, MPLS, LACP, LDP, L2 and L3 VPN, VPLS, EVPN, QoS, 802.1q, 802.1p and

IP Multicasting technologies.

• Experience supporting optical transport systems, fiber-based infrastructure, and carriergrade

network environments.

• Experience with Next-Generation Firewalls and security devices is strongly preferred.

• Proven experience with network management, monitoring systems, and automation

tools (ex: perfSONAR, NetBox, LibreNMS, RANCID, Ansible, Python, Shell Scripting, etc.)

and diagnostic tools commonly used within the service provider networks.

• Experience performing work in an enterprise data center environment is required, with

carrier-grade Point-of-Presences (POPs) experience highly preferred.

• Proven knowledge of networking protocols, with a thorough understanding of TCP/IP,

IPv4/v6 address management, and DNS.

• Strong familiarity with Linux or BSD system administration skills.

• Working knowledge of fiber optic wiring and transceiver troubleshooting and operating

network test equipment.

• Familiarity with Cloud Computing technologies and delivery models.

• Familiarity with R&E (Research & Education) networks.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES

• Performs work under minimal supervision.

• Handles complex issues and problems and refers the most complex issues to higherlevel

staff. Possesses comprehensive knowledge of subject matter.

• Provides leadership, coaching and/or mentoring to a subordinate group.

• Ability to lead technical teams during operational events and complex implementations.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including member-facing

communications.

• Strong organizational skills with attention to detail and quality control.

• Ability to mentor, coach, and influence peers without formal managerial authority.

• Demonstrated understanding of IT service management practices, including incident,

change, and knowledge management.

• Demonstrated record of taking initiative to solve technical and logistical issues.

• Proven project development & implementation skills; network documentation

experience and skills.

• Strong familiarity with Windows, Mac, Linux or BSD operating system and office

productivity suite skills.

• Consistently admits when wrong or makes a mistake. Does not get defensive when

others hold accountable.

• Proactively ask for feedback from others, evaluate the feedback, and be willing to make

changes based on the feedback. When appropriate or requested, respectfully,

professionally, and proactively give feedback to others.

• Know when to be flexible and when to be firm with the ability to pivot if necessary.

Coach others that may struggle with adaptability.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS & WORK ENVIRONMENT

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an

employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable

accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential

functions.

• Position Location: Strong preference is for this position to be based in the Dallas Metro

area and operate from a home office in a virtual office environment. Work outside of an

established schedule and working hours, including weekends and holidays, may be

required.

• Travel Requirements: Frequent travel (up to 50%) is expected for this role. Travel

includes visiting existing and future member venues and LEARN sites throughout Texas

as well as Regional & National meetings and conferences in North America. Some

overnight travel (up to 25%) is expected.

• Position requires reliable transportation, valid driver’s license, and ability to travel by car

or air.

• On-call availability for resolving network emergencies, both during regular and offhours.

• Emergency on-call availability 24x7x365

• This role requires prolonged sitting and working on a computer in a home office setting.

• Regularly required to stand, walk, sit, use hands; and reach with hands and arms.

• Dexterity of hands and fingers to operate a computer keyboard, mouse, power tools,

and to handle other computer components.

• Lifting and transporting moderately heavy objects, such as network switches, servers,

computers, and peripherals

• Specific vision abilities required by the job include close vision, distance vision, color

vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus.

To apply for this job, please submit a cover letter, resume, and application (found on our website: tx-learn.net) in PDF format to jobs@tx-learn.net with “Lead Network Engineer” as the subject line.