C004706 Operations & Exercises Network Engineer (NS) - WED 11 Mar
Deadline Date: Wednesday 11 March 2026
Requirement Title: Operations & Exercises Network Engineer
Location: Grazzanise, Italy
Full time on-site: Yes
Total Scope of the request (hours): 418
Required Start Date: 15-APR-2026
End Contract Date: 30-DEC-2026
Required Security Clearance: NATO Secret
Specific Working Conditions: Some work outside normal office hours may be required
Duties and Role:
Under the direction of the Senior Routing and Switching Engineer, but largely under own initiative, the incumbent will perform project duties such as the following:
- Direct 1st level fault resolution on Routing and Switching Elements to sectors, sites and the Service Area routing cells
- Advises on fault diagnosis throughout NATO sites utilizing a number of management platforms (e.g. HP Openview, Netscout, Cisco Works)
- Ensure that, on Routing and Switching elements, remote routine maintenance throughout NATO sites is performed
- Coordinate with sites for Routing and Switching elements centralisation, standardisation and best practices
- Liaise and collaborate internally throughout the NCI Agency Service Line infrastructures and to external organisations for fault rectification activities
- Being responsible for the creation and maintenance of Standard Operating Procedures within the Routing and Switching Cell
- Coordination, and performance, of configuration, and evaluation, of test scenarios within the NGCS Reference Facility, pertinent to the area of Routing and network configuration problem resolution
- Coordinates and performs routing infrastructures design, configuration and maintenance activities for all appointed NATO exercise scenarios and Operations
- Performing the practical evaluation of management tools and capabilities
- Ensure a common understanding of the available toolsets and method of utilization within the centralised and distributed user base
- Investigating and proposing long term solutions to encountered equipment and configuration problems
- When required, coordinates on-site surveys, validations and system acceptance testing into the Routing infrastructure.
Requirements
- A minimum requirement of a Bachelor's degree at a nationally recognised/certified University in a related discipline and 2 years post-related experience.
- Alternatively, exceptionally, the lack of a university degree may be compensated by the demonstration of a candidate's particular abilities or experience that is/are of interest to NCI Agency, that is, at least 6 years extensive and progressive expertise in duties related to the function of the post.
- Over 4 years' experience of CISCO Routing and Switching Elements
- A minimum of 2 years' experience with the configuration and operation of HP Network Automation or equivalent network automation and orchestration systems
- A minimum of 4 years' experience with the configuration and operation of Network Monitoring and Event Management systems ideally Intermapper, Spectrum, HP Openview and Splunk
- Over 4 years' experience of working in a centrally managed network environment
- Minimum qualification of Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)
- Proven experience in the use of an Incident Management System such as BMC Remedy
- A high level of knowledge of network, system and application level troubleshooting techniques
- Sound knowledge of communications protocols and practical experience of using diagnostic test equipment
- Comprehensive knowledge of the principles of command and control systems
- Extensive technical management expertise in C2 management
- Broad knowledge of C2 systems and software maintenance procedures
- Experience in Site and Systems Evaluation and Inspection
- Experience with IP Diffserv QoS in Networks
- Extensive working Knowledge of OSPF and BGP to include (Multi-area architectures, BGP Confederations and Route Reflectors)
- Knowledge of EIGRP and IS-IS
- Extensive knowledge of implementing and operating LAN technologies (e.g. HSRP, STP, Switching, VLANs, DHCP snooping, ARP Inspection, Port-Security)
- Extensive knowledge of implementing and operating network authentication and authorization systems and technologies (e.g. Secure ACS 5.x, 802.1x, 802.1ae MACSEC, RADIUS, TACACS+) - Experience of preparing test plans, technical documentation and Standard Operating Procedures
- Contact with UNIX, Linux operating systems
- Good interpersonal skills and the ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
- Five years' experience in all aspects of maintenance, repair, modification and operation of large complex multi-vendor IP communications networks and related equipment
- Member of a recognised professional body representing the communications area
- Shall have general understanding of related telecommunications systems and techniques of TDM, ATM, Frame relay, MPLS, Video, Voice and VOIP technology
- Experience with IPv6 network technologies and concepts
- Experience with Datacentre technologies and Virtualized Switching such as VMWare and Nexus1000V
- Experience implementing and operating a multi-tenancy network environments (VRF/VLAN)
- Experience implementing and operating multicast network technologies (IGMP, PIM)
- Experience developing, and maintain scripts using EXPECT, Python or PERL
- Knowledge and experience with commercial IPSEC encryption solutions such as Secure Virtual Tunnels (sVTI), SSLVPN, DMVPN, GETVPN
- Familiarity with Thales TCE 621 family IP Cryptographic Equipment or similar Military Grade IP Encryption devices
- Understanding of Firewall Technology and Concepts
- Understanding of Intrusion Detection System Technology
- Familiarity with Application Performance Monitoring Solutions such as Netscout
- Familiarity with Performance Management principles, metrics and tools (e.g. MRTG, IPSLA)
- Hold one or more of the following IT security qualifications/certifications:
- CCIE: Cisco Certified Internet Expert
- CCDP: Cisco Certified Design Professional
- Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundation or Higher