Senior Network Engineer

University Overview

The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. Penn has 12 highly-regarded schools that provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education, all influenced by Penn’s distinctive interdisciplinary approach to scholarship and learning. As an employer Penn has been ranked nationally on many occasions with the most recent award from Forbes who named Penn one of America’s Best Large Employers in 2023.

Penn offers a unique working environment within the city of Philadelphia. The University is situated on a beautiful urban campus, with easy access to a range of educational, cultural, and recreational activities. With its historical significance and landmarks, lively cultural offerings, and wide variety of atmospheres, Philadelphia is the perfect place to call home for work and play.

The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more.

Posted Job Title

Senior Network Engineer

Job Profile Title

Network Engineer Senior

Job Description Summary

The Senior Network Engineer plans, designs, installs, and manages a complex, multi-vendor, dual-stack enterprise network. The environment includes extensive use of Cisco and Juniper routing and switching platforms (including campus, data center, and WAN technologies). The position works with internal teams, Internet service providers, and external partners to define technical requirements for network infrastructure. The Senior Network Engineer resolves complex networking issues and provides high-level support to IT staff, and uses programming skills to build network automation and tooling. This role participates in an on-call rotation with other network engineers and must be able to respond to incidents on Penn’s campus within one hour. This position is not eligible for remote work and requires a regular on-campus presence. The engineer leverages network management tools, evaluates new technologies, and helps define network policies and standards. The role may supervise staff or lead major network projects.

Job Description

Job Responsibilities:

• Maintain performance and capacity of a large-scale, multi-vendor network by monitoring, troubleshooting, and resolving problems as they occur.

• Design, implement, and support enterprise routing and switching solutions using Cisco Catalyst and Nexus platforms and Juniper routing and switching devices in campus, data center, and WAN environments.

• Define standards, methods, and best practices for network routing, switching, automation, and monitoring across a heterogeneous infrastructure.

• Engineer and support dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6) routing using dynamic routing protocols such as BGP, OSPF, and IS-IS, including policy design and integration with external peers and service providers.

• Plan, implement, and maintain network overlays and related technologies (e.g., MPLS, VXLAN, and similar encapsulation/overlay mechanisms) to support multi-tenant and segmented services in both campus and data center environments.

• Build automation using Python and related tools to improve network deployment, configuration management, and operational workflows.

• Work closely with campus partners and internal teams to plan projects, integrate services, and resolve complex network problems.

• Provide daily maintenance, including changes, modifications, or improvements, as part of the ongoing administration of the network.

• Plan for growth in throughput and overall capacity, and plan for technological advances and changes in requirements due to the evolution of computing systems.

• Stay current with networking technologies, industry best practices, and emerging standards through research