Network Architect

Title- Network Architect client -SCIF (State Compensation Insurance Fund)
Visa: USC billing rate $100 on w2
Location - someone local to the Bay Area. Travel will be as needed, depending on projects and/or issues.

Objective & Deliverables: The solution, outcome, output, performance, or result Supplier will produce for State Fund is: (Provide a clear and definitive statement of what the Supplier will produce for State Fund.)
This position will act as a primary technical principal and is responsible for delivery of network solutions at an enterprise level. Expertise with network infrastructure technologies such as AWS Cloud, Azure Cloud, LAN, WAN, Wireless, Security, VoIP, Video and Data Center. Ideal candidates will have Data Center experience.

Candidates for this position must be able to, from day one, roll up their sleeves and hit the ground running, and bring their experience to the team to make the project deployments much smoother. Deliverables or Tasks:
Oversee planning, design, implementation, and operation of network infrastructure projects and participate in the specification of business requirements and implementation plans for technically advanced internetworking solutions. Manage implementation of network infrastructure projects, from both technical and communication aspects.

Review network design for network security and other risks during course of projects. Serve as a liaison to vendors and/or third-party providers as assigned. Provide on-site and remote technical assistance to other resources and to customers. Build and document new Infrastructure environments following industry best practices and internal security policies and standards. Provide infrastructure design, implementation planning, deployment support, software strategy, system troubleshooting, performance engineering and optimization, maintenance strategy.

Provide technical guidance, knowledge transfer and mentorship to State Fund internal engineering peers as required and lead technical staff responsibilities. Establish networking environment by designing system configuration; directing system installation; defining, documenting, and enforcing system standards. Maximize network performance by monitoring performance; troubleshoot network problems and outages; schedule upgrades; collaborate with other teams on network optimization. Secure network and server systems by establishing and enforcing policies; define and monitor access.

Accomplish information systems and organization mission by completing related results as needed. Provide 24 by 7 support. Report network operational status by gathering, prioritizing information. Participate in capacity planning and demand forecasting, software performance analysis and network tuning. Collaborate with cross functional teams to ensure timely delivery of solutions which drive successful business outcomes.

Mentoring & Skill Enhancement

Mentoring and Skills Enhancement of State Fund employees by Supplier Personnel resources are considered an integral part of this engagement. Supplier Personnel will work in a collaborative fashion with State Fund Contract Executive to create and provide a specific training to designated State Fund employees in those areas of State Fund's systems in which the Supplier Personnel has knowledge and expertise.

Supplier Personnel will make every effort to provide skills enhancement at a satisfactory rate and report any issues that may impede the progress of training and mentoring. Supplier Personnel resources shall provide input to Contract Executive to develop training and mentoring plan to include specific skill sets, tasks, and training methodologies. Supplier Personnel will be responsible to execute the training and mentoring plan(s) with designated State Fund employees and shall provide input to refine and further develop training and mentoring plans as training progresses.

Supplier Personnel shall meet and discuss progress of training to State Fund on a monthly basis. State Fund Contract Executive will be responsible to document a training plan on the "Mentoring & Skill Enhancement Planner and to monitor progress of training and mentoring with the State Fund employee(s). The Mentoring & Skill Enhancement Tracker and Planner are provided as Attachment C to this SOW.

Resource Requirements, Skills, Knowledge and Abilities: Supplier shall ensure that all resources assigned to the project have the minimum skills requirement to render the services in a competent and efficient manner.

Technical Knowledge and Skills

Expert knowledge of Palo Alto Network Firewall, CloudFlare and, Prisma Cloud and Cisco ASA. Expert knowledge of F5 Load Balancers LTM. GTM, WAF,and AWS ELB. Advanced OSI layer 2 knowledge and practical experience, including various flavors of STP, ARP, QOS, etc. Comprehensive knowledge of OSI layer 3 networks and protocols, including broadcast, multicast, anycast concepts, routing, etc.

Expert knowledge of various routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP) and multi-homing Internet circuit configuration
Proficient knowledge of network security methodologies as a whole, including but not limited to: ACLs, Stateful firewalls, VPNs (tunneling, IPsec, SSL, etc.)
Fluency with common network admin and monitoring tools such as Rancid, OpenNMS, Nagios, OpManager, Wireshark, Nmap, Nessus, Netflow, Sflow etc.

Administrative scripting skills (Perl, UNIX shell scripting)
Advanced knowledge of Cisco IOS, NX-OS, both Cisco Nexus 1K, 2K, 5K 7K, 9K and non-Nexus series switches, Cisco routers and other Cisco networking gear. Working knowledge of data center related technology and collocation environment. Advanced knowledge of MPLS network.

Working knowledge of Nexus 9K and VPC
Advanced knowledge of Forcepoint configuration
Advanced knowledge and experience with Routing Protocols (BGP, RIP, OSPF, etc)
Working knowledge of Palo Alto Global Protect VPN
Advanced knowledge and hands-on experience on Cisco Network Devices automation
Working knowledge of Ansible or Python scripting for Network automation
Deep domain expertise in networking, network security and public/private clouds
Working knowledge deploying and maintaining wireless networks
Expert knowledge of AWS services i.e.

EC2, ELB, RDS, S3, Route53, VPC, Cloud formation, SSM and Transit gateway
Working knowledge of deploying and maintaining Microsoft Team PBX VOIP deployments (network side, not telecom), SIP Trunking and Five 9 Content Center
Working knowledge of deploying and maintaining wireless networks
Working knowledge of managing network service and similar support providers in a client/vendor relationship

Preferred Skills

Advance hands-on experience in Palo Alto firewall, F5 LTM, GTM and WAF
Advance hands-on experience in AWS cloud
Extensive hands-on experience in automation with Ansible, CloudFormation or Terraform
AWS solution architect certification and CCNP certification required
Deep knowledge in Forcepoint
Professional Skills:
Project Management skills
Ability to think and operate as a team player. Extremely strong communication skills, both written and verbal
Ability to operate as independently or as part of collaborative effort.

Demonstrate strong project leadership and ability to develop strong working relationships with customer technical personnel. Strong troubleshooting skills and ability to apply them during business impacting incidents. Ability to mentor others and lead by example.

Desired Qualifications and Certifications

Bachelor's degree in a technical field (e.g. Computer Science, IT, or similar disciplines).
Equivalent work experience implementing and operating enterprise level data center and/or office networks.
Experience operating in a modern cloud environment such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, or Azure or large scale data centers is a plus
CCNP is the very minimum requirement. CCIE R&S, or CCIE data center certifications and AWS certified solutions architect is a big plus.

Core Competencies

Act with integrity
Use sound judgement
Commitment to quality
Demonstrate adaptability
Innovate
Think strategically
Communicate effectively and influence others
Work well both independently and as part of a team
Must Haves
Advance hands-on experience in Palo Alto firewall, F5 LTM, GTM and WAF
Advance hands-on experience in AWS cloud
Extensive hands-on experience in automation with Ansible, CloudFormation or Terraform
AWS solution architect certification and CCNP certification required
Deep knowledge in Forcepoint