Cisco SD-WAN Engineer (Senior)

Job Position: Cisco SD-WAN Engineer (Senior)

Location: Richardson, TX- Onsite

Type: Contract role

Client: Micron/ Technologent

Duration: 24+ Months

Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Cisco SD-WAN Engineer with strong hands-on experience in designing, implementing, and supporting Cisco SD-WAN environments. The ideal candidate will have solid expertise in deployment, configuration, troubleshooting, and optimization of SD-WAN solutions across enterprise networks.

This role is more focused on execution and engineering support rather than high-level architecture or strategy.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and support Cisco SD-WAN (Viptela) solutions across enterprise environments
• Perform day-to-day operations, configuration, and troubleshooting of SD-WAN networks
• Work on WAN migrations from traditional networks to SD-WAN
• Configure and manage routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP) within SD-WAN environments
• Implement and support network policies, QoS, and application performance optimization
• Assist with security configurations including segmentation, firewall policies, and integration with security platforms
• Support cloud connectivity (AWS, Azure) within SD-WAN environments
• Troubleshoot network issues and provide L2/L3 support for incidents and escalations
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and assist in network documentation and runbooks

Required Skills & Experience

• 6 10 years of experience in network engineering, with strong focus on Cisco technologies
• Hands-on experience with Cisco SD-WAN (Viptela) deployment and support
• Strong knowledge of:
• Routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP)
• WAN technologies and network fundamentals
• Experience with network security concepts (ACLs, segmentation, firewalls)
• Familiarity with cloud networking (AWS/Azure)
• Experience with network monitoring and troubleshooting tools
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills

Nice to Have

• Experience with automation tools (Python, Ansible)
• Exposure to SASE solutions (Cisco Umbrella, Zscaler, Prisma Access)
• Experience working in large enterprise environments

Certifications (Preferred)

• Cisco Certified Specialist Enterprise SD-WAN (ENSDWI)
• CCNP Enterprise (preferred)

Be focused on below Details

I wanted to share a quick prep guide based on recent interviews for the Senior Cisco SD-WAN Engineer role. The interview is highly focused on hands-on SD-WAN (Viptela/Catalyst) knowledge, troubleshooting, and BGP, so preparing around these areas will be key.

Key Focus Areas

1. SD-WAN Architecture

• Be clear on roles of vManage, vSmart, and vBond
• Understand vEdge vs cEdge (Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN)
• Know what happens if any controller goes down

2. Device Onboarding (ZTP)

• Walk through onboarding a branch device step-by-step
• Troubleshoot if device is not appearing in vManage
• Understand role of certificates

3. Routing (Very Important BGP)

• BGP in SD-WAN (underlay vs overlay)
• BGP best path selection
• Troubleshooting neighbor issues

4. WAN Migration

• MPLS to SD-WAN migration approach
• Ensuring minimal downtime
• Post-migration validation

5. Policies

• Control vs Data policies
• Application-Aware Routing (AAR)
• How to verify policies are working

6. Troubleshooting (Most Important)
   Be ready for real-world scenarios:

• Tunnel not forming
• Traffic not flowing
• Routing issues
• High latency / packet loss

Focus on explaining your step-by-step troubleshooting approach

7. Cloud Connectivity

• Basic understanding of AWS/Azure integration
• Cloud OnRamp (high-level is fine)

Final Tip

Be prepared to discuss your real-time hands-on experience in detail especially:

• Deployments you ve worked on
• Issues you ve troubleshot
• Policies you ve configured
• Migrations you ve supported