Network Engineer
City of Charlotte.com
83k - 104k USD/year
Office
Mecklenburg Government Center, United States
Full Time
Welcome to the City of Charlotte
Charlotte is America’s Queen City, opening her arms to a diverse and inclusive community of residents, businesses and visitors alike. Here you will find a safe, family-oriented city where people work together to help everyone thrive. The mission of the City of Charlotte is to deliver quality public services and promote the safety, health, and quality of life for all residents.
Our Guiding Principles Include:
- Attracting and retaining a skilled and diverse workforce
- Valuing teamwork, openness, accountability, productivity, and employee development
- Providing all customers with courteous, responsive, accessible, and seamless quality services
- Taking initiative to identify, analyze, and solve problems
- Collaborating with stakeholders to make informed decisions
Summary
A highly skilled and results-driven Network Engineer responsible for ensuring the stability, scalability, and security of the organization’s enterprise network infrastructure, including voice, data, video, and wireless systems. This role focuses on designing and implementing advanced LAN and WAN architectures that enable high performance, reliability, and resilience across all business operations. The engineer will lead network modernization initiatives, optimize existing infrastructure, and proactively manage performance through strategic monitoring and automation. Additionally, this position demands deep technical expertise in troubleshooting complex network issues, driving continuous improvement, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to deliver mission-critical connectivity and innovation across the enterprise.Essential Functions:
- Design, implement, and optimize highly available enterprise LAN, WAN, and wireless network architectures supporting mission-critical operations across multiple sites.
- Plan, configure, and deploy advanced network hardware and software, including routers, switches, firewalls, access points, and load balancers, ensuring scalability and performance.
- Collaborate with department leaders and project teams to assess short- and long-term network capacity, performance, and security needs to align with business objectives.
- Monitor, analyze, and proactively address network performance, latency, and capacity bottlenecks using advanced monitoring tools and automation platforms.
- Develop, implement, and maintain network policies, procedures, standards, and disaster recovery strategies to ensure operational resilience and compliance.
- Oversee network security architecture, including VPNs, intrusion detection/prevention systems, and next-generation firewalls, ensuring protection against evolving threats.
- Lead network modernization and technology refresh initiatives, including data center upgrades, cloud integrations, and software-defined networking (SDN) deployments.
Undefined
Undefined
- Conduct in-depth troubleshooting and root cause analysis of complex network connectivity and performance issues, providing timely and permanent resolutions.
- Manage network access, VLAN segmentation, routing, QoS, and high-availability configurations to ensure optimized traffic flow and service delivery.
- Research, evaluate, and recommend emerging network technologies, services, and standards to maintain an industry-leading infrastructure posture.
- Maintain accurate network documentation, topology maps, and configuration baselines for auditing and knowledge-sharing purposes.
- Partner with cybersecurity, systems, and application teams to ensure secure and seamless integration across all IT infrastructure components.
- Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and escalation support to junior engineers and technicians, fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation.
- Participate in 24/7 on-call rotation and coordinate with vendors and service providers to maintain uptime commitments and meet SLAs.
Required Qualifications
Education & Experience:
High school graduate or equivalent and five (5) years relevant experience.
Or
At least two years of relevant college-level course work or an Associate’s degree from an accredited college or university in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field and three (3) of progressive experience.
Or
Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university in Information Technology, Computer Science, or a related field. Two (2) years of progressive experience.
Knowledge And Skills:
- Proven experience in network engineering or a similar role.
- Strong knowledge of MS VISIO, TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VPNs, VLANs, VXLAN, NXOS, ACI and network security practices.
- Experience with enterprise network hardware from vendors such as Aruba, Cisco, Juniper, Cradlepoint or equivalent.
- Familiarity with network monitoring tools and systems (e.g., SolarWinds, PRTG, Nagios).
- Familiarity with network security and policy enforcement platforms that act as gatekeepers for wired, wireless, and VPN access (e.g., ISE, ClearPass)
- Relevant certifications (e.g., CCNA, CCNP, CompTIA Network+) is must
- Experience with cloud technologies and industry-recognized certifications such as AWS Cloud Practitioner, Azure Fundamentals, or equivalent are highly preferred.
- Strong troubleshooting and analytical skills.
- Excellent communication and documentation abilities.
Physical/Mental Requirements:
The position requires a blend of sedentary desk work and active physical tasks, including occasional lifting of equipment up to 40 pounds, bending, or accessing network areas such as data closets and wiring spaces. The role demands strong focus, problem-solving, and analytical abilities to diagnose and resolve complex technical issues under pressure. Attention to detail, effective communication, and the ability to manage multiple priorities are essential. The incumbent must also remain adaptable to evolving technologies and be available for after-hours support as part of the on-call rotation.
Working Environment:
This position may require occasional evening or weekend work to perform maintenance, upgrades, or resolve outages. On-call availability may be required depending on operational needs.
Conditions Of Employment
The City’s Background Check Policy requires background checks to be conducted on final internal or external candidate(s) applying for any position with the City of Charlotte. The type of information that will be collected as part of a background check includes, but is not limited to: reference checks, social security verification, education verification, criminal conviction record check, and, if applicable, a credit history check, sex offender registry and motor vehicle records check.
Background checks must be in compliance with all federal and state statutes, such as the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The checks must be consistent with the guidelines set forth by these laws requiring organizations to obtain a candidate’s written authorization before obtaining a criminal background report, motor vehicle records check or credit report; and to properly store and dispose of information derived from such reports.
Final candidates must pass a pre-employment drug-screening test and physical examination. During the selection process, candidates may be asked to take a skills test, and/or participate in other assessments.
The City of Charlotte is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, national origin, marital status, age, disability, sexual orientation, political affiliation or on the basis of actual or perceived gender as expressed through dress, appearance, or behavior.
Our culture is to serve the community honorably.
How To Apply
Apply Online.
Federal law requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job.
You are welcome to visit the City of Charlotte Human Resources Department lobby, where self-service application kiosks are available. They are located in our office at 700 East 4th Street, Suite 200, Charlotte, NC 28202. We are open Monday through Friday, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (EST), excluding official City holidays.
For questions about your application or the hiring process, please email Careers@ci.charlotte.nc.us.
The City of Charlotte is committed to making our services and programs accessible to all. Upon request, auxiliary aids, written materials in alternate formats, language access, and other reasonable accommodations or modifications will be provided. To make a request, please fill out the Innovation & Technology ADA request form or call 704.336.4120.
Benefits
The City of Charlotte provides a comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees.
Click here to learn more about the City of Charlotte’s benefits.
The City of Charlotte is a drug and alcohol-free workplace.