Network Engineer

Job Title : Network Engineer

Location : Houston, TX (Onsite 3x per week)

Employment Type : 6-Month Contract to Hire

Job Summary :

NAVA Software is seeking a Senior IT Network Engineer with deep expertise in designing, deploying, operating, and troubleshooting enterprise networks. The ideal candidate will be a hands-on technical authority with strong Fortinet firewall and switch experience, advanced BGP routing skills, and the ability to mentor junior engineers and influence network architecture decisions.

Key Responsibilities :

Design, deploy, and maintain scalable, reliable network architectures across LAN, WAN, data center, and campus environments.

Configure, manage, and troubleshoot Fortinet appliances, including FortiGate firewalls and FortiSwitch switches, as well as Fortinet management tools (FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer).

Implement, monitor, and optimize BGP routing (eBGP / iBGP, route reflection, route maps, path manipulation, prefix filtering, communities, AS-path prepending).

Lead network upgrades, migrations, and refresh projects, including hardware, firmware, and topology changes.

Develop and enforce network security best practices, including segmentation, high availability, redundancy, QoS, and traffic engineering.

Collaborate with security teams to integrate network and security policies (firewall rules, VPNs, IPS / IDS).

Perform root-cause analysis of complex network incidents, produce post-mortems, and document findings for continuous improvement.

Mentor and coach junior engineers; conduct internal training and knowledge-sharing sessions.

Stay updated on industry trends, emerging protocols, and evaluate new network technologies and vendors.

Participate in capacity planning, budgeting, documentation, and procurement of network equipment.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams (systems, cloud, applications, operations) to ensure network alignment with business goals.

Required Qualifications & Skills :

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, IT, or related field (or equivalent experience).

7+ years of enterprise network engineering experience.

Hands-on expertise with Fortinet appliances (FortiGate firewalls, FortiSwitch switches) and Fortinet ecosystem tools.

Strong BGP routing knowledge and experience (eBGP / iBGP, route maps, communities, AS-path prepending, troubleshooting convergence issues).

Proficiency with OSPF, EIGRP, ISIS, MPLS, VLANs, STP, EtherChannel, redundancy, failover, and load balancing.

Strong firewall rule design, NAT, VPN (site-to-site, remote access), and security policy implementation.

Experience with network monitoring, telemetry, logging, and alerting (SNMP, NetFlow, sFlow, syslog).

Scripting or automation skills (Python, Ansible, etc.) for network provisioning, audits, and repetitive tasks.

Excellent troubleshooting, analytical, and communication skills.

Ability to lead projects, make architectural decisions, and work under pressure.

Preferred / Bonus Skills :

Certifications : Fortinet NSE (4, 5, 6), Cisco CCNP / CCIE, Juniper JNCIP / Expert.

Cloud networking experience (AWS, Azure, GCP) and hybrid network design.

Familiarity with SD-WAN, segment routing, and software-defined networking (SDN).

Experience with network security technologies (IDS / IPS, next-gen firewalls, DDoS mitigation).

Experience with automation / orchestration frameworks (API, Terraform, etc.).

Ideal Candidate :

A proactive, highly skilled network engineer with deep Fortinet expertise and BGP routing experience, capable of leading enterprise network projects, mentoring junior staff, and delivering resilient, secure, and high-performance network infrastructure.