Sr Network Engineer

Summary
Our Chicago-based Managed Service Provider (MSP) is seeking a Sr. Network Engineer. This position can be fully Remote , if preferred. The Perfect Candidate is… an IT generalist with focus on Infrastructure. As a Sr. Network Engineer, you are confident you can solve almost anything users throw at you!

Duties & Responsibilities

1. Technical support from Tier 1 (Desktop), Tier 2 (Network Admin), through Tier 3 (Network Engineering). We will help you grow with a defined training plan, paid certifications and training materials.
2. Supports vCIO doing things such as infrastructure audits, budgeting, strategic direction & roadmaps.
3. You must be able to track time through the day to specific tickets accurately and in as real time as possible.
4. You will work with multiple clients and need to switch gears throughout the day. No two days are alike, so you must love variety.
5. You manage your own queue. If it gets low, you dip into the unassigned pool or help other team members with theirs. Everyone gets a cool dashboard showing what is going on company wide, so it is easy to tell what is going on and who needs some help.
6. We expect all team members to collaborate on support tickets and projects. If you need help, they are there to support you. If they need help, you help if you can.
7. You may act as the initial point of contact, work towards resolution, collaborate with other team members supporting escalation as needed – or anything in between. We have one goal – solve client problems and everyone plays their part.
8. You will be part of the 24 x 7 on-call rotation team (and yes that also includes holidays): You will be Primary on call person for 1 week then Secondary for about 2 months and repeat.
9. You will attend and contribute to client tactical and strategic calls with your core clients.

Qualifications & Requirements

1. Understanding of Networking devices (LAN / WAN / VPN, Routers, Switches, Firewalls, Wi-Fi), enough to configure, install, and manage them.
2. Windows 7-10 experience required, because that is what most of our clients use.
3. Chromebook and iOS (iPad) experience, as many of our clients have some of these too!
4. Apple macOS is a plus, because there are always those few people in an organization who insist Mac is king! We want them to know we can help them as well.
5. Windows Server (2012 to current) experience is a must. Although many clients are moving to the cloud there are plenty of on premise servers out there.
6. Must Haves:
   1. 10+ Years of information technology industry experience. You are going to hit the ground running, working tickets the first week.
   2. Effective communicator (verbal & written).
   3. Current or recent role is a mix of remote and hands-on, performing tasks directly themselves. We need to see you have done this kind of work before and in the field.
   4. Experience with small to mid-sized organizations. Big companies operate differently than small ones. We work mostly with the smaller end and we need to see you have done that before.
   5. Calm under pressure. Possesses the soft skills to instill client confidence. There are times where client emotions are running high (after all, their stuff doesn’t work – which is why they are calling you!) and sometimes you won’t know the answer. That is ok so long as you can comfort the client enough to go get reinforcements!
   6. Team Player including sharing knowledge internally. There are no solo operators on our team.
   7. Demonstrated continuous learning.
   8. Experience with time-tracking and ticketing.
   9. Understands the purpose and the value of process and procedure. Did I mention no solo operators? You must realize you are not the first person in the world to ever set up a computer. We have processes and procedures which include the wisdom of many smart people. You need to use those procedures and contribute to making them even better.
7. Strongly Preferred Skills:
   1. Industry certifications around Infrastructure (MCP, CCNA, A+, N+, Security+).
   2. Prior Consulting or MSP (with field work) experience.
   3. Experience with Educational customers (High School/College).
   4. Has good documentation skills.
   5. Demonstrated effectiveness serving external customers.
   6. College degree, ideally in a STEM related field.
   7. Bonus Skills – superstar material!
   8. ConnectWise Manage and/or Automate (LabTech) experience.
   9. Apple macOS, Linux, and/or CyberSecurity experience.
   10. Cloud Hosting (Office 365/Azure and/or AWS) experience.
   11. Servers (Windows Focus) including virtualization (Hyper-V, VMware, cloud).

Work Ethic and Practices

1. You need to effectively work under Budget constraints. We know you love solving problems, but you get that sometimes we need to collaborate in order to quickly resolve the problems.
2. Strong troubleshooting, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. Can you think creatively? Is your Google-fu strong? Will you call the vendor for help? Can you step back and look at a problem without the blinders? If so, you are the awesome kind of person we want!
3. Independent and self-motivated and proactive making recommendations. You need to be able to go and hit your ticket queue and prioritize it based on how important stuff is. When you have a good suggestion to help a client, you are happy to share it with others.
4. Demonstrates a sense of urgency towards client service. You get that real people made these tickets and those people have their jobs to do. They opened the ticket for help so you understand we need to get them working again as soon as we can!
5. Comfortable and even-tempered in a fast-paced, multi-tasking environment. Some days are crazy, you must be good with that and shift gears on the fly and ENJOY it.
6. Able to work responsibly and effectively from home. If you are working at home, it means you are actually working from home. You are still cranking through tickets and fixing stuff, not painting your garage. I know your garage NEEDS painting, but that is what the weekends are for.