Principal Network Engineer

Principal Network EngineerOneMain Financial is the country's largest lending-exclusive financial company, proudly serving millions of customers with safe, affordable, and transparent installment loans. Our customers turn to us every day - online and at over 1,400 branches in 44 states - to help them take control and improve their financial lives. It's all about doing the right thing - a mission that hasn't changed for more than 100 years.This is a senior individual contributor role serving as the technical lead for enterprise network operations across cloud, hybrid cloud, on-premise, and application delivery infrastructure. This is not a traditional routing and switching role. The focus is on application delivery, reliability, redundancy, and optimization — making sure traffic gets where it needs to go, stays available, and performs well. When a system fails and no one documented the original design, this is the person who reverse-engineers the communication path and restores service. The role requires an automation-first mindset, treats documentation as non-negotiable, and expects someone who can navigate ambiguity without waiting for a playbook. This position typically operates as a team of one, but for larger initiatives you'll coordinate with engineers borrowed from DevOps, Network Security, and other teams for periods ranging from weeks to months. You'll need to delegate effectively, maintain quality oversight, and keep projects on schedule. The split is roughly 85% proactive work (architecture, automation, roadmaps, standards) and 15% reactive incident response. When incidents happen, time-to-resolution is the metric that matters.Core ResponsibilitiesTechnical Leadership & ArchitectureAutomation & EngineeringTroubleshooting & Incident ResponseCross-Functional Leadership & CommunicationStrategic AwarenessHybrid/onsite 3 days per week. Candidates must live within 50 miles of OneMain Corporate Offices in Evansville IN, Baltimore MD, or Charlotte NC. Possibility of contract extension.Skill/Experience/Education Mandatory SkillsMinimum 8 years of experience supporting large enterprise multi-cloud hybrid network stacks. Network & Infrastructure - Deep understanding of DNS architecture, resolution, and troubleshooting — this is foundational to the role. BGP proficiency across diverse platforms including Azure VWAN, Arista, Aruba, AWS Transit Gateway, Virtual Network Gateways, VPNs, and Palo Alto. Solid grasp of dynamic routing protocols (OSPF, BGP, EIGRP) and route influencing techniques (local preference, MED, AS path prepend, route maps). Understanding of high availability designs including VRRP, HSRP, and active/passive and active/active failover architectures. Familiarity with ECMP and traffic distribution across multiple paths. Global traffic management, GSLB, and DNS-based load balancing. Deep understanding of TLS negotiations, cipher exchanges, and common failure points. response codes known by heart. Deep understanding of cloud networking best practices in both Azure and AWS. Familiarity with WAN circuit technologies: DWDM (WAVE), Type 2, Point-to-Point, and MPLS. Foundational understanding of SD-WAN concepts including underlay/overlay architecture. Basic understanding of Kubernetes networking across EKS, AKS, native K8s, and OCP. Proficiency with Wireshark for packet capture analysis. Ability to read and interpret browser HAR files. Automation & Tooling - Python scripting and automation development. Bash scripting and automation. Ansible for network configuration management and automation. GitOps workflows and GitHub Actions CI/CD pipelines. Terraform for infrastructure-as-code provisioning and management across cloud environments. Secrets management across HashiCorp Vault, Azure KeyVault, and/or AWS Secrets Manager. Proficient with the Linux command line and system processes.Professional SkillsAbility to operate as a self-directed team of one while effectively leading borrowed resources on larger initiatives. Experience with both ITSM and Agile project management methodologies. Demonstrated ability to take abstract or ambiguous requirements and develop detailed execution plans. Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present technical topics to non-technical audiences. A thirst for learning new and ever-changing network topologies and products. Willingness to serve as secondary on-call 247/365.Desired SkillsPreferred Qualifications - F5 BIG-IP or equivalent Application Delivery Controller (Client) experience. NGINX or NGINX Plus experience. Zscaler or similar cloud security platform experience. Experience in financial services or other regulated industries; familiarity with audit and compliance frameworks. Comfort with emerging AI tooling for task acceleration and problem solving.