Network Engineer IV

Network Engineer IV

The Department of Information Technology (IT) serves a central role of customer-focused innovation across the City of Norfolk. IT is composed of four specialized technical bureaus that deliver modern, secure, and effective technology services: Business Enablement, Customer Success and Productivity, Technology Infrastructure and Cybersecurity, and Public Safety Support. As the City's technology steward, IT continuously evaluates and implements solutions that meet evolving business and operational needs while balancing requirements for security, supportability, and long-term sustainability.

IT leads the identification, recommendation, implementation, and maintenance of systems and services that enable City operations. Collectively, the department's 95 professionals collaborate to provide essential technology capabilities, responsive support, and reliable service delivery to all City staff. The team remains committed to fostering a respectful, inclusive, and supportive environment that empowers employees and strengthens the services the City offers to citizens.

The Department of Information Technology (IT) is seeking a highly motivated and accomplished Network Engineer IV to join our high-performing and agile Technology Infrastructure and Cybersecurity team. As a senior technical leader, this role is not only critical in sustaining and optimizing the City's network infrastructure, but also in guiding engineering staff and overseeing complex technical projects that ensure our systems remain reliable, secure, and resilient. The person in this position will work closely with leadership and cross-functional technical teams to modernize network capabilities, drive new technology initiatives, and strengthen the City's overall IT environment.

The person in this position will lead and develop a team of network engineers, providing the direction, mentorship, and performance guidance necessary to maintain a high-functioning operation environment. The individual will be responsible for coordinating, prioritizing, and managing the execution of technical projects, ensuring that mission-critical network services across all City departments are scalable, secure, and consistently available. In addition, the person in this role will oversee daily operations, champion new technology deployments, and collaborate extensively with IT leadership, peer teams, and external partners. Success in this position requires demonstrated experience with managing technical teams and a commitment to deliver high-quality technology services that empower City operations.

The Network Engineer IV will also have a strong foundation in diverse IT network technologies, disaster recovery practices, infrastructure design, and virtualization. Mastery of these concepts enables this individual to properly identify, recommend, implement, and maintain systems that are scalable, secure, and well-organized. Additionally, proficiency in the above-mentioned areas are critical for optimizing resources, improving system availability, and supporting the City's mission and policy direction.

This position manages the following areas of responsibility:

• Supervise and mentor a team of IT professionals by providing leadership, direction, and performance management that ensures efficient operation and continuous improvement of the City's network infrastructure
• Ensure proper monitoring, troubleshooting, and timely resolution of network issues, outages, and service degradations.
• Provide guidance and training to IT staff on emerging technologies and best practices
• Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation for configurations, policies, and procedures
• Support the development and implementation of disaster recovery strategies to ensure business continuity, and data protection
• Coordinate cross-team collaboration with cybersecurity, applications, and public safety groups to ensure aligned operation
• Manage implementation of network upgrades, replacements, and lifecycle projects (e.g., switch refreshes, cabling, WAN improvements)
• Partner with cybersecurity team to ensure network configurations adhere to security standards, incident response requirements, and access control policies
• Review and validate technical proposals, statement of work, and vendor documentation for network-related projects

The ideal candidate will be someone who can work collaboratively to implement the City's IT strategy and empower team members to deliver exceptional results. This person must have experience managing complex technology projects, troubleshooting and resolving infrastructure-related issues, and optimizing resources to meet project and organizational objectives. The candidate must foster strong relationships and work effectively with staff, peers, leadership, customers, consultants, and vendors to achieve departmental goals within scope and on time. Additionally, the ideal candidate must be able to clearly explain processes and policies to staff, non-technical customers, and management, whether in person or through documentation and reports.

The successful candidate will have in-depth knowledge of data management, disaster recovery strategies, and network engineering principles. This person will possess exceptional technical skills, outstanding relationship-building abilities, excellent communication skills, and strong analytical proficiency. This individual will also be customer-focused, innovative, and highly creative in their approach to solving complex technical challenges.

In addition to the above requirements, the successful candidate must:

• Successfully pass an extensive criminal background check.
• Report to Norfolk city offices on a regular basis, and within one hour of being notified of an event or emergency.
• Report to work as directed in the event of an emergency or natural disaster and be expected to work unusual shifts and hours.

Required:

• This position requires broad knowledge in the professional or technical field, typically acquired through a Bachelor's degree with coursework in information technology or a related discipline.
• A minimum of 5 years of IT experience is required, with three years specializing in network engineering.

Preferred:

• Preferred licenses include but are not limited to the following: CCNA, CCNP, CWNP, CWNA, Network+, Security+.
• Microsoft Azure certified and/or other cloud certifications such as AWS are also desirable.

Work Schedule: Monday-Friday 8:00AM – 5:00PM (40 hours week)