Senior IT Platform Engineer, Network & Connectivity

Senior IT Platform Engineer, Network & Connectivity

The Senior Platform Engineer designs, builds, modernizes, and operates a defined enterprise the enterprise network and connectivity platform across plants, warehouses, offices, cloud environments, and remote users. This role owns the network platform end to end, including architecture, automation, resiliency, security integration, standards, and operational performance.

The position emphasizes network design, Infrastructure as Code for network configuration, automation, AI-enabled monitoring, and reduction of technical debt to deliver resilient, scalable, and secure connectivity aligned to enterprise strategy and manufacturing uptime requirements.

The full salary range for this position is $111,200 – $166,800. However, our current budget for a new hire is $111,200 – $150,000, depending on the candidate's specific experience and skills.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities may include the following. Other duties may be assigned.

Platform Ownership

• Own the network and connectivity platform end to end across plants, warehouses, offices, cloud (Azure), and remote environments
• Design for high availability, fault tolerance, scalability, and rapid recovery
• Ensure network reliability supports manufacturing uptime, enterprise operations platform floor connectivity, and business continuity
• Serve as technical authority for architecture, standards, and significant design decisions within the connectivity domain
• Drive modernization - switching, routing, wireless, SD-WAN, firewall, and remote access technologies
• Reduce technical debt and eliminate configuration drift across network infrastructure
• Act as a technical mentor and escalation point within the network domain

Architecture and Engineering

• Design and implement resilient, secure, and scalable LAN, WAN, wireless, and cloud connectivity architectures
• Define and maintain network standards, reference architectures, segmentation models, and security zones
• Lead platform upgrades, firewall refreshes, SD-WAN migrations, and modernization initiatives
• Ensure integration with adjacent platforms such as security, cloud, digital workplace, data center, and applications
• Support hybrid environments spanning on-premises, cloud networking, and SaaS platforms, and remote access solutions
• Design and maintain secure connectivity between corporate IT and operational technology (OT) environments where applicable

Infrastructure as Code

• Define network configurations using code, templates, or structured configuration management tools
• Establish version-controlled configurations as the system of record for switches, firewalls, and network devices
• Enable repeatable, low-risk changes through standardized deployment models
• Reduce manual changes and operational inconsistencies
• Maintain version-controlled repositories as the authoritative source of platform configuration

Automation & Operational Excellence

• Automate network provisioning, lifecycle tasks, validation, recovery, and compliance checks
• Reduce manual operational toil through scripting and workflow automation
• Partner with MSPs and NOC to ensure consistent execution of runbooks and operational processes
• Improve monitoring signal quality through tuning, correlation, and proactive management
• Design self-healing or auto-remediation capabilities where appropriate

Resiliency & Security Foundations

• Ensure network resilience, redundancy, backup, and disaster recovery alignment
• Partner with Security teams to maintain compliance, segmentation, access controls, and monitoring standards
• Maintain documented recovery procedures and test them periodically
• Support enterprise risk management initiatives for network and connectivity to platforms to ensure stability and security

AI-Enabled Operations

• Leverage AI-driven monitoring and analytics to detect anomalies and performance risks
• Support predictive insights related to bandwidth utilization, capacity trends, and failure prediction
• Contribute to AI-assisted incident investigation and root cause analysis where tooling supports it
• Identify opportunities to reduce alert fatigue and improve operational insight using intelligent tooling

Collaboration & Enablement

• Partner closely with the business and other IT teams
• Provide clear architecture diagrams, topology maps, standards documentation, and operational runbooks
• Participate in Tier-2 or Tier-3 escalation and on-call rotations within the network domain
• Act as secondary or tertiary responder for critical enterprise outages
• Support cross-functional initiatives tied to modernization and transformation

Supervisory Responsibilities

This position has no supervisory responsibilities, but acts in a lead capacity to other department staff.

Qualifications

Education/Experience

• Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent practical experience
• 8+ years of progressive experience in enterprise networking or platform engineering, including at least 5 years in a senior-level role within a defined network or connectivity domain

Skills

• Senior-level hands-on experience designing and operating enterprise network and connectivity platforms across multi-site and hybrid environments (Azure)
• Strong experience with major enterprise networking vendors such as Cisco, Meraki, Arista, Palo Alto, or equivalent platforms
• Deep expertise in routing protocols (BGP, OSPF), enterprise network design, redundancy models, and high-availability architectures
• Experience with next-generation firewalls, VPN technologies, QoS, traffic shaping, and network segmentation strategies, including zero-trust principles
• Experience designing and supporting cloud networking architectures, including Azure networking, hybrid connectivity, SD-WAN, and SASE models
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code and network automation practices using tools such as Python, Ansible, Terraform, or similar
• Experience with network monitoring, logging, telemetry, and AI-driven networking analytics or AIOps platforms
• Strong understanding of cybersecurity principles, access controls, and compliance considerations within enterprise and manufacturing environments
• Ability to operate and support production networks with strict uptime and reliability requirements
• Experience documenting architecture, standards, topology diagrams, and operational procedures

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting manufacturing or operational technology (OT) environments
• Experience working with MSPs providing NOC or SOC services
• Experience leading modernization or transformation initiative

Language Skills

• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong written communication skills for architecture documentation, standards, and executive-level summaries.

Reasoning Ability

Ability to evaluate complex technical environments, synthesize system data, assess risk, and make sound architectural and operational decisions in dynamic or ambiguous situations. Demonstrates strong analytical thinking, structured problem-solving, and the ability to balance business impact with technical considerations.

Certificates, Licenses, Registrations

No certifications are required. Relevant industry certifications aligned to the platform domain such as cloud, networking, security, or automation credentials are preferred and may strengthen candidacy.

Confidentiality

In the course of performing this role, the Senior IT Platform Engineer may have access to confidential company, employee, operational, and technical information. The employee is expected to safeguard all such information, exercise sound judgment in its handling, and maintain strict confidentiality at all times.

Travel

Travel up to 10% may be required to support corporate headquarters, plants, warehouses, or other business locations.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here represent those required to successfully perform the essential functions of this role. Reasonable accommodations may be made for individuals with disabilities.

This position is primarily office-based and requires prolonged periods of sitting, speaking, and hearing. Occasional standing, walking, reaching, bending