Principal Network Engineer

Summary

Join Western Digital's Global Network Services team and contribute to the implementation, maintenance, and optimization of our regional/local network infrastructure. You will ensure high network performance and reliability, delivering critical network services to meet business goals. Key responsibilities include planning, building, managing, and optimizing network infrastructure and services. You will provide technical leadership, troubleshoot network issues, and collaborate with various teams and stakeholders. The role requires extensive experience in network routing, switching, wireless, and security, along with strong communication and problem-solving skills. Western Digital offers a comprehensive benefits package.

Requirements

• Minimum 8-12 years professional experience in Network Routing, Switching, Wireless, and Network Security
• Good understanding of network design practices from small office to large campus
• Hands-on experience and in-depth knowledge in networking technologies/solutions including BGP, OSPF, HA, VLAN, Spanning Tree, EtherChannel, QoS, WAN, etc
• Solid understanding of data center networking technologies and solutions including Cisco/Arista switches, WAN routers, structured cabling etc
• Excellent communication skills on technical and non-technical concepts
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to establish professional working relationships with varying levels of both business and technical personnel
• Good understanding of network utility services including TFTP, FTP, DNS, DHCP, NTP, SNMP, SYSLOG, etc
• Exceptional documentation skills that can clearly articulate technical designs, issues and constraints, procedures, and network assessments
• Strong project management, analytical and problem determination/resolution skills
• Proactive and resourceful
• Familiar with network scanning/analysis procedures and toolsets for network readiness assessments

Responsibilities

• Plan, build, manage, optimize, and provide operational support for US/global network infrastructure & services to ensure high resiliency/reliability
• Provide technical leadership to support complex Manufacturing/Office LAN/WAN/VPN and wireless infrastructure
• Implement changes to hardware and/or software that improve network performance, speed and connectivity
• Troubleshoot network issues related to BGP, OSPF, VLAN, Spanning Tree, WAN, network hardware/software, wireless etc
• Align with Global Network Services team to incorporate company standards and preferred practices into local site network builds
• Ensure local/regional network infrastructure is properly monitored. Act as point of contact and Subject Matter Expert to respond to network incidents/service requests according to Service Level Agreements
• Partner with Security or Cyber Defense team to fix detected vulnerabilities with systems and users to maintain high security standard
• Interact/communicate with vendors, service providers, peers, stakeholders, and business units for effective integration/operations of services and systems
• Lead, plan and participate in IT projects and Maintenance Window activities
• Maintain close collaboration with other global IT functional teams

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in a manufacturing environment is a plus
• Technical certification such as CCNP/CCIE or equivalent is preferred

Benefits

• Paid vacation time
• Paid sick leave
• Medical/dental/vision insurance
• Life, accident and disability insurance
• Tax-advantaged flexible spending and health savings accounts
• Employee assistance program
• Other voluntary benefit programs such as supplemental life and AD&D, legal plan, pet insurance, critical illness, accident and hospital indemnity
• Tuition reimbursement
• Transit
• The Applause Program
• Employee stock purchase plan
• The Western Digital Savings 401(k) Plan
• Short-Term Incentive (STI) Plan
• Long-Term Incentive (LTI) program
• Restricted stock units (RSUs) or cash equivalents