Network Engineer Job Description, Skills, and Salary
Get to know about the duties, responsibilities, qualifications, and skills requirements of a network engineer. Feel free to use our job description template to produce your own. We also provide you with information about the salary you can earn as a network engineer.
Who is a Network Engineer?
A network engineer is responsible for establishing computer networks, internet connections in an office, and related computer systems that a business may need. The network engineer may perform routine maintenance to make sure everything is running properly and on-call if there is a problem. Anyone interested in a career in network engineering must learn how computers work and how different computer systems work together. Organizations need multiple computers to use the same network and may have a separate Internet connection (intranet) that company employees use.
When a problem arises, the network engineer needs to find a solution quickly so that employees can get back to work. The work schedule is often hectic as a problem can arise at any time of the day or night. Even routine maintenance is often done early in the morning or late at night when few people are using the computer or network.
Certification usually takes around two years, but most training takes place on the job. As technology changes rapidly, much of what is learned will be stale by the time the network engineer gets his first job. Certification is still required for most jobs and provides basic skills that are critical to becoming a network engineer.
The work of a network engineer can also be seen as a task of information technology. Depending on the type of job, the engineer can also design the systems he wants to use. Instead of just setting up one computer, he has to figure out how all computers and other devices that use the same network can work together in harmony at the same time. It includes creative thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as technical knowledge of how everything works.
Those who work in this area can work internally or externally. In-house engineers are hired by a company to set up new systems and maintain the old systems. Larger companies need people to work part-time or full-time, and these companies typically have enough work that the job is not just a temporary one.
Smaller companies may hire someone to work in-house, but the position can be temporary. Engineers who do not work for a company permanently can work for companies on call. This is known as working externally. When a company has a problem without a technician, a new network technician is brought in to fix the problem.
Network Engineer Job description
Below are the network engineer job description examples you can use to develop your resume or write a network engineer job description for your employee. Employers can also use it to sieve out job seekers when choosing candidates for interviews.
The function that a network engineer will perform often will be to provide technical support to network users. This is because users may have minimal computer skills and may run into situations (such as errors or connection problems) that they cannot deal with, so they will have to ask the IT department for help.
Finally, a topic that is still relatively new, even though it has been present in everyone’s daily life for several years now, is managing a computing cloud. The concept of the “cloud” is nothing more than a storage system for files, programs, and information that is accessed through the Internet. Few companies have their own “cloud” since if they need it, they hire the service of a third party, but for companies that do have it, it is vitally important to have a Network Engineer capable of maintaining it and keeping it safe.
Other responsibilities of the network engineer include:
- Maintaining the necessary data transfer speed by monitoring network activity and maintaining existing equipment
- Updating the network maintenance manual and presenting weekly to the management a summary of the changes introduced in the manual
- Collaborating with third-party support and service providers to ensure the network remains operational
- Laying out and deploying practical networks (LAN, WLAN, WAN).
- Setting up software programs, servers, routers, and various other network devices.
- Fixing assistance degrees scaled by cloud framework.
- Advising employees on technological concerns.
- Interacting with customers when required.
- Preserving total technological documentation.
- Suggesting improvements in network efficiency, capacity, as well as scalability.
Qualifications
A network engineer must have a keen interest in IT topics and have completed appropriate training. He should be organizationally competent and be able to manage projects. In particular, a network engineer should have the following qualifications:
- Bachelor degree in computer science or related subjects
- Proven experience with network technology
- Comprehensive understanding of network protocols (e.g. IPSEC, BGP, HSRP, OSPF, 802.11, QoS)
- Hands-on experience with monitoring and network analysis tools
- Experience in network designing
- Technical know-how in installing and configuring data network technology
Essential Skills
The basic skills of a network engineer include:
- Familiar with the basic knowledge of computer systems;
- Knows network operating system;
- In-depth design and development methods of computer programs and system
- Experience in dealing with data communication protocols
- Understands system security and data security;
Like other technical fields, the network industry is also making rapid progress. From the beginning of the IP network and ATM dispute, ATM technology lost to IP technology due to complexity. When IP forwarding performance became a bottleneck, referring to the connection-oriented thinking in ATM, a new technology MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) was created, and then through the combination of VRF and MP-BGP, MPLS VPN was created, which solved the problem in the public network. The problem of multiple customers on the same network segment is transmitted in the middle, and the forwarding efficiency is improved. However, due to the complexity of the protocol, poor scalability, difficulty in deployment and operation, and maintenance of the MPLS control plane, the SR technology that inherits the MPLS data plane came into being.
The control plane of MPLS mainly relies on LDP and RSVP-TE. The former relies on IGP routing information to assign labels to the destination address in the IP website, but it cannot specify the forwarding path and has no traffic engineering. The latter solves the problem of traffic engineering, but it is too complex, poorly scalable, and has no-load functions, which are not many in practical applications. To solve the above problems, the industry has also begun to make efforts. To solve the problem of RSVP-TE, a centralized control platform can be added to be responsible for the exchange of information, and this function can be realized by turning to the SDN technology of separation. To solve the shortcomings of LDP, IGP can directly distribute labels instead of LDP. This is achieved in the new technology SR (Segment Routing), which extends the SR attributes of the IGP protocol ((IS-IS is implemented through TLV, OSPF is implemented through opaque LSA carry).
The new generation technology SR has several characteristics: source routing, centralized control, statelessness, etc. Because it removes LDP and RSVP-TE, it simplifies the control plane. And because of its source routing and stateless characteristics, it has achieved good scalability. And can realize the flow engineering, for the automatic load of the ordinary flow, and for the flow that needs to be scheduled, the path can be calculated and displayed. Support fast rerouting. By combining with SDN, centralized control is realized.
More and more technologies such as SDN and SRv6 are deployed, which increasingly reflects the application of programming in the network field. The development of SDN began with the OpenFlow paper in 2008. In 2009, SDN was selected as the “Top Ten Breakthrough Technologies in the Future” by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Review. Its development is divided into two lines: the industrial circle and the academic circle. In the early academic circle, only Stanford University researched. In 2015, the output of the academic circle slowed down. However, due to several acquisitions in the industrial circle, the industry has ignited this The degree of attention is shown in the development of network operating systems, network virtualization, SD-WAN, white-box switches, and other fields. The main feature of SDN is the separation of the data plane and the control plane, which is also a general trend in the network field in the future. The network is controlled by a centralized controller. Its existence makes the deployment and operation and maintenance of the network simplified and intelligent, and it supports programming. The SDN control plane makes the network more intelligent. It is created to better fulfill user needs in the future, and it is not impossible to achieve by traditional methods.
As a network engineer, in order not to be eliminated by the times, he must also learn a variety of new technologies. In the future SDN era, the network will become more dynamic, so automated systems and new tools are needed to collect and analyze data, requiring network engineers to be more familiar with APIs and improve their ability to analyze problems. More importantly, in addition to learning network-related knowledge, network engineers must also learn programming and Linux-related knowledge. In terms of programming, they can learn Python language, which is a scripting language with object-oriented functions which can help them learn programming methods.
Learning programming is also to achieve automation, through programming to deal with repetitive tasks at one time, and improve work efficiency. However, most network engineers seem to be resisting automation, fearing greater damage due to mistakes. The realization of automation can start from the realization of automatic detection of equipment configuration. SDN will push automation to a new level. For example, the application can automatically notify the SDN controller of its needs, and the controller will automatically modify it. We need to understand this change and be familiar with this process.
How to Become a Network Engineer
The main access route to becoming a network engineer is to go through an engineering school and obtain an engineering degree with a specialization in telecommunications.
Thus, to access the profession of network engineer, a minimum level of 5 years of study after getting their bachelor’s degree is required. A competitive examination after school specializing in scientific subjects facilitates access to general engineering schools with a telecoms option for training that can last up to 5 years.
It is also possible to access it for studies lasting 3 years, after 2 years of preparatory classes. Training is also provided by specialized schools. At the university, a professional master’s degree in computer science with specialization can also allow you to become a network engineer.
Where to work
In the IT industry, most network engineers choose three main job directions: Party A, Party B, and vendors.
- Party A: Mainly refers to enterprises that have certain requirements for network deployment after purchasing network equipment, and need network engineers to maintain the network. Representatives company: operators, financial industry, etc.;
- Party B: also known as integrator or agent. Integrator: IT integrated service provider, providing overall solutions; agent: selling equipment, responsible for the entire region’s business. Representative company: Fufu, ECCOM, etc.;
- Vendors: Communication manufacturers mainly engaged in research and development, and production equipment, mainly represented by different companies e.g Cisco and Huawei.
Network Engineer Salary Scale
A network engineer can earn between 35,000 and 55,000 euros gross per year. In a country like France for example, the average salary for this profession is around 40,000 euros gross per year. This corresponds to a salary of more than 3,300 euros gross per month. Upon entering the labor market, a junior network engineer earns on average between 35,000 and 40,000 euros gross per year. To claim attractive remuneration, it will be possible to demonstrate significant experience through an internship in a company during the training period. Special expertise in a specific area can also be a plus. The salary is often progressive, over the acquisition of years of experience. For a senior profile, the hourly rate can thus reach more than 30 euros gross. The gross monthly salary received will then be around 4,600 euros, for a net monthly salary of nearly 3,600 euros. The network engineer is usually paid more in large companies than in small ones. He can claim a salary paid over 12, 13, or 14 months. It is also possible that the collective agreement or the employment contract provides for a profit-sharing bonus or a participation bonus. For this type of position, the employer is perfectly free to set the remuneration of his employees himself.
The State does not impose any fixed salary grid on him. Compensation can be made up of a fixed part and a variable part, depending on the agreements reached with the employee at the time of hiring. for a monthly net salary of nearly 3,600 euros.