Hire network engineers

Platforms, sites, and engineering duties

Describe the sites, equipment families, routing and switching work, wireless scope, and main business needs. Include the balance between project delivery and ongoing support. Tell applicants how much of the design and change work they will own.

If the position is primarily Cisco engineering, say which platforms and tasks matter. Verify any required certification separately from the applicant's experience. Don't require a list of credentials for equipment they won't touch.

For equipment mounting and assigned connections, use rack-and-stack technicians. If this hire also configures those devices, make that responsibility explicit.

Faults between sites

Give the candidate a fictional network diagram and a complaint: one application is failing between two locations while other traffic still works. Ask what information they'd collect and how it would narrow the investigation.

Listen for how they establish the affected users, path, recent changes, and available observations. Ask why each proposed check is useful. Find out when they'd involve the application owner, carrier, or security team.

Have them write a short update for the operations manager. Can they explain the impact, current finding, and next step without turning an assumption into a confirmed cause?

Network changes and recovery plans

Ask about a network change they delivered. What was the requirement, who approved the design, and how did they decide whether the change worked? What would have triggered recovery to the previous state?

Follow the project through the records. Which diagrams, configurations, and support notes changed? Who received the information afterward? Your support team needs a network it can understand when the project engineer is away.

Use fictional data or permitted redacted examples in the interview. The candidate doesn't need to bring another employer's configuration exports.

Support and on-call work

State whether the engineer takes an on-call rotation, supports customer sites, manages vendors, or helps less experienced staff. Ask about a recurring issue and how it was reduced or assigned for further work. Confirm the actual shift and response expectations early.

For voice-network work, describe the coordination with the VoIP technician. For security changes, identify the network-security owner.

Experience and working terms

Include platforms, sites, independent duties, design responsibility, experience, credentials, team, approval process, hours, on-call terms, travel, pay range, benefits, and tools.

Post the network engineer vacancy. Related guides cover network administration and NOC technicians.