Title: Network Automation Engineer

Location: Plano, TX (5 Days Onsite)

Type: Contract C2C

Role Overview:

We are seeking a highly skilled Network Automation Engineer to lead the design, development, and operationalization of Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and DevNetOps pipelines for branch network automation across a regulated BFSI enterprise. The role demands deep expertise in network programmability, controller-based orchestration, and cloud-native automation frameworks, with a strong emphasis on compliance, resilience, and repeatability.

Primary Technical Skills:

• Automation Frameworks: Proficient in Python, Ansible, Terraform, and GitLab CI/CD for building modular, reusable, and version-controlled automation pipelines.
• Network Controllers: Hands-on with Cisco DNAC, Cisco NSO, vManage, and ACI Multi-Site Orchestrator for intent-based provisioning and policy enforcement.
• API Integration: Strong experience with REST APIs, NETCONF/YANG, gRPC, and Webhooks for controller and device-level automation.
• Data Modeling & Serialization: Proficient in JSON, YAML, XML, and Jinja2 templating for dynamic configuration generation and state validation.
• SDN & Cloud-Native Networking: Exposure to SDN controllers, overlay/underlay abstraction, and cloud-integrated branch architectures.
• IaC Pipelines: Design and deployment of GitOps workflows, pre-commit hooks, pipeline linting, and automated rollback mechanisms.
• Stateful Automation: Use of source-of-truth systems (e.g., NetBox, Nautobot) to drive declarative provisioning and compliance drift detection.
• Role-Based Access & Secrets Management: Integration with Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, and RBAC enforcement in automation pipelines.
• Change Control Automation: Integration with ServiceNow, JIRA, or custom ITSM APIs for automated change ticket creation and approval gating.
• Compliance as Code: Embedding security baselines, linting rules, and policy-as-code into CI/CD pipelines for audit-ready deployments.

Secondary Technical Skills:

• Monitoring & Observability: Integration with Prometheus, Grafana, InfluxDB, and Telegraf for telemetry collection and visualization.
• Secure Coding Practices: Adherence to OWASP Top 10, input validation, token obfuscation, and API rate limiting in automation scripts.
• Containerization & Orchestration: Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and Helm for packaging and deploying automation microservices.
• LLM-Based Automation: Exposure to LLM agents, prompt engineering, and natural language-driven orchestration for operational tasks.
• Event-Driven Automation: Use of Kafka, RabbitMQ, or webhook triggers to initiate workflows based on telemetry or state changes.
• Multi-Domain Integration: Automation across LAN/WAN, wireless, security, and cloud domains using unified orchestration layers.
• Configuration Compliance: Use of Batfish, pyATS, or Nornir for pre/post validation, config diffing, and intent assurance.
• Topology Discovery & Visualization: Automated generation of network topology maps, dependency graphs, and reachability matrices.
• Version Control Best Practices: Branching strategies, merge request validation, and release tagging for network artifacts.
• Test-Driven Automation: Implementation of unit tests, mock APIs, and sandbox environments for safe automation rollouts.