Network Engineer – Data Center LAN (DCLAN)

About the Company

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced Network Engineer – Data Center LAN (DCLAN) to support, maintain, troubleshoot, and optimize enterprise data center network infrastructure. The role will focus on Cisco-based routing and switching, Data Center LAN environments, high availability, network troubleshooting, and operational support . The ideal candidate should have strong hands-on experience with data center networking technologies and be comfortable troubleshooting complex connectivity issues in a production environment. Experience with Top-of-Rack (ToR), Leaf-Spine architectures, VLANs, STP, Port-Channel/LACP, OSPF, BGP, and data center network fabrics is highly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Design, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot Data Center LAN (DCLAN) infrastructure.
• Configure and support Cisco switches, routers, and data center networking equipment .
• Manage VLANs, trunking, access ports, Layer 2/Layer 3 switching, and inter-VLAN routing.
• Support Top-of-Rack (ToR), End-of-Row (EoR), and Leaf-Spine data center architectures.
• Configure and troubleshoot Port-Channel/EtherChannel and LACP .
• Support routing protocols including OSPF and BGP , as well as static and default routing.
• Implement and troubleshoot STP, HSRP/VRRP, ACLs, and network segmentation .
• Monitor network health and proactively identify performance, connectivity, and capacity issues.
• Troubleshoot network incidents involving VLANs, trunks, routing, interfaces, gateways, packet loss, and network loops.
• Investigate interface errors, CRC errors, STP changes, broadcast storms, utilization issues, and other network abnormalities.
• Perform rack connectivity troubleshooting, including ToR switches, uplinks, port-channels, and upstream connectivity.
• Support data center migrations, network upgrades, hardware replacement, rack-and-stack activities, and infrastructure changes.
• Execute network changes following established change management, risk assessment, and rollback procedures .
• Participate in incident management and provide technical support during P1/P2 network incidents and outages .
• Perform network device configuration, firmware upgrades, and maintenance with minimal service disruption.
• Maintain accurate network documentation, configurations, diagrams, and operational procedures.
• Collaborate with infrastructure, security, systems, application, and geographically distributed network teams.
• Identify opportunities for network automation and operational efficiency .
• Provide knowledge transfer and technical guidance to other network engineering and operations teams.

Required Skills

Networking Fundamentals

• Strong understanding of OSI Model, TCP/IP, TCP/UDP, ARP, IP addressing, subnetting, MAC addresses, and network protocols .
• Strong understanding of Layer 2 and Layer 3 networking .
• Hands-on experience with VLANs, access ports, trunk ports, and broadcast domains.
• Strong knowledge of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) .

Data Center Networking

• Hands-on experience supporting Data Center LAN environments .
• Knowledge of Top-of-Rack (ToR) and End-of-Row (EoR) switching.
• Understanding of Leaf-Spine architecture and data center network fabrics.
• Experience with East-West and North-South traffic flows .
• Hands-on knowledge of Port-Channel/EtherChannel and LACP .
• Understanding of MTU considerations in data center environments .
• Knowledge of VXLAN/EVPN is highly preferred.
• Understanding of Anycast Gateway and ECMP is an advantage.

Routing & Switching

• Strong hands-on experience with Cisco routing and switching .
• Experience with:
• OSPF
• BGP
• Static and default routing
• Inter-VLAN routing
• HSRP / VRRP
• ACLs
• NAT
• STP
• VLAN and trunk configuration
• Strong troubleshooting skills across Layer 2 and Layer 3 environments.

Network Troubleshooting

Ability to systematically troubleshoot issues such as:

• Inter-VLAN connectivity problems
• VLAN and trunk mismatches
• Port-channel/LACP failures
• STP blocking or network loops
• Interface and CRC errors
• Speed/duplex issues
• Packet loss and intermittent connectivity
• Broadcast storms
• Routing and gateway issues
• ACL and firewall-related connectivity problems
• Rack-level or ToR connectivity outages

Cisco CLI & Network Tools

Hands-on experience using Cisco CLI and network troubleshooting commands such as:

• show ip interface brief
• show interface status
• show vlan
• show mac address-table
• show spanning-tree
• show port-channel summary
• show arp
• show running-config
• show log
• ping
• traceroute

Candidates should be able to interpret command output and use the appropriate commands to isolate network issues.

Preferred Skills

Advanced Networking Knowledge

Knowledge or hands-on experience with the following is highly desirable:

• VXLAN
• EVPN