Job Description & Details
This is a hands-on Network Engineer role bridging traditional enterprise infrastructure with modern automation and AI tooling. If you enjoy building resilient spine-leaf fabrics, wrangling Palo Alto firewalls, and automating away operational toil, this 6-month contract in Palo Alto is worth a close look.
What You'll Actually Be Doing
Your days will be split between keeping the corporate campus humming and evolving the datacenter architecture. You'll be configuring VLANs, optimizing wireless LANs, and troubleshooting multi-layer production issues while collaborating heavily with Security and Platform teams. Because this is an onsite role at headquarters, you'll also be hands-on with rack-and-stack connectivity, datacenter expansions, and keeping high-availability networks rock-solid.
The Core Tech Stack
You need deep, battle-tested experience with Palo Alto Networks firewalls (Panorama, GlobalProtect) and solid routing and switching fundamentals like BGP, OSPF, and VxLAN/EVPN overlays. What makes this gig modern is the expectation to use Python, Ansible, or Terraform for network automation, alongside leaning into AI-assisted tools for log analysis and runbook generation. If you treat network configuration like code and hate manual changes, you'll fit right in.
Interview Expectations
Expect to be grilled on a complex troubleshooting scenario involving a BGP route leak or an asymmetric routing issue across a VxLAN/EVPN fabric, where the hiring manager wants to see your exact methodology for isolating layer 2 versus layer 3 failures. You will also likely be asked to walk through how you would architect a zero-trust network segmentation policy using Palo Alto NGFWs and how you've used automation to eliminate repetitive tasks in a past role.
Application Advice
Make sure your resume screams enterprise network engineering by explicitly highlighting your work with Palo Alto firewalls, BGP routing, and wireless infrastructure. Don't just list technologies—mention specific metrics around uptime, scale, or automation scripts (Python/Ansible) you've built to pass the ATS keyword filters and prove you can hit the ground running.