Job Description & Details
This is a heavy-hitting L3 network engineering contract role focused entirely on architecting, scaling, and troubleshooting complex Google Cloud Platform environments in Pleasanton. If you live and breathe hybrid connectivity, BGP routing, and enterprise-grade cloud topologies, this is a chance to own the network backbone for a major enterprise client.
What You'll Actually Be Doing
You'll spend your days designing and reviewing multi-VPC, hub-and-spoke, and Shared VPC architectures, making sure data flows securely and efficiently across hybrid cloud boundaries. Beyond the greenfield design work, you're the ultimate escalation point for production fires—meaning when bizarre routing loops, latency spikes, or complex BGP peering drops happen, you'll be the one diving into packet captures and VPC flow logs to save the day. You'll also spend significant time writing Terraform to automate network changes and collaborating with security teams to enforce zero-trust perimeter controls.
The Core Tech Stack
You need absolute fluency in Google Cloud Platform networking primitives like Cloud Interconnect, Cloud VPN, Private Service Connect, and global load balancing. But cloud knowledge alone won't cut it; you need deep, traditional routing and switching chops—BGP, OSPF, VRFs, and enterprise firewall strategies are non-negotiable. Finally, your Infrastructure as Code game needs to be strong, specifically using Terraform for network provisioning and policy-as-code integration.
Interview Expectations
Expect the hiring panel to skip the trivia and drop you straight into a real-world disaster scenario, such as troubleshooting a sudden asymmetric routing failure between an on-prem data center and a multi-region GCP deployment over Partner Interconnect. They want to see your mental debugging tree, asking how you isolate issues across on-prem edge routers, Cloud Routers, and VPC firewall rules. Another favorite will be grilling you on how you'd design a multi-region Shared VPC architecture with strict data residency requirements, where they'll quietly evaluate whether you understand egress cost optimization and Cloud Armor policy placement as much as raw availability.
Application Advice
Don't just list every networking certification you own at the top of your resume and call it a day. The ATS for this role is aggressively hunting for specific cloud networking keywords, so weave terms like 'Shared VPC', 'Cloud Interconnect', 'BGP peering', and 'Terraform' directly into your work history bullets. Highlight your experience as an L3 escalation point and emphasize any major production migrations or zero-trust security implementations you've personally led.