Senior Cloud Network Engineer

Location & Work Model • Roseland, NJ — Hybrid (on-site + remote). Long-term contract with right to hire. Role Overview • We are seeking a Senior Cloud Network Engineer to design, build, and evolve hybrid cloud networking for a GCP-first enterprise environment. This is a hands-on architecture role blending engineering execution with architectural ownership, supporting large-scale cloud adoption. Must-Have (Deal-Breakers — screen these first) 1. GCP Networking (non-negotiable) VPC design, Shared VPC, Cloud Interconnect (Dedicated/Partner), Cloud VPN, Cloud Router Multi-region GCP network architecture Watch for: candidates who say "GCP" but only did light IaaS work vs. actual network architecture ownership 2. Advanced Routing Protocols BGP (hands-on config, not just conceptual) OSPF MP-BGP specifically — this is a strong signal of real enterprise/carrier-grade or data center experience, not just cloud admin work 3. Overlay Networking VXLAN / EVPN — this is the biggest filter. Most "cloud network engineers" haven't touched this; it usually means data center/campus fabric background (Cisco ACI, Arista, NSX) prior to cloud. Prioritize candidates coming from DC network architecture roles. 4. Hybrid Connectivity Patterns Site-to-site VPN, Direct Connect (or GCP equivalent), Transit Gateway concepts East-west segmentation / microsegmentation 5. Scale Must show 5,000+ user enterprise environment — reject resumes only showing SMB or single-site work 6. Terraform For automation/IaC — even moderate experience matters since it's explicitly called out under "Automation & Orchestration" Strong Signal / Preferred CCNP/CCIE (this is the single best proxy for deep routing chops — prioritize CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure or Data Center track) CISSP or Arista certs Azure/AWS/OCI exposure (secondary to GCP but shows multi-cloud fluency) Firewall/NAC/proxy/load balancer experience (Palo Alto, F5, Zscaler, etc.) Packet analysis & flow telemetry (Wireshark, NetFlow/sFlow) Legacy-to-cloud modernization project experience — good story-based interview question Soft/Leadership Signals "Technical authority" and "mentor engineers" language in the JD means they want someone who's led a team or been the senior escalation point — look for titles like Principal/Staff/Lead Network Engineer or Network Architect, not just "Senior Engineer" Vendor evaluation experience — suggests budget/strategy involvement, not just execution Sourcing Tip Given the VXLAN/EVPN + MP-BGP + GCP combo, your best candidate pool is likely: Data center network architects who migrated into cloud (Cisco/Arista/Juniper background transitioning to GCP) Telco/service provider network engineers who moved into enterprise cloud NOT typical "cloud engineers" from a DevOps background — they usually lack the deep routing/overlay depth this role wants has context menu #ITgig #LI-PROMOTED #LI-Onsite