Network Operations Engineer II

Job Title: Network Operations Engineer II – (Optical and IP Engineer) Job Overview: The Network Operations Engineer II is an experienced technical role responsible for troubleshooting, restoring, and maintaining the health of Optical and IP networks in a 24x7 operational environment. This role serves as the primary escalation point for Network Operations Engineers I and works closely with Engineers III and Team Leads to resolve complex incidents and improve operational processes. This role combines hands-on execution with independent judgment. Engineers II are expected to own incidents from detection through restoration, perform in-depth multi-vendor troubleshooting, execute scheduled network changes, and mentor junior engineers, escalating only the most complex, cross-domain, or high-risk issues. Scope: • Serve as the second-level escalation point for optical and IP network incidents and alarms. • Independently troubleshoot and restore service for complex incidents across optical transport and IP routing domains. • Own incidents end-to-end, including stakeholder communication, vendor engagement, and post-incident follow-up. • Plan and execute scheduled maintenance activities and network changes within change management procedures. • Author and improve runbooks, procedures, and knowledge-base content. • Mentor and guide Network Operations Engineers I. Roles and Responsibilities: Incident Management & Advanced Troubleshooting • Receive and resolve escalations from Network Operations Engineers I, providing technical direction during active incidents. • Perform in-depth troubleshooting of optical (DWDM, CWDM) and IP (IPv4/IPv6, MPLS, BGP, OSPF) networks, including analysis of optical power levels, OSNR, BER/FEC counters, routing tables, protocol adjacencies, and traffic paths. • Isolate faults across layers and domains (fiber, optics, transport, routing) and drive incidents to restoration. • Act as incident owner for major service-impacting events on shift, coordinating technical resources and providing timely updates to Team Leads and stakeholders. • Escalate highly complex, architectural, or cross-organizational issues to Network Operations Engineers III, Engineering, or the Team Lead with clear diagnostic findings. Ticket, Case & Problem Management • Ensure accurate, detailed documentation for all cases worked, and review ticket quality for Engineers I. • Open and manage cases with vendor TACs (e.g., Cisco, Juniper, Ciena, Nokia, Infinera), supplying logs, diagnostics, and technical detail to accelerate resolution. • Perform root cause analysis (RCA) for significant incidents and contribute to post-incident reports and corrective action tracking. • Identify recurring issues and trends, and recommend preventive or corrective actions. • Validate service stability after restoration and confirm SLA adherence. Maintenance & Change Execution • Plan, prepare, and execute scheduled maintenance activities…