Network Automation Engineer

Whitehall Resources require a Network Automation Engineer (Private Cloud) to work with a key client on a 6 month initial contract. *Inside IR35. *2 days per week on site in Cambridge. Network Automation Engineer (Private Cloud) Job Overview: This is a fantastic opportunity to join a newly formed Private Cloud team We are responsible for the design, deployment and operations of a new greenfield on-prem private cloud based on OpenStack. The Private Cloud Network Automation Engineer will develop the software, automation and Infrastructure as Code that will act as the glue to seamlessly provision networking capabilities within the OpenStack platform and integration with the underlying fabric. The role sits at the intersection of networking and software engineering and will help ensure day one operations are fully automated, scalable and consistent., * Help establish zero-touch provisioning and automated network lifecycle by building reusable automation modules using Python, Ansible, APIs and Terraform tooling to automate the provisioning, configuration and integration of OpenStack networking services Neutron, OVN and ML2 with the network fabric.

• Develop CI/CD pipelines for network configuration and changes. Implementing automated testing and validation of network changes to ensure changes are version controlled, peer reviewed, tested and auditable.
• Integrate network automation with source control, IPAM, inventory and other platform systems, developing automated configuration compliance and drift detection.
• Develop telemetry and observability integrations and dashboards to enable easy debugging, solving and tuning opportunities.
• Work with Compute, Storage and Kubernetes engineers to automate end-to-end network workflows.

• Understanding of OpenStack networking services such as Neutron, OVN and ML2 ; and Data Centre networking principles BGP, EVPN, VXLAN and Leaf-Spine architectures.
• Strong network engineering background with hands-on experience automating Cisco NX-OS, Arista EOS or equivalent network platforms.
• Proven Python/Ansible/Terraform experience to build repeatable Software Defined Network automation, developed REST APIs and the application of Infrastructure as Code principles and practices.
• Experience using Git-based development and CI/CD tools and pipelines.
• Good Linux skills.

‘Nice To Have’ Skills and Experience:

• Experience building automation for large-scale HPC or cloud infrastructure.
• NetBox or similar source-of-truth/IPAM platforms.
• Cisco Nexus and/or Arista CloudVision Dashboard APIs.
• Automated network testing frameworks.
• Prometheus, Grafana and OpenTelemetry or similar
• Automated compliance and configuration validation.