Network and Data Center Engineer

The School of Computing seeks a Network and Data Center Engineer to administer and support the School’s and departments’ network, data center, and computing hardware infrastructure. The engineer will have primary day-to-day responsibility for School-managed network and data center infrastructure and will work closely with University networking, information security, facilities, and other central IT teams on shared services and infrastructure.

The position also supports the network and physical hardware infrastructure for research computing, including HPC, GPU-accelerated computing, and AI/ML research systems. Experience with these environments is strongly desired, although the position is not responsible for HPC operating systems, research software, AI/ML frameworks, or application support.

Responsibilities

Network Engineering and Support:

• Configure, operate, monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot School-managed network infrastructure, including switches, routers, firewalls, VLANs, and network segmentation.
• Diagnose and resolve connectivity, routing, performance, and network security issues, coordinating with University networking and security teams when appropriate.
• Implement network upgrades, configuration changes, capacity improvements, and equipment replacements.
• Participate in the design and planning of network improvements and new infrastructure.
• Work with University networking staff to troubleshoot wireless issues and assess coverage, capacity, and upgrade needs.
• Maintain network diagrams, configurations, addressing information, and related technical documentation.

Data Center and Research Computing Infrastructure:

• Install, cable, maintain, and troubleshoot servers, GPU systems, storage, network equipment, and other data center hardware.
• Support the physical deployment and network integration of HPC, GPU-accelerated, AI/ML, and other specialized research computing systems.
• Support high-bandwidth network connectivity and data movement for research computing and storage environments.
• Diagnose network and hardware problems and collaborate with systems administrators, researchers, University technical staff, and vendors when issues span infrastructure layers.
• Identify rack space, power, cooling, cabling, and network requirements for new equipment and coordinate implementation with appropriate University staff.
• Support hardware lifecycle activities, including deployment, upgrades, troubleshooting, repair, replacement, inventory, and vendor support.

Security and Operations:

• Maintain network and infrastructure security controls in accordance with University requirements and established practices.
• Support network segmentation, access controls, monitoring, vulnerability remediation, and incident response within the position’s areas of responsibility.
• Monitor infrastructure availability, performance, and capacity and address operational issues.
• Maintain technical documentation and operating procedures.
• Participate in infrastructure planning, procurement, and implementation projects.
• Participate in scheduled maintenance and, when necessary, response to critical infrastructure issues outside normal business hours., The retirement plan for this position is Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), subject to the position being at least 20 hours per week and at least 135 days in length., Employees may be required to report violations of law under Title IX and the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act). If this position is identified a Campus Security Authority (Clery Act), you will be notified and provided resources for reporting. Responsible employees under Title IX are defined and outlined in HOP-3031.

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, engineering, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant professional experience.
• Professional experience administering, configuring, and troubleshooting production network infrastructure.
• Strong knowledge of TCP/IP, Ethernet, routing, switching, VLANs, DNS, DHCP, and related network technologies.
• Experience configuring and supporting managed switches, routers, firewalls, or comparable network infrastructure.
• Experience supporting physical servers, data center/server room environments, or comparable computing hardware.
• Working knowledge of Linux, MacOS and/or Windows sufficient for infrastructure troubleshooting and collaboration with systems administrators.
• Understanding of network and infrastructure security principles and practices.
• Demonstrated ability to systematically diagnose network and hardware problems and work with other technical teams to resolve complex issues.
• Ability to create and maintain clear technical documentation.
• Strong communication, collaboration, and organizational skills, with the ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a technical team.

Relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate., * Experience supporting network, physical hardware, or data center infrastructure for HPC, GPU-accelerated computing, AI/ML research, or other computationally intensive environments.

• Experience deploying or troubleshooting GPU servers, high-density compute systems, or other specialized computing hardware.
• Experience supporting IT infrastructure in higher education, academic research, or a similarly complex environment.
• Experience administering departmental or organizational networks that operate within a larger enterprise network.
• Experience with UT Austin’s enterprise network architecture, platforms, services, management and monitoring tools, and operational practices, or comparable enterprise environments.
• Experience with enterprise network technologies such as Cisco, SONiC, FortiNet or comparable platforms.
• Experience with high-speed networking, data center switching, high-performance storage connectivity, or large-scale data transfer.
• Experience with network/infrastructure monitoring or automation tools and technologies.
• Experience with firewalls, network segmentation, VPNs, network access control, or related security technologies.
• Relevant industry certifications or equivalent demonstrated technical expertise., A criminal history background check will be required for finalist(s) under consideration for this position., * E-Verify Poster (English and Spanish) [PDF]
• Right to Work Poster (English) [PDF]
• Right to Work Poster (Spanish) [PDF]

This position includes hands-on work in data center and server room environments and may require occasional work outside normal business hours for maintenance, equipment installation, upgrades, or critical service interruptions.

This position will support the university’s new School of Computing, which includes 3 strong departments and more than 9,000 students across all programs. This places UT among the most significant intellectual hubs for computer science, information, and statistics and data science research and education anywhere in the world. The School of Computing has a close relationship with Austin’s thriving tech culture and works at the forefront of fields spanning artificial intelligence, robotics and quantum computing; data science, statistics and scientific discovery; cybersecurity and trustworthy computing; and human-centered technology, information, and the societal impacts of computing., The Clery Act requires all prospective employees be notified of the availability of the Annual Security and Fire Safety report. You may access the most recent report here or obtain a copy at University Compliance Services, 1616 Guadalupe Street, UTA 2.206, Austin, Texas 78701.