Network Support Associate

About This Role

The Network Support Associate will provide operational and technical support for IP/MPLS network infrastructure within a telecom service provider environment. The role involves incident management, configuration changes, migration support, and ongoing monitoring to ensure network availability, stability, and performance.

Key Responsibilities

Network Operations & Monitoring

• Participate in 24x7 operational support, including on-call rotation for incident response.
• Monitor network health using NMS tools and respond to alarms, performance issues, and outages.
• Analyze logs, errors, and performance reports for network elements.
• Monitor link utilization, traffic trends, and generate operational reports.

Incident Management & Troubleshooting

• Troubleshoot network incidents across IP/MPLS infrastructure.
• Coordinate with vendor TAC teams to determine root cause and resolution.
• Provide onsite support for hardware troubleshooting, data capture, and recovery.
• Support transitional and legacy hardware environments.

Configuration & Change Management

• Implement configuration changes and software updates following change management procedures.
• Execute service requests and change requests from internal stakeholders.
• Validate network functionality before and after changes.
• Participate in maintenance windows and support complex cutovers.

Migration & Implementation

• Conduct impact assessments for network changes and migrations.
• Execute configuration migration, interface mapping, and service validation.
• Support L2/L3 VPN service migrations and platform cutovers.
• Collaborate with planning, architecture, vendors, and NOC teams.

Documentation & Reporting

• Maintain and update network diagrams and documentation.
• Track inventory, hardware lifecycle (EOS/EOL), and software upgrades.
• Review critical software bugs and coordinate timely upgrades.

Design & Continuous Improvement

• Participate in design analysis and network enhancements.
• Support traffic engineering and IP addressing strategies.
• Contribute to service optimization and operational improvements.

Required Skills & Technical Competencies

Networking Technologies

• Routing protocols: OSPF, IS-IS, BGP
• MPLS technologies: LDP, RSVP-TE, Segment Routing (SR-MPLS preferred)
• VPN services: L2VPN, L3VPN, VPLS
• IP addressing and traffic engineering

Hardware Platforms

Hands-on experience with:

• Huawei: NE9K, NE5K, NE40, S9300, CX600-X8
• Cisco: ASR 9K, NCS 5K
• Juniper: MX480

Tools & Operational Skills

• Network Monitoring Systems (NMS)
• Incident management and troubleshooting
• Change management processes
• Migration planning and execution
• Network documentation and reporting

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree or Diploma in Telecommunications, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field
• Professional certification: CCNP (required)

Experience Requirements

• Minimum 5 years of experience in IP/MPLS network operations
• At least 4 years supporting mobile or service provider IP networks
• Experience in telecom or ISP environments
• Proven experience supporting network migration activities
• Hands-on experience with multi-vendor routing platforms (Cisco, Huawei, Juniper)

Working Conditions

• Regular working hours with 24x7 on-call support rotation
• Availability for maintenance windows, weekends, and holidays when required
• Onsite support across network locations as needed

Key Deliverables

• Network uptime and operational stability
• Timely incident resolution and root cause analysis
• Successful execution of service and change requests
• Accurate documentation and inventory management
• Smooth migration and upgrade activities

Performance Metrics

• Incident response and resolution time
• Successful change and service request implementation
• Network availability and performance
• Quality of documentation and reporting
• Compliance with change management processes