Network Engineer Sr

Sr Network Engineer

Akhila Reddy

Phone: 913-***-****

Email: ***********.**********@*****.***

SUMMARY:

Overall 10 years of IT Experience with design, development, implementation and troubleshooting Network & Security infrastructure.

Extensive experience in IP Routing protocols & Technologies such as TCP/IP, RIP, IGRP, OSPF, EIGRP, HSRP, VRRP, BGP, MP-BGP, IS-IS, VLAN, ISDN, Spanning Tree, Frame-relay, MPLS, IPSec VPN's, SONET/SDH, T1, PAP, CHAP, SNMP.

Extensive experience integrating Cisco ISE with diverse network infrastructures (wired, wireless, VPN) to enforce robust security policies and access controls across the enterprise.

Proficiency in Cisco ASAs, ISRs, Catalyst/Nexus, HP Switches, Cisco Meraki, Aruba, EIGRP, OSPF, BGP.

Skilled in configuring ISE for secure BYOD onboarding, guest access management, and endpoint compliance using posture services.

worked on the Panorama firewall management tool which provides centralized monitoring and management of multiple Palo Alto devices from a single window.

Extensive work experience in Aruba, Cisco Routers, Arista, Cisco Switches, Bluecoat, Load Balancers & Cisco Firewalls.

Experience with various wireless 802.11 standards, controllers, Access Points, and Wi-Fi analytics from various vendors (Cisco Meraki, HPE /Aruba, D-Link), SD-WAN (MX 65, MX100, MX400).

Involved in troubleshooting DNS, DHCP, and other IP conflict problems.

Designed, deployed, and managed Aruba wireless infrastructure, including controllers, access points, and related components.

Platform proficiency in Cisco Switching & Routing Platforms, specifically Nexus 9000 Series Data Center Switching Platform and ASR 1000x/9000 Series Routers.

Demonstrated mastery in managing various Linux distributions and command-line utilities.

Skilled in installing, configuring, and maintaining databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle) to ensure data integrity and high availability.

Proficient in setting up firewalls, VPNs, and intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS) to safeguard against cyber threats.

Managed the day-to-day activities of the NOC, including incident management, performance monitoring, and proactive maintenance to ensure uninterrupted service delivery.

Handled Escalations for Tier 4 engineering team in the NOC, overseeing the 24/7 operations and ensuring the timely resolution of escalated issues related to broadcast, streaming, and OTT platforms.

Developed and implemented standard operating procedures (SOPs)/MOPs and best practices for incident response, troubleshooting, and escalation management, resulting in improved efficiency and reduced downtime.

Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and experience in deploying and managing cloud-based resources.

Managed MACD requests, ensuring smooth transitions and optimal user experience.

Migration of Cisco ASA to FTD from Palo Alto, Checkpoint and FortiGate firewalls from.

Worked on AAA servers like RADIUS and TACACS+ and installed and configured Routers, Bridges, Terminals.

Experience in vulnerability Network management, vulnerability analysis, and risk analysis

Ability to Install, Manage & Troubleshoot Large Networks & Systems Administration on Windows & Linux platforms in Development, Lab & Production Environments.

Knowledge on Designing, deploying, and maintaining DOCSIS 3.0 and 3.1 networks for residential and business clients, resulting in increased bandwidth availability and improved customer satisfaction.

Knowledge of Automation script with Python module and infrastructure automation tools like Cloud formation, Terraform, Ansible, chef, Postman and ARM Templates.

CERTIFICATIONS:

Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)

Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP)

Amazon Certified Solutions Architect Associate (AWS)

SKILLS

Networking Technologies

LAN/WAN Architecture, TCP/IP, Frame Relay, VPN, VLAN, VTP, NAT, PAT, STP, RSTP, PVST, MSTP, SDN, SD-WAN

Networking Hardware

Cisco Switches, Cisco Routers, ASA firewalls, IronPort

Routing Protocols

OSPF, IGRP, EIGRP, RIP, MPLS, IS-IS, BGP, Multicasting

Video Technologies

EC, DAC, VSRM, GSRM, APEX, ACE, STB, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DOCSIS, CMTS, CM

Security Technologies

PAP, CHAP, Cisco PIX, Blue Coat

Network Monitoring

Splunk, Wireshark, Elastic

Operating Systems

Windows all platforms, LINUX, Cisco IOS, IOS XR

Routers

CISCO 2600, 2800,3600,3800,7200, Juniper M & T Series, Cisco CRS-1, CRS -3, GSR

Load Balancers

Cisco CSM, F5 Networks (BIG-IP), Bluecoat Citrix NetScaler, MWG, Zscaler, Proxies, Bluecoat

Switches

CISCO 2900, 3500,4500,5000,6500, Nexus 7k,5k,2k

Programming Languages

C, C++, Perl, Power Shell, Python

Simulation Tools

GNS3, VMware, OPNET IT GURU, OPNET Modeler, Cadence

Firewalls

Juniper Net Screen (500/5200), Juniper SRX (650/3600), Pix (525/535), ASA (5520/5550/5580), McAfee Web Gateway, Checkpoint, Palo Alto firewalls.

AAA Architecture

TACACS+, RADIUS, Cisco ACS

Features & Services

IOS and Features, HSRP, GLBP, IPAM IRDP, NAT, SNMP, SYSLOG, NTP, DHCP, CDP, DNS, TFTP and FTP Management, Open Stack, IVR’s, HLD and LLD documents, Dell equal logics

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Charter Communications, Denver-CO May 2023 – Present

Role: Sr Network Engineer

Responsibilities

Deployed Cisco ACI using Nexus 9K switches in a Spine-Leaf architecture, configuring BGP underlay and VXLAN overlay to optimize data center scalability and operational efficiency.

Migrated legacy DM-VPN and MPLS circuits to Cisco Viptela and Versa SD-WAN, configuring Cisco ASR routers, Juniper SRX, and Fortinet firewalls for scalable and resilient network connectivity.

Led the migration from Cisco ASA to Palo Alto firewalls, implementing advanced features such as URL Filtering, APP-ID, SSL Decryption, and SSL Forward Proxy to secure internet traffic.

Configured Palo Alto firewalls with NAT policies, zones, and threat prevention features, and deployed F5 LTM/GTM with SSL Offloading and Layer 4/7 policies to improve application resilience.

Configured Infoblox for DNS, DHCP, and IPAM, while integrating Cisco ISE with Active Directory and RSA SecurID to enhance multi-factor authentication.

Implemented 802.1X access controls for wired and wireless endpoints using Cisco ISE to ensure secure and compliant access management.

Automated configurations using SolarWinds NCM and developed Python scripts integrated with REST APIs across Cisco, Juniper, and Arista devices for enhanced efficiency.

Designed templates with Terraform for AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Azure environments, configuring VPCs, EC2, Route 53, Cloud Load Balancing, Cloud SQL, and security features.

Deployed and managed Fortinet FortiGate firewalls, optimized configurations, and resolved complex issues. Configured Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM) to ensure robust IP telephony services.

Collaborated with Wi-Fi Alliance for WLAN testing, implemented advanced RF management on Cisco Wi-Fi 6 access points, and tested wireless security protocols.

Configured BGP on Cisco ASR 9000 and OSPF on Catalyst 9500 to support multi-ISP routing and optimize enterprise networks.

Deployed Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) and Zscaler Private Access (ZPA), replacing IronPort with GRE tunnels from F5 to ZCloud. Configured Azure AD SAML for Zscaler authentication and SCIM provisioning for user synchronization.

Utilized tools like Splunk, Wireshark, and TCP Dump for incident resolution, working extensively with Juniper SRX and Palo Alto firewalls to ensure seamless network operations.

Designed and deployed VMware vSphere 7.0, configuring ESXi hosts and vCenter for high availability in virtualized environments.

Applied QoS, Policy Maps, Class Maps, and Policy Routing across various sites to enhance network performance.

Delivered in-depth designs and methodologies for efficient video transport systems across enterprise networks.

Deployed and decommissioned VLANs on core Cisco ASR 9K, Nexus 9K, 7K, and 5K devices, while managing downstream 2k, 3k, and 7k series routers

Environment: Cisco Nexus 9k,7k,5k; Cisco Catalyst switches 6500, 4500, 2950; Cisco ACI, Routing Protocols OSPF, BGP, STP, VTP, VLAN; VPN, MPLS, HSRP, GLBP, Big-IP F5 Load Balancer, AWS, LINUX, VPC,Route 53, Terraform, S3,EC2,Splunk, Elastic

Client: Citizens Bank-New York City, NY Sep 2022 – April 2023

Role: Sr Network Security Engineer

Responsibilities:

Experience working in the configuration, troubleshooting of Juniper SRX firewalls as well as experience working directly with customers in a service/support environment.

Troubleshooting Firewall Connectivity related issues using Smart view tracker on Checkpoint, NSM Log viewer for Juniper Firewalls.

Deployment and Management of Bluecoat proxies in forward proxy scenario as well as for security in reverse proxy scenario.

Demonstrated understanding of network security concepts and systems including F5, WSA, Palo Alto, ASA.

Working knowledge of Cisco Collaboration products including Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM), Cisco Webex, and Cisco Jabber.

Facilitated seamless communication and collaboration by integrating Cisco Collaboration solutions in diverse networking environments.

Forecasted and coordinated management of change for scheduled maintenance weekends, minimizing downtime and disruption.

Worked on Blue Coat Proxy SG to safeguard web applications in extremely untrusted environments such as guest Wi-Fi zones.

Performing URL filtering and content filtering by adding URLs in Bluecoat Proxy SG’s.

Managing & administering Cisco WSA.

Expert in Next Gen Firewall Techniques for traffic filtering such as URL Filtering, SSL decryption, Forward proxy, Security policies, Zones, NAT/PAT, ACL, policy-maps etc.

Configured and deployed VPC, VSS, OTV, FABRIC PATH between Nexus 7010 and Nexus5596, 5548 switches along with FEX2248.

Conducted regular upgrades and maintenance of Infrastructure, installing, configuring, and maintaining various network devices including Cisco Switches, Routers, Juniper Routers, Firewalls, Nexus switches, F5 BIG-IP, Palo Alto Firewalls, Zscaler Proxy, and Versa SD-WAN appliances.

Performing network monitoring, providing analysis using various tools like Wireshark, Riverbed and Solarwinds.

Implemented error handling techniques to mitigate packet loss and improve UDP reliability.

Optimized UDP traffic for real-time applications such as streaming and gaming.

Deep understanding of IDS/IPS such as Sourcefire and Foresight.

Implementing Security Solutions in Juniper SRX and Netscreen SSG firewalls by using NSM.

Working on the network team to re-route BGP routes during maintenance and FW upgrades.

Cisco ASA security appliances including Sourcefire, Fire POWER services and Fire Sight Management Console.

Implemented configuration back-ups using WinSCP and Cyberfusion to automate the back-up systems with the help of public and private keys.

Follow information security policies, methods, standards, NIST standards, and practices to organize information systems, IT reference material, and interpret regulations.

Monitor Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) console for active alerts and determines priority of response.

Environment: Cisco ASA 5580/5540/5520, Checkpoint R70, R75, R77.20 Gaia, Palo Alto PA-5000/3000, F5 BIG-IP LTM/GTM, Solarwinds, Nexus Switches, TCP/IP, VPN, Cisco Sourcefire, Splunk, Bluecoat Proxy Servers, IDS/IPS, SIEM Monitoring.

Client: United Health Group Inc - Minneapolis, MN Oct 2020– Aug 2022

Role: Network Engineer

Responsibilities:

Conducted a POC on Versa and Viptela SD-WAN solutions and evaluated their performance.

Worked on SD-WAN technologies, including Viptela, Meraki, VeloCloud, and Silver Peak.

Migrated Nexus 7Ks, Nexus 5Ks to an ACI Fabric consisting of 9336PQ Spines, 9332PQ Leafs in the Data Center.

Regular upgrade and maintenance of infrastructure, including installing, configuring, and maintaining Cisco Switches (2960, 3500, 7600, 3750, 3850, 6500 series), Cisco Routers (4800, ASR 9K, 800), Juniper Routers and Firewalls, Nexus 7K, 5K & 2K, F5 BIG-IP, Palo Alto Firewalls, Zscaler Proxy, and Versa SD-WAN appliances.

Spearheaded deployment of Cisco ISE solutions for network access control and security policy enforcement.

Integrated Cisco ISE with switches, routers, firewalls, and authentication servers.

Expertise in deploying and maintaining Cisco Nexus 9000 series switches in ACI mode, enhancing network automation and security.

Worked on network improvements involving BGP, EIGRP, OSPF, IP metric tweaking, and load balancing.

Experience in F5, Cisco ACE 4710 Load balancers, and migration from ACE to F5 and NetScaler to F5.

Worked on critical applications involving Layer 4 and Layer 7 load balancing.

Played a key role in planning and executing a network infrastructure refresh, including deploying Catalyst 9400 switches.

Troubleshooting SD-WAN queries through router-based SD-WAN technologies.

Utilized FortiAnalyzer real-time alerting features for security incident detection and response.

Deployed and managed Aruba and Extreme switching equipment to optimize network performance.

Integrated ClearPass for network access control (NAC) and policy management.

Configured complex Cisco ISE policy sets to balance security and user experience.

Deployed FortiAuthenticator for centralized authentication, integrating with LDAP, RADIUS, and Active Directory.

Migrated ASA firewalls to Palo Alto Next-Gen using the migration tool, including all IPSEC tunnels, ACLs, NAT rules, and policies.

Implemented reflexive ACLs on Cisco ASA 5500-X Series firewalls to enhance security and prevent unauthorized access.

Implemented QoS policies, Policy Maps, ACI, Class-maps, and Policy Routing across network infrastructure.

Configured and performed software upgrades on Cisco Wireless LAN Controllers 5508 and 8500 for Wireless Network Access Control with Cisco ISE.

Administered and maintained Cisco Catalyst 9400 switches in a mixed-vendor environment.

Configured and implemented Check Point Firewalls, IDS/IPS, Bluecoat Proxy, and Cisco ASA.

Deployed Cisco and Aruba wireless 802.1X infrastructure across the enterprise network.

Configured and managed Cisco Routers, Switches, Nexus Switches, Juniper & Palo Alto Firewalls, F5 Big-IP Load Balancers, Blue Coat Proxies, and Riverbed WAN Optimizers.

Integrated Riverbed and Silver Peak solutions into the network infrastructure for performance, scalability, and reliability improvements.

Proficient in Palo Alto Next-Generation Firewalls, Bluecoat Web Proxy, HP ArcSight, Splunk Enterprise, Wireshark, and FireEye.

Deployed Kubernetes Ingress Controllers like NGINX and Traefik for external service access, load balancing, SSL termination, and routing.

Implemented A10 Thunder TPS for DDoS protection, utilizing advanced threat detection and mitigation technologies.

Configured high availability (HA) and redundancy features on AireOS controllers for mission-critical wireless operations.

Implemented MPLS and BGP for Layer 3 routing.

Managed and configured wireless networks using Cisco Meraki and Aruba solutions

Environment: SD-WAN (Viptela, Meraki, VeloCloud, Silver Peak, Versa), Cisco Nexus 9K, 7K, 5K, 2K, Cisco Catalyst Switches (6500, 4500, 2950, 9400), Cisco ACI, Cisco WSA Proxy IronPort, Routing Protocols (OSPF, BGP, EIGRP), STP, VTP, VLAN, VPN, MPLS, HSRP, GLBP, F5 BIG-IP Load Balancer, Check Point Firewalls, Cisco ASA, Palo Alto Firewalls, Juniper Firewalls & Routers, Zscaler Proxy, Bluecoat Proxy, Riverbed WAN Optimizers, Aruba & Extreme Switching, ClearPass NAC, Cisco ISE, FortiAuthenticator, Kubernetes (NGINX, Traefik Ingress Controllers), A10 Thunder TPS, AireOS Controllers, Wireshark, FireEye, HP ArcSight, Splunk Enterprise, MS Visio, Cisco Works

Zensar Technologies, India Jan 2015 – Sep 2020

Role: Network Engineer

Responsibilities:

Installation and configuration of Cisco Routers 3600, 3900, 7200 and Switches 3550, 3560, 3560E, 3750, 4500, 4900, 6500, Nexus 2K, 5K, 7K for VLANs, Routing Protocols (OSPF, BGP), VPNs, etc.

Implemented Cisco ACS for wired and wireless user authentication utilizing certificates and MAB for all known company assets.

Well-versed with SDN and network function virtualization (NFV) technologies like Cisco ACI.

Installed WAN and LAN access for internet and intranet access.

Implemented route redistribution between OSPF and EIGRP.

Provided WAN/LAN Cisco router/switch configuration, implementation, and support for internal customer tickets involving BGP, OSPF, and EIGRP.

Implement and modify DNS entries and manage IP Addresses using Windows DNS and DHCP.

Experience configuring and troubleshooting Citrix NetScaler Load Balancer.

Configured VoIP systems for quality of service (QoS), ensuring high-quality voice transmission over IP networks.

Configured and managed Cisco Wireless Access Points and Wireless LAN controllers for wireless networks.

Managed Network Services for campus such as DNS and DHCP.

Experience with managing VLANs, assigning subnets to VLANs, assigning IP addresses, and updating web DNS entries.

Experience with ASA firewall upgrades to 9.x.

Configuring and deploying Cisco ASA 5505; Cisco 594/294; I500 web sense manager at customer locations with minimal downtime.

Configured and resolved various OSPF issues in an OSPF multi-area environment.

Network migration from RIP to OSPF.

Configure and troubleshoot Cisco ISR and ASR routers (1Ks, 9Ks), Cisco VSS/VPC, Fabric Path, OTV, and VPLS technologies.

Configured and installed Cisco VPN 3060 Concentrator for establishing VPN tunnels with Cisco VPN clients (hardware and software) and PIX firewalls.

Responsible for Configuring SITE-TO-SITE VPN on Cisco routers between headquarters and branch locations.

Troubleshoot DNS, DHCP, and IP conflict issues impacting VPN connectivity using debug commands on PIX/ASA firewalls and VPN Concentrators, as well as Wireshark packet capture analysis.

Configured and maintained network devices remotely using Telnet and SSH protocols.

Key contributions include troubleshooting complex LAN/WAN infrastructure.

Creating private VLANs, preventing VLAN hopping attacks, and mitigating spoofing with snooping & IP source guard

Environment: Tcpdump, Wireshark, VMware, VoIP / SIP IMS and H323, ASA Firewall, DHCP, DNS, ACL, PHP, MySQL, Load Balancing, Routing Protocols, VLAN, Frame Relay, Trunking, VoIP, NAT, PAT, TCP/IP, Security, Vulnerability, TACACS, RADIUS, EIGRP, RIP, OSPF, BGP, VPN, MPLS, EtherChannels, STP, RSTP, HSRP, VRRP, GLBP, Nexus 2K, 5K, 7K, Cisco ACS, SDN, NFV, Cisco ACI, Cisco ISR and ASR (1Ks, 9Ks), VSS/VPC, FabricPath, OTV, VPLS, Wireless LAN Controllers, Cisco ASA 5505, PIX Firewalls, Cisco VPN 3060 Concentrator, Citrix NetScaler Load Balancer.

EDUCATION DETAILS

Master’s in computer science from the University of Central Missouri.

Bachelor’s in computer science from JNTU

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