Senior Network Engineer - Data Center & Cloud Networking

SHAHID ZEESHAN MOHAMMED

Senior Network Engineer Data Center Networking Cloud & Hybrid Infrastructure

*********************.**@*****.*** 316-***-****

PROFESSIONAL SUMMARY

Senior Network Engineer with 8+ years of experience designing, deploying, validating, securing, and troubleshooting enterprise, data center, cloud, and telecom network environments. Strong hands-on expertise with Arista EOS/CloudVision, Cisco Nexus/Catalyst/ASR, Juniper, Palo Alto, Fortinet, GCP, AWS, routing and switching, SD-WAN, firewalls, wireless, and network automation. Experienced in lab validation, production support, platform testing, hybrid cloud connectivity, and high-availability network operations.

CORE TECHNICAL SKILLS

SD-Access / Campus Fabric

Cisco DNA Center (DNAC), SD-Access Fabric Borders/Edges/Control Plane, Cisco ISE (802.1x, Profiling, Policy), Micro-segmentation, VRF-Lite, SGT/TrustSec, LISP, VXLAN Overlay

Routing & Switching

BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, ISIS, MPLS, EVPN, VxLAN, VRF, VLANs, STP, EtherChannel, vPC/MLAG, HSRP, VRRP, VARP, ECMP, DLB, CLB, QoS, NAT, ACLs, uRPF, Route Redistribution, Subnetting, Traffic Engineering Concepts

IPv4/IPv6

Dual-stack design, phased IPv4-to-IPv6 migration, IPv6 addressing/subnetting, OSPFv3, BGP for IPv6, prefix management, transition planning

Deployment Documentation

Low-Level Designs (LLDs), Method of Procedure (MOP) documents, deployment runbooks, rollback procedures, pre/post-cutover validation checklists, change management

Data Center

Arista 720XP/722XPM/7050/7060/7300, Arista CloudVision (CVP/CVX), Cisco Nexus 9K/7K/5K/3K/2K, Cisco ACI, Spine-Leaf, FEX, FabricPath, OTV, DWDM, Dark Fiber

Network Security

Palo Alto, Cisco ASA, Fortinet, IPsec/SSL VPN, Firewall Policies, ACLs, RADIUS, RSA SecureID, LDAP, 802.1x, IDS/IPS, Network Segmentation

Cloud & Hybrid

GCP VPC, Cloud VPN, Interconnect, VPC Peering, Load Balancers, AWS VPN, Direct Connect, OpenStack, IAM-based Access Design

Automation & DevOps

Python, Ansible, Terraform, Shell, Perl, Helm, Kubernetes, Docker, CI/CD, VNF/CNF Lifecycle Operations

Monitoring & Analysis

Wireshark, tcpdump, SolarWinds Orion, PRTG, NetScout, LogicMonitor, SNMP, ICMP, Packet & Log Analysis, TAC Escalation

Wireless

Ekahau Pro/Sidekick, AirMagnet, Cisco/Aruba WLAN, WLCs, RF Analysis, Heatmaps, AP Placement, Active/Passive Surveys

Telecom / 4G/5G Core

AMF, SMF, UPF, PCF, NRF, AUSF, UDM, HLR, HSS, SDL, NDS, LDAP, IMS Tracing, FCAPS, ETSI-MANO, OSS/BSS

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Sr. Network Engineer Jun 2024 – Present

Arista Networks Austin, TX

•Led end-to-end network deployment planning for large-scale campus and data center fabric environments, translating High-Level Designs (HLDs) into deployment-ready Low-Level Designs (LLDs) and authoring step-by-step runbooks for field engineers.

•Designed and validated Cisco SD-Access fabric architectures including fabric border and edge node configuration, underlay/overlay routing, and LISP/VXLAN-based control and data planes; used Cisco DNA Center (DNAC) for centralized policy provisioning and network assurance.

•Configured and maintained Cisco ISE for 802.1x network access control, device profiling, TrustSec SGT policy enforcement, and micro-segmentation — core components of SD-Access fabric policy design.

•Developed and maintained standardized configuration templates for SD-Access underlay/overlay routing, VRF-based segmentation, QoS, and application-aware routing; validated route redistribution and failover behaviors across fabric deployments.

•Authored detailed MOP documents and pre/post-cutover validation checklists for campus fabric migrations and WAN circuit cutovers; created rollback procedures aligned with enterprise change management processes.

•Led phased dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 migration planning for campus environments, defining addressing schemes, OSPFv3/BGP-for-IPv6 configurations, and transition validation criteria.

•Automated network provisioning and configuration management using Terraform and Ansible; developed Python scripts for hardware validation and zero-touch provisioning workflows.

•Worked on Arista CloudVision Portal (CVP/CVX) for centralized network management, telemetry, and config baseline management across Broadcom StrataXGS-based switching platforms (720XP/722XPM, 7050, 7060, 7300 series).

•Supported SD-WAN deployments including DMVPN/WAN and MPLS-to-BGP circuit migrations; researched and documented vendor solutions and architecture diagrams.

•Conducted RF site surveys using Ekahau Sidekick/Pro; delivered heatmaps, AP placement maps, and HIPAA-compliant remediation plans for healthcare campus environments.

•Monitored cloud and on-prem networks using GCP Cloud Operations Suite and SolarWinds Orion; configured PRTG with SNMP/ICMP alerting for proactive issue detection.

Network Engineer Jan 2022 – May 2024

Spectrum Overland Park, KS

•Deployed, configured, and integrated 4G/5G Core network functions (UDM, HLR, HSS, NRF, AUSF, SDL, NDS, LDAP) ensuring seamless authentication and identity management.

•Defined and executed test cases for 5G Core NFs; ensured ETSI-MANO compliance and FCAPS monitoring; led lab readiness, deployments, and upgrades.

•Orchestrated Kubernetes-based deployments for containerized VNF/CNF functions; performed UDM health checks to ensure platform stability and minimal downtime.

•Troubleshot 4G/5G network issues using Wireshark, IMS tracing, NetScout, and deep log analysis; collaborated with dev teams to resolve root causes and integrate new features.

•Automated network operations using Shell/Perl scripting, optimizing CI/CD pipelines and reducing manual effort.

•Managed data center environments with Nexus OTV, VXLAN, and FabricPath; configured VLANs, trunk groups, EtherChannels, Spanning Tree, and 802.1x port-based authentication.

•Supported SD-WAN MPLS deployment via Viptela vEdge devices; reviewed SD-WAN solutions in lab and authored test plans.

•Provided Cisco LAN/WAN/WLAN operational support; facilitated wireless technical support escalations and troubleshot production issues.

•Maintained SolarWinds and PRTG monitoring with SNMP trap alerting; managed LDAP servers resolving authentication failures and security risks.

•Administered RSA RADIUS, VPN infrastructure, and DISA STIG compliance; created MOPs for VPN/RSA configuration and troubleshooting.

Network Engineer Sep 2020 – Jul 2021

Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Bengaluru, India

•Planned, configured, deployed, monitored, and maintained enterprise data networks including Cisco Nexus 7K/5K/2K, ASR 1000/2000 routers, and 3750/4900 switches.

•Performed wireless site surveys using AirMagnet and LAN Planner; installed and configured wired/wireless LAN and WAN equipment.

•Deployed and maintained GCP-based hybrid network environments; configured VPC peering, IAM roles, and secure access policies for healthcare workloads.

•Used Terraform for automated provisioning of GCP networking resources; integrated GCP with 5G core network functions for secure, low-latency connectivity.

•Configured LDAP authentication for F5 LTM/APM; deployed Palo Alto firewalls and network security tools to safeguard infrastructure.

•Implemented DMVPN and AWS VPN tunnels; maintained SolarWinds Orion and PRTG network monitoring.

•Managed Cisco TAC case escalations; participated in change/maintenance windows; handled helpdesk tickets across troubleshooting, upgrades, and patching.

Network Support Engineer Mar 2018 – Aug 2020

Accenture India

•Supported enterprise network infrastructure - routers, switches, firewalls, and load balancers (Cisco, F5, Palo Alto) - across multiple data centers, corporate locations, and AWS Direct Connect environments.

•Designed and implemented enterprise network architecture using Cisco, Nexus, and AWS/GCP hybrid models; configured VPN tunnels, Direct Connect, and VPC Peering for multi-cloud connectivity.

•Managed Palo Alto and Cisco ASA firewall configurations, ACL change requests, and IAM-based access control; supported IDS/IPS operations.

•Performed wireless installations (Cisco Aironet APs, bridges) and used AirMagnet for troubleshooting, tuning, and channel rotation.

•Implemented SolarWinds and PRTG network monitoring; performed hardware upgrades, deployments, and decommissions with updated documentation.

•Assisted with infrastructure roadmaps, tracked project milestones, mitigated issues, and presented proposals to management.

Jr. Network Engineer Jul 2017 – Feb 2018

BSNL India

•Installed, configured, and maintained network infrastructure including Cisco routers, switches, and related hardware and performed software upgrades.

•Analyzed customer bandwidth requirements, built cost-effective network solutions and configured routing and load balancing for high-availability services.

•Administered firewalls (Palo Alto), VPNs, Active Directory, IIS, and Windows Server; resolved hardware and configuration incidents.

•Assisted in network automation using Ansible and Terraform; supported GCP and AWS Direct Connect integrations for client networks.

•Participated in risk assessments and compliance evaluations; issued design documentation and coordinated project proposals.

Software Engineer Jul 2016 – Jun 2017

Vodafone Group PLC

•Developed and maintained software features using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP; improved UI/UX through front-end development and database schema design.

•Assisted in deploying software releases to staging and production; maintained CI/CD pipelines and version control via Git.

•Updated software with vendor patches to mitigate vulnerabilities; provided technical support for IT problems and account maintenance.

•Tools: Toad, PowerCenter Informatica, SQL Loader, MS Office Suite, D2K.

EDUCATION

Master of Science, Computer Networking Aug 2021 – Dec 2022

Wichita State University Wichita, KS

Bachelor of Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering Sep 2013 – May 2017

Osmania University Hyderabad, India

CERTIFICATIONS

•ACE L1

•ACE L2

•ACE L3

•CCNP Security

•CCNA Routing & Switching

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