Network Architect

Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization.  We take on the biggest, most precedent-setting cases across the country.  We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people’s health; to preserve magnificent places and wildlife; to advance clean energy; and to combat climate change.   We partner with thousands of groups, individuals, and communities to engage the critical environmental issues of our time and bring about positive change. We are guided by a passionate, ambitious vision for the future for people and our planet: until justice stands for all, we will never rest. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.

Founded in 1971, Earthjustice has a distinguished track record of achieving significant, lasting environmental protections. We achieve this by hiring people who share a passion for justice and a healthy environment. Our headquarters are in San Francisco with offices in Anchorage, Juneau, Los Angeles, Chicago, Tallahassee, Honolulu, Houston, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Denver, Seattle, Bozeman, Miami and Washington, D.C.

Earthjustice is hiring a Network Architect to join the Information Technology team. The Network Architect will lead the Network Operations Team and be responsible for, design, implementation, analytics, performance management and optimization, quality control, and technical guidance in all network systems supporting efficient network operation. The Network Architect will ensure development of defined standards and best practices, and author and maintain roadmap strategy documentation. This role will report to and partner with our CIO/VP of IT and the entire IT department to help lead our network into its next phase of success by developing and scaling new and existing technologies aimed at helping securely and seamlessly connecting employees no matter where they are located.

The Network Architect will provide technical leadership and delivery in all areas of networking ranging from routing, switching, load balancing, wireless network, VoIP, VPN, MPLS, WAN strategy, IP management and addressing (i.e. DHCP, DNS, IPAM, etc.), cloud and virtual networking (Azure, Microsoft Hyper-V), and network security. This job requires extensive knowledge and experience dealing with implementation and issue resolution of Cisco infrastructure, including switch stacks, Firepower firewalls, Meraki firewalls, Meraki wireless endpoints, SD-WAN solutions, and other network systems and technologies.

This position can be located remote within the US, or hybrid from our San Francisco, CA or Washington, DC office.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Network Function and Performance (70%)

• Build, scale, deploy, and support our Earthjustice network and cloud
• Maintain the overall network architecture and roadmap.
• Architect, design and implement the next generation office and remote network for our users.
• Be a hands-on engineer with deep technical experience in networking, systems, and software.
• Drive our next generation of monitoring, alerting and automation tools to empower the teams with visibility and data to make informed decisions.
• Design, build and ensure complete application integration solutions with network technology and design.
• Define cloud architecture capabilities and ensure they are being met by the network services.
• Provide authentication strategies to ensure compliance with corporate policies and data privacy requirements.
• Operate in a rapidly evolving environment, adapt quickly to new information, and reprioritize as needed.
• Ensure network regulations, security and legal requirements are maintained across all Earthjustice locations.

Staff Management (30%)

• Provide strong, clear, and direct leadership for the Network Operations team.
• Assist in the planning of strategic initiatives and ensure organizational alignment in partnership the Director of Service Delivery, CISO and CIO/VP of IT.
• Ensure network services are defined and delivered according to our SLAs for the network and the Network Operations team, and in support of a consistently excellent customer service experience.
• Lead network architecture vision for the Network Operations team.
• Mentorship overall is expected out of this role to ensure technical teams are comprehending complex solutions and the operational impact.
• Help develop the team by encouraging strengths, coaching and providing technical mentoring.
• Contribute to the creation of a diverse, equitable and inclusive work culture that encourages and celebrates differences.
• Demonstrate an awareness and sensitivity to the needs and concerns of individuals from diverse cultures, backgrounds and orientations.
• Recruits and hires qualified candidates who fit position requirements and the work environment.
• Promotes change in terms of the expected benefits, as well as removing or lowering the impact of potential obstacles.
• Sets clear team direction that aligns with Earthjustice strategy, mission, and vision.
• Develops staff by identifying and encouraging training and professional development opportunities appropriate to role and creating development plans for all staff.
• Provides staff with consistent performance feedback – both positive and constructive -- and acts as a coach and mentor.
• Creates a learning culture, by encouraging debriefing after completion of significant stages of projects.
• Ensures that any direct reports who have supervisory responsibility are properly executing those functions.
• Creates a respectful and inclusive work environment for team and models respectful and inclusive behavior.
• Promptly addresses micro-aggressions and other concerns brought to their attention.
• Resolves interpersonal conflict among team members and brings in outside facilitators as needed.
• Communicates regularly with existing employees and encourages staff to raise concerns and to provide ongoing feedback.
• Creates or identifies strategic opportunities for team building and individual and overall staff engagement with one another in order to strengthen teamwork, interaction and collaboration.
• Values and uses individual differences and talents to improve employee satisfaction and the quality of collective work.
• Celebrates successes and helps team members to understand and manage setbacks.

Project Responsibilities:  As new projects are planned, this role will need to review the technology function being proposed and collect requirements to determine inclusion demands into the overall system architecture and interoperability, with emphasis on network connectivity and performance.   Common expectations are to present plans to the project teams and agree how to carry them out.   These projects will range in variety from expansions risk management, workforce application integrations and growth.

Operational Responsibilities: The successful candidate will have high levels of visibility when requests are made by the organization. These requests can be unplanned, urgent, and critical in nature. This position will need to provide guidance and escalation level support to ensure the organization is able to progress. General architecture services will be required in the following areas:

• Meraki VPN support and configuration management.
• Network automation and administration.
• Engagement and collaboration with legal practice managers in all of our 14 Earthjustice locations.
• Problem management for root cause analysis and remediation.
• WAN and LAN design, strategy, and architecture.

QUALIFICATIONS

Essential Education/Experience:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Management Information Systems, or comparable discipline or equivalent work experience.
• 8 – 10 years of experience in Information Technology with emphasis on the architecture, management, configuration, modification, installation, and evaluation of network systems hardware and software.
• 5 + years of management and supervisory responsibilities.
• CCNA (Switching and Routing) required.
• CCNA Security a plus.
• CCNP / CCNP Security certifications a plus.
• CMSS Meraki experience required.
• SD-WAN experience required.
• Cloud based IaaS experience is required.
• Microsoft Azure based certifications a plus.

Management (Essential Skills)

• Ability to effectively manage and lead a diverse team with emotional intelligence (self-awareness and understating of the impact of their behavior) and cultural humility (an understanding of the need for additional learning about different cultures, backgrounds and orientation and implementation of that learning daily management practices).
• Ability to give and receive regular formal and informal feedback in a timely, constructive, respectful, and consistent manner and to incorporate debriefing into the team’s operations.
• Strong team mentorship and communication skills
• Understands the individual and team strengths and areas for development and develops plans accordingly.
• Commitment to and experience in developing team skills and talents to meet the evolving needs of an organization.

Network Design and Optimization

• Passion for driving continual improvement initiatives in our network. You are able to monitor and measure the health of your service with metrics, SLA reporting, and dashboards.
• Expert knowledge of Microsoft Azure Services.
• Experience in defining and developing cutting edge technical roadmaps to meet the needs of a growing organization.
• Demonstrated track record of success in optimizing network performance and delivering high quality services, delivering an excellent end user experience, and in proactively identifying and resolving service delivery challenges.
• Demonstrated track record of close and successful collaboration with Service Delivery and customer support teams.
• Develop, document, and communicate technical implementation designs.
• Complex problem resolution skills relating to network connectivity and application inter-operability.
• Experience with engineering design of new office builds, ideally in traditional office environments, in co-working spaces, and with planned hybrid/remote work integration.

Team Relationships

• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced working environment.
• High level of professionalism, discretion, and confidentiality.
• Ability to manage performance of external service providers.
• Excellent organizational skills and solid team player.
• Network monitoring experience at tool deployment, configuration, and turn over to operations management.
• Excellent verbal, written, and communication, able to communicate to both technical and non-technical people.

Focused Technical Skills & Requirements

• Demonstrated successful technical network engineering experience including hands on deployment, configuration and management of routers, switches, firewalls, Wi-Fi and security solutions.
• Knowledge and hands-on experience working with networking protocols.
• Extensive experience with authentication/authorization and accounting for enterprise networks.
• Strong routing and switching skills.
• Advanced knowledge with an array of network services including enterprise routing, switching, load balancing, firewall, wireless network, VPN, and network security.
• Solid analytical skills to troubleshoot high level, complex technical problems.
• Able to work with little to no guidance.
• Maintain a high degree of professionalism and integrity.
• Must be able to work occasional weekends and after hours.
• Must be able to travel domestically.

We offer a mission- and employee-focused work environment and a competitive compensation package, including excellent benefits. Earthjustice is an equal opportunity employer and highly values diversity.

Compensation is based on experience and location.

Salary range in San Francisco, CA: $187,700- $208,600

**Salary range in Washington, DC: $178,400- $198,200

Remote salary (will vary by location): $159,700-$208,600**

TO APPLY

Interested applicants should submit the following via Jobvite:

• Resume
• Cover letter

Please reach out to jobs@earthjustice.org if you are having technical difficulties submitting your application. No phone calls, drop-ins, or hard copies.

Earthjustice is driven by a passion for justice, partnership and excellence. Our core values lead us to seek a broad range of perspectives and backgrounds to achieve our mission and to maintain an inclusive environment where all staff are valued and respected. As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to employment practices that ensure that employees and applicants for employment are given equal opportunities without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, religion, physical or mental disability, medical condition, veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information or any other factor that is not related to the position.

For positions located within the City and County of San Francisco: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

For positions located within the City of Los Angeles: We will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring.