About CORE
Core Network Solutions Inc. is a Canadian managed IT services and network infrastructure company with more than 23 years of operation, serving over 150 clients across Western Canada from our head office in St. Albert, Alberta and our regional office in Prince George, British Columbia. We design, deploy and manage network, security and infrastructure environments for municipalities, health authorities and private-sector organizations - clients who expect their infrastructure to simply work, and who count on us when it doesn’t.
Position Summary
We are looking for a Tier 2 Infrastructure & Network Engineer to take a lead role in the design, deployment and ongoing operation of client network, virtualization and security environments. This is a hands-on senior role: you will own project delivery from design through cutover, act as the top escalation point for complex technical issues, and travel to client sites across Western Canada to deliver network implementations.
The successful candidate is a broad, senior generalist - strong in enterprise networking, comfortable at a Linux command line, fluent in containerized and virtualized workloads, and confident configuring next-generation firewalls and web application firewalls.
Key Responsibilities:
Network Implementation & Engineering
- Design, configure and deploy enterprise LAN, WAN, SD-WAN and wireless environments for client sites, including switching, routing, VLAN architecture and QoS.
- Lead network implementation projects end to end: requirements gathering, design documentation, bill of materials, staging and configuration, on-site installation, cutover and post-deployment validation.
- Configure and maintain routing and switching platforms across CORE’s core vendor lines, including Fortinet, Juniper, HPE, Arista and Check Point.
- Plan and execute network migrations and refreshes with minimal client disruption, including after-hours cutover windows.
- Implement and troubleshoot site-to-site and remote access VPN, including IPsec, IKEv2 and SSL VPN.
- Produce and maintain accurate network documentation: topology diagrams, IP schemas, configuration standards and as-built records.
Linux Administration
- Deploy, harden, patch and administer Linux servers (Debian/Ubuntu and RHEL-family) in client and internal environments.
- Manage core Linux services including DNS, DHCP, NTP, SSH, web and reverse-proxy services, certificate management and log forwarding.
- Write and maintain shell scripts and lightweight automation to standardize repetitive administrative tasks.
- Perform Linux-level performance analysis and root cause investigation using standard diagnostic tooling.
- Apply security hardening baselines, manage user and privilege models, and support client audit and compliance requirements.
Container & Docker Administration
- Deploy, configure and maintain Docker hosts and containerized workloads supporting client and internal services.
- Build and maintain container images, Docker Compose stacks, persistent storage and container networking.
- Monitor container health, resource consumption and logging; manage lifecycle, updates and image hygiene.
- Apply container security practices including image provenance, least-privilege runtime configuration and registry management.
Cybersecurity - NGFW and WAF
- Deploy, configure and manage next-generation firewalls, including policy design, application control, IPS/IDS, URL filtering, TLS inspection and threat prevention profiles.
- Deploy and tune web application firewalls, including rule sets, policy exceptions, false-positive tuning and protection of published client applications.
- Implement network segmentation and zero-trust-aligned access policies across client environments.
- Support CORE’s CNSsecure security offerings and integrate deployed controls with client monitoring and reporting.
- Investigate security events, analyze firewall and system logs, and produce clear post-incident findings for clients.
- Stay current with emerging threats, vendor advisories and firmware and security patching cycles across managed platforms.
Hypervisor Deployment & Management
- Design, deploy and manage virtualization platforms including Proxmox VE, Microsoft Hyper-V and Morpheus.
- Build and maintain clustered hypervisor environments including shared storage, high availability and live migration.
- Manage virtual machine lifecycle: provisioning, templating, resource allocation, snapshots and capacity planning.
- Configure virtual networking, distributed switching and hypervisor-level segmentation.
- Integrate virtualization platforms with backup and recovery tooling, and regularly validate restore capability.
- Perform hypervisor upgrades, patching and migrations between platforms.
Project Travel & On-Site Delivery
- Travel to client sites across Alberta, British Columbia and Western Canada to deliver network and infrastructure implementations - approximately 25% of working time, typically in multi-day blocks scheduled in advance.
- Perform physical installation work: rack and stack, structured cabling termination and dressing, device mounting, labelling and equipment decommissioning.
Troubleshooting & Analysis
- Serve as the senior escalation point for complex, cross-domain issues spanning network, server, virtualization and security layers.
- Apply a structured diagnostic method - reproduce, isolate the fault domain, test hypotheses, confirm root cause, remediate - rather than trial-and-error changes.
- Use packet capture and protocol analysis, log correlation and performance monitoring tooling to resolve issues others could not.
- Document root cause analyses and feed findings back into standards, monitoring and preventative maintenance.
- Mentor intermediate and junior technical staff in diagnostic technique and escalation discipline.
Client Service & Managed Services Delivery
- Meet service level commitments and communicate proactively when timelines or scope change.
- Communicate directly with client technical and non-technical stakeholders
- Maintain client documentation to CORE standards
- Contribute to scoping, estimating and technical review of proposals and statements of work.
- Participate in the on-call rotation and after-hours maintenance windows as scheduled.
QualificationsRequired
- 6–10+ years of progressive experience in network and infrastructure engineering, ideally including time with a managed services provider, VAR or multi-client consulting firm.
- Demonstrated experience leading network implementation projects end to end, on client sites.
- Strong hands-on enterprise routing and switching expertise, including VLANs, spanning tree, dynamic routing protocols and WAN/SD-WAN technologies.
- Solid Linux administration skills at the command line, including services, scripting, hardening and diagnostics.
- Practical Docker and container administration experience in a production context.
- Hands-on next-generation firewall experience - policy design, threat prevention, VPN and troubleshooting - plus working knowledge of web application firewalls.
- Hypervisor deployment and management experience with at least two of Proxmox VE, Hyper-V or Morpheus, and the capacity to become proficient in all three.
- Excellent troubleshooting and analytical ability across multiple technology layers.
- Strong written and verbal communication in English, including client-facing documentation.
- Valid Class 5 driver’s licence and a reliable vehicle for local and regional travel.
- Ability to pass criminal record and security clearance checks required by public-sector and health-sector clients.
- Legally entitled to work in Canada.
Preferred
- Experience serving Canadian public-sector or health-sector clients (municipal, county, health authority).
- Familiarity with CORE’s primary vendor lines: Check Point, Fortinet, Juniper, HPE, Arista, Lenovo and Microsoft.
- Backup and disaster recovery experience, particularly where Canadian data residency is required.
- Infrastructure-as-code, configuration management or CI/CD exposure (Ansible, Terraform, Git-based workflows).
- Monitoring and observability tooling experience.
- Microsoft 365 and Entra ID / Active Directory administration.
- Experience mentoring or leading a small technical team.
Certifications
Certifications are valued, but demonstrated capability matters more. Any of the following are considered assets, and CORE supports certification pursuit for the right candidate.
• Security: Check Point CCSA / CCSE, Fortinet NSE 4–7, CompTIA Security+, SSCP
• Networking: Juniper JNCIA / JNCIS, JNCIP, JNCIE,Cisco CCNA / CCNP, CCIE, HPE Aruba ACSA / ACSP
• Linux: LPIC-1 / LPIC-2, Red Hat RHCSA / RHCE, CompTIA Linux+
• Virtualization: Proxmox VE certification, Microsoft AZ-800 / AZ-801, VMware VCP
• Containers: Docker Certified Associate, Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
Working Conditions
- Based at CORE’s head office (St. Albert, AB), with a mix of office, client-site and remote work.
- Approximately 25% travel, primarily within Alberta and British Columbia, including occasional overnight and multi-day trips to rural and remote client sites. Travel is scheduled in advance wherever possible.
- Scheduled after-hours and weekend maintenance windows are a normal part of infrastructure cutover work.
- Participation in an on-call rotation.
- Physical requirements include lifting and positioning equipment up to approximately 50 lbs, working in server rooms and equipment closets.
Core Network Solutions Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and are committed to providing accommodation for applicants with disabilities throughout the recruitment process - please let us know if you require accommodation.
