Network Engineer

About us

The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay), established in 1958, is one of India's premier institutions for science, engineering, and technology education and research. Recognised as an Institution of Eminence by the Ministry of Education, IIT Bombay consistently ranks among the top universities globally.

Home to world-class faculty, cutting-edge research facilities, and a vibrant academic community, IIT Bombay's Computer Centre provides the critical IT infrastructure that powers teaching, research, high-performance computing, enterprise applications, cloud services, and digital operations across the Institute. The team is responsible for designing, operating, and continuously improving one of India's leading academic technology environments.

Role Overview

The Computer Centre at IIT Bombay is seeking a Network Engineer to join its infrastructure and operations team. This is a highly hands-on technical role for an experienced network engineer who enjoys designing, implementing, troubleshooting, and continuously improving enterprise, campus, and datacentre networks. The selected candidate will play a key role in operating network infrastructure supporting teaching, research, high-performance computing (HPC), AI/ML workloads, enterprise applications, and digital operations across the Institute.

This role is not a purely managerial, coordination, or vendor-management position. We are looking for an engineer who remains deeply involved in network configuration, deployments, migrations, troubleshooting, automation, and day-to-day operational problem-solving.

Key Responsibilities

Network Engineering & Infrastructure

• Design, deploy, and maintain highly available enterprise, campus, and datacentre networks, including routing, switching, VLANs, VRFs, and segmentation.
• Configure and troubleshoot BGP, OSPF, high-availability architectures, wireless infrastructure, and network connectivity.
• Execute network deployments, migrations, upgrades, lifecycle refreshes, and infrastructure expansion, working directly with network hardware, optics, fibre, and cabling.

Network Operations & Incident Response

• Monitor network availability, reliability, performance, and capacity across production environments.
• Troubleshoot complex network incidents and lead root-cause analysis across routing, switching, WiFi, security, and transport layers.
• Maintain operational standards, including incident reports, change records, SOPs, network diagrams, and preventive measures.

Network Security & Access

• Configure and maintain firewalls, VPNs, ACLs, NAC systems, and network security controls.
• Implement network segmentation, access control, and security hardening across campus and datacentre environments.
• Collaborate with cybersecurity and infrastructure teams to identify and remediate network security risks.

Network Automation & Technical Leadership

• Develop automation for network configuration, monitoring, inventory, and operational tasks using Python/Shell, Ansible, or equivalent tools.
• Implement monitoring, telemetry, logging, and observability using SNMP, Syslog, NetFlow/sFlow, and related technologies.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to technical standards, network architecture, and long-term infrastructure planning.

Desired Experience & Skills

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Electronics, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 5–9 years of strong hands-on network engineering experience in enterprise, campus, datacentre, or similarly complex production environments.
• Strong practical expertise in advanced routing and switching, BGP, OSPF, VLANs, VRFs, high-availability architectures, network segmentation, firewalls, VPNs, and enterprise WiFi.
• Demonstrated experience personally executing complex network deployments, migrations, upgrades, troubleshooting, and performance optimisation.
• Experience with Python and/or Shell scripting, Ansible or equivalent automation tools, Git-based workflows, network monitoring, telemetry, and observability.
• Experience with Cisco, Arista, Juniper, or equivalent enterprise networking platforms is preferred.
• Experience with EVPN-VXLAN, MPLS, spine-leaf datacentre fabrics, NAC/802.1X, Zero Trust architectures, and NetBox/IPAM/DCIM systems is desirable.
• Experience supporting research, HPC, AI/ML, or large academic/campus environments is an advantage.
• Industry certifications such as CCNP, CCIE, JNCIP/JNCIE, Arista ACE, or equivalent certifications are preferred. Equivalent demonstrable hands-on expertise will also be considered.

Please note: This is a Mumbai-based, on-campus role at IIT Bombay. This is a hands-on engineering position and candidates whose experience is primarily limited to network coordination, vendor management, reporting, or people management without substantial implementation and troubleshooting exposure may not be suitable. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.