Fast Facts

SMU seeks a Senior Network Engineer to join its Infrastructure group, providing advanced engineering and support for the campus's networking needs while fostering innovation in a collaborative environment.

Responsibilities: The Senior Network Engineer will support and administer networking services, lead proof-of-concept infrastructure models, configure routers and switches, and ensure the resolution of service tickets while continuously improving processes.

Skills: Candidates must possess expertise in network infrastructure, including routers, switches, wireless technologies, and problem-solving abilities, with a focus on data visualization for non-technical stakeholders.

Qualifications: A Bachelor's degree in a relevant field is required, along with a minimum of five years of experience in network operations and familiarity with various network protocols and devices.

Location: This on-campus position is located in Dallas, Texas, USA.

Compensation: Not provided by employer. Typical compensation ranges for this position are between $90,000 - $130,000.

Salary Range: 

Salary commensurate with experience and qualifications

About SMU

SMU’s more than 12,000 diverse, high-achieving students come from all 50 states and over 80 countries to take advantage of the University’s small classes, meaningful research opportunities, leadership development, community service, international study and innovative programs.

SMU serves approximately 7,000 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate students through eight degree-granting schools: Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences , Cox School of Business , Lyle School of Engineering , Meadows School of the Arts , Simmons School of Education and Human Development , Dedman School of Law , Perkins School of Theology and Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies .

SMU is data driven, and its powerful supercomputing ecosystem – paired with entrepreneurial drive – creates an unrivaled environment for the University to deliver research excellence.

Now in its second century of achievement, SMU is recognized for the ways it supports students, faculty and alumni as they become ethical, enterprising leaders in their professions and communities. SMU’s relationship with Dallas – the dynamic center of one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions – offers unique learning, research, social and career opportunities that provide a launch pad for global impact.

SMU is nonsectarian in its teaching and committed to academic freedom and open inquiry.

About the Position:

This role is an on-campus, in-person position.

Southern Methodist University seeks a highly adaptable network infrastructure engineer with an excitement to learn new skills and take on new challenges to join our Infrastructure group. The Infrastructure team provides support for the departments centralized networking and computing needs along with enterprise services they provide. This individual will perform complex and non-routine specialized infrastructure administration supporting; troubleshooting, analysis, debugging, problem-solving, & technical creativity focused on further progressing networking services at SMU.

Essential Functions:

• Working within the current telecommunications team, assisting with operational duties that support the infrastructure ecosystem at SMU. Provide advanced engineering and support services to the campus data network environment in an environment consisting of network switches, routers, wireless (802.11), DataCenters, OSPF, BGP, DNS, DHCP, VPN, logging, and NAC technology solutions. 
• Lead design and building of proof-of-concept infrastructure models to prototype networking concepts and aid in transition of those models into production use within the SMU ecosystem. Areas could include a wide range of practices associated with high-speed networking, including network and application performance, security, software defined networking, machine learning/AI, cloud services, and IoT.
• Perform advanced configuration of routers, switches (layer 2 & 3), and other network devices. Investigate, implement, and support market trends in infrastructure such as: hosted services, virtualization, software defined, infrastructure as a service, containerization, etc
• Plan, monitor, and analyze service resource utilization, trending, and capacity planning in reports to administration with solutions on forecasted issues or improvements. Interacting and negotiating with vendors, outsourcers and contractors for product evaluations, technical implementation planning, and procuring data networking-specific products and services.
• Be responsible for monitoring daily service tickets and ensuring resolution within defined SLAs. Be a task owner on assigned projects and drive tasks to completion 
• Continuously improving processes and procedures for infrastructure management.
• Other duties as assigned

SMU is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression.

Benefits:

SMU offers staff a broad, competitive array of health and related benefit s. In addition to traditional benefits such as health, dental, and vision plans, SMU offers a wide range of wellness programs to help attract, support, and retain our employees whose work continues to make SMU an outstanding education and research institution.

SMU is committed to providing an array of retirement programs that benefit and protect you and your family throughout your working years at SMU and, if you meet SMU's retirement eligibility criteria, during your retirement years after you leave SMU.

The value of learning at SMU isn't just about preparing our students for the future. Employees have access to a wide variety of professional and personal development opportunities , including tuition benefits .

Qualifications

Education and Experience:

Bachelor’s is required. Preferably a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, and Mathematics or a related discipline.

A minimum of five (5) years of experience is required. Candidate with 5+ years of technical operations experience is a plus.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Candidate must have the ability to translate technical recommendations into a visual format for presentation to non-technical stakeholders. Ability to influence through data visualization. Candidate with extensive experience with maintaining a campus or metropolitan network infrastructure is desired. Ability to solve complex problems by successive decomposition. 

Candidate must demonstrate fluency and experience with aruba wireless, network switches, routers, and firewalls. Candidate must have proficient knowledge of protocol analyzers (e.g. Wireshark) and deep understanding of networking protocols (e.g., IPSEC, HSRP, BGP, OSPF, 802.11, QoS). Also, must be able to demonstrate understanding of the OSI and TCP/IP models as well as familiarity with network monitoring applications (PRTG, Solarwinds, Nagios etc.)

Certification with Linux, Windows, or macOS (OS X) operations systems desirable.

Candidate must possess strong problem-solving skills with the ability to identify and analyze problems, as well as devise solutions. Must also have strong organizational, planning and time management skills. 

Physical and Environmental Demands:

• Sit for long periods of time

Deadline to Apply:

Open until filled.

Priority consideration may be given to those submissions received by October 13, 2025.