Network Operations Engineer

About the role

Share operates a global bandwidth marketplace, bringing telco infrastructure together behind a single platform so ISPs, hyperscalers, and AI companies can reach homes and businesses across Kenya and the wider continent. The underlying environment is a live production network with BGP edge connectivity to Tier 1 transit, hyperscalers, and local exchanges, plus an MPLS backbone, access and aggregation equipment, and the systems that monitor it all.

In this role, the network is the product and the NOC is where service quality is felt. A successful shift is one where partners never notice anything went wrong. Because the company is still early and the team remains small, this is not a role for someone who only escalates issues. You will need to handle real faults independently, keep the network improving during quiet hours, and contribute to automation that removes repetitive manual work.

The NOC is being built as an AI-assisted operations environment from day one. The forwarding plane runs on open source routing and forwarding software, configurations are stored in Git, and an LLM-based layer sits above live network state. When the network changes, that layer correlates telemetry, topology, and config history to suggest likely causes and possible fixes. It is designed to speed up diagnosis, not replace human judgment. You will work inside that system, challenge it when needed, and help make it smarter through the problems you catch and the automation you build.

What you will do

• Monitor network health through Zabbix, Grafana dashboards, flow telemetry, and alerting tools, and learn the difference between normal behaviour and early signs of trouble.
• Investigate alerts, verify whether they are real, narrow down the source of the issue, and separate local faults from upstream problems or monitoring noise.
• Use runbooks, Git-based configuration history, and the assistive diagnostics layer critically to resolve incidents independently wherever possible.
• Carry out proactive checks such as route propagation, RPKI and filter validation, peering and transit verification, and capacity review across the edge and PoPs.
• Look for gradual degradation that may not generate alerts, so the day team receives the network in a known-good state.
• Write scripts and automation to replace repetitive manual checks and help advance config automation using tools such as Jinja-based generation, NAPALM, NETCONF, or gNMI.
• Work the shared ticket board, move configuration changes through review and merge, and keep Nautobot accurate as the infrastructure changes.
• Prepare clear incident updates and handovers that explain what is affected, since when, whether the issue is worsening, and what has already been tried.
• Escalate appropriately by understanding what you can safely touch, what requires senior help, and when to bring others in quickly.

Who this role suits

This position is best suited to a network engineer who can run a shift without close supervision and uses quiet hours to improve the network rather than simply wait for the next issue. You do not need to be the most senior person on the team, but you should be able to solve a meaningful portion of problems on your own, communicate clearly, and know when a machine-generated suggestion should be questioned.

Must-have requirements

• Solid hands-on networking knowledge beyond entry level, including TCP/IP, routing and switching, IP addressing and subnetting, DNS, DHCP, and NAT.
• Practical troubleshooting ability for degraded links, dropped sessions, and connectivity problems, including interpreting BGP state and using ping and traceroute effectively.
• Working understanding of BGP, including communities, route policy, session flaps, leaky origins, transit, peering, and RPKI at the edge.
• Comfort using Linux, device command lines, and monitoring dashboards; MikroTik RouterOS experience is especially valuable.
• Comfort working with configuration stored in Git, including reading diffs and proposing configuration changes.
• Basic scripting ability in Bash or Python, with the willingness to expand automation skills further.
• Clear, concise written English for accurate incident notes and shift handovers.
• Calm, dependable behaviour under pressure, with a strong commitment to being alert and on time for every shift.
• Availability in New Zealand or a nearby time zone that naturally aligns with overnight coverage.

Nice-to-have experience

• CCNP or MikroTik MTCNA / MTCRE certification.
• Previous work in a NOC, ISP, or carrier operations environment.
• Hands-on exposure to MPLS, including L3VPN and EVPN, and multi-tenant backbone isolation.
• Experience with open source or white-box routing and forwarding platforms such as SONiC, IP Infusion OcNOS, or FRR.
• Experience with network source-of-truth and automation tools such as Nautobot, NAPALM, Jinja, NETCONF, or gNMI.
• Familiarity with monitoring and telemetry tools such as Zabbix, Grafana, Loki, Prometheus, or flow analysis systems.
• Working knowledge of FreeRADIUS, CoA, Disconnect flows, and session accounting/control.
• Exposure to ML or AI use cases in network operations such as anomaly detection, predictive failure analysis, or automated triage.
• IPv6, dual-stack, and internet exchange operations experience, including looking glass, route server behaviour, IRR, and RPKI hygiene.

What the company offers

• A place on a highly experienced network team with deep service-provider expertise and strong technical mentorship.
• Hands-on exposure to modern network operations built around open source forwarding, configuration as code, and LLM-assisted workflows.
• Real engineering responsibility, with quiet hours focused on automation, propagation checks, health validation, and ticket resolution.
• Competitive pay, private health and wellness benefits, and fully remote work.
• A mission-driven, investor-backed environment focused on building critical internet backbone infrastructure for Africa.
• A culture that relies on runbooks, post-mortems, and operational discipline rather than blame.