Senior Network Engineer

**About Hood Container Corporation** Hood Container Corporation is a family-owned, mill-to-market company specializing in containerboard and kraft paper, corrugated boxes, high-graphic displays, and contract packaging. Over the last eight years, Hood Container has grown to become one of the top ten paper and packaging companies in the United States, operating multiple manufacturing plants and converting facilities across our geographic footprint. **Position Summary** The Senior Network Engineer is responsible for designing, building, and maintaining a secure, scalable network infrastructure that supports Hood Container's manufacturing operations and business objectives across all company locations. This is a hands-on technical role that combines network architecture and daily operations with a strong security focus. You will own the reliability and performance of our network from the front office to the plant floor, lead infrastructure projects such as SD-WAN deployments and network segmentation and serve as the subject-matter expert for routing, switching, wireless, and security. Reporting to the Manager of IT Security, you will collaborate with cross-functional teams, including plant operations, IT, and cybersecurity, to ensure our infrastructure meets operational needs, security standards, and compliance requirements. **Key Responsibilities** **Network Design and Implementation** - Design and implement secure network solutions, including RADIUS, SASE, VPNs, intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS), and secure access points across all Hood Container locations. - Lead the design, configuration, and deployment of SD-WAN solutions across multiple manufacturing sites, assessing current infrastructure and recommending solutions that meet both business and technical requirements. - Develop, maintain, and enforce network security policies and procedures. Configure and manage network security devices to protect against unauthorized access, data leaks, and cyber-attacks. - Optimize network configurations to ensure high availability, redundancy, and performance appropriate for manufacturing environments where downtime directly impacts production. **Monitoring, Maintenance, and Incident Response** - Collaborate with the Security Team to monitor network performance and security using EDR, NDR, and SIEM tools. Proactively identify issues before they impact production or business operations. - Maintain patching and update schedules for all network devices to mitigate vulnerabilities across the environment. - Conduct vulnerability assessments and penetration testing to identify and remediate security risks. - Investigate and respond to security incidents, breaches, and cyber threats. Develop and maintain incident response plans, and work closely with the cybersecurity team to prevent recurrence. **Multi-Site Operations and IT/OT Support** - Support network infrastructure across multiple manufacturing plants, ensuring consistent standards, configurations, and security posture at every site. - Travel to plant locations as needed (up to 35%) for deployments, troubleshooting, and infrastructure assessments. - Collaborate with plant operations and OT teams to support plant-floor network connectivity, ensuring appropriate segmentation between IT and operational technology (OT) environments. - Serve as a technical resource and business partner for plant managers and stakeholders, translating network and security needs into solutions that support manufacturing operations. **Collaboration, Training, and Documentation** - Collaborate with IT and cybersecurity teams to continuously improve the organization's overall network security posture. - Provide mentoring and technical guidance to junior network engineers and IT staff on network security best practices. - Maintain comprehensive, up-to-date documentation of network configurations, topology, security policies, and procedures. - Generate regular reports on network security status, inciden…