ICON is a global healthcare intelligence and clinical research organisation united by a mission to bring new medicines and treatments to patients faster.
As a values-driven organisation, integrity, collaboration, agility, and inclusion are at the heart of how we work and interact with each other, customers, patients and suppliers.
Principal Engineer II
Location: Chennai (Hybrid Role)
The Level 3 Senior Network Engineer serves as the highest technical escalation point within the Global Network Operations team. This role is responsible for providing technical leadership, resolving complex network issues, supporting global infrastructure projects, and ensuring the stability, security, and availability of the enterprise network.
The ideal candidate should have 10+ years of hands-on enterprise networking experience, with strong expertise in Cisco ACI, Fortinet Firewalls, NetScaler/F5 Load Balancers, SD-WAN technologies (preferably CATO), enterprise routing and switching, and cloud networking. The role requires a strong balance of technical expertise, operational excellence, and project delivery within a global enterprise environment.
Key Responsibilities
1. Technical Leadership & Escalation
- Act as the highest technical escalation point for critical network incidents and complex infrastructure issues.
- Lead troubleshooting across multi-vendor enterprise network environments.
- Perform root cause analysis (RCA) for major incidents and implement permanent corrective actions.
- Provide technical guidance and mentorship to Level 1 and Level 2 engineers.
- Participate in Major Incident Management (MIM) calls and lead technical recovery efforts.
2. Network Operations
- Ensure the availability, stability, and performance of the global network infrastructure.
- Support BAU operations involving routing, switching, firewalls, SD-WAN, load balancers, VPNs, DNS, and cloud networking.
- Identify recurring operational issues and implement proactive improvements to reduce incidents.
- Perform advanced troubleshooting across on-premises and cloud network environments.
3. Infrastructure & Project Delivery
- Lead network implementation activities for global infrastructure projects.
- Design, review, and implement network solutions in accordance with enterprise standards.
- Support datacenter migrations, office deployments, cloud connectivity, and technology refresh initiatives.
- Review implementation plans and provide technical approval for high-risk network changes.
- Support mergers, acquisitions, and global expansion initiatives from a networking perspective.
4. Enterprise Network Technologies
Provide technical ownership, administration, and support for:
- Cisco Core Networking (including ACI)
- Cisco Meraki and Cisco ISE
- Fortinet Firewalls
- NetScaler/F5 Load Balancers
- SASE platforms (CATO preferred)
- BGP, OSPF, and enterprise routing
- Network segmentation and micro-segmentation
- Azure and AWS networking
- Ability to automate Network tasks using scripts such as Ansible, Python, Power shell
- Network performance analysis and packet capture (Wireshark/TCPDump)
- Network monitoring platforms such as ThousandEyes, SolarWinds, Site24x7, or equivalent
5. Security & Compliance
- Ensure network infrastructure complies with enterprise security standards and industry best practices.
- Review and approve firewall policies, NAT rules, VPN configurations, and network segmentation.
- Support vulnerability remediation activities and security audits.
- Work closely with Cyber Security teams during incident investigations.
- Implement secure network designs for new business requirements.
Skills & Qualifications
Experience
- Minimum 8-10+ years of networking experience.
- Strong experience supporting large-scale global network environments.
- Experience working in 24x7 operations supporting mission-critical infrastructure.
- Proven experience leading major incident resolution and infrastructure projects.
Soft Skills
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
- Ability to lead technical discussions and major incident calls.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Ability to manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced global environment.
- Strong documentation and presentation skills.
- Self-motivated with the ability to work independently and mentor junior engineers.
Preferred Certifications
- CCNP Enterprise or CCIE
- Fortinet NSE 7/NSE 8 or FCSS Network Security
- Citrix NetScaler Certification
- CATO Certified Professional
- AWS or Azure Networking Certification
- ITIL Foundation
Any two of the above certifications will be considered an advantage.
Employment with ICON is contingent upon having the legal right to work in the country where the role is based.
Rewards & Benefits
ICON offers a competitive and comprehensive total rewards package designed to support your health, wellbeing, and career development.
Benefits may include:
- Competitive base salary and performance related incentives
- Health and wellbeing programmes including medical, dental, and vision coverage where applicable
- Retirement and pension plans
- Life assurance and disability coverage
- Employee assistance programmes and wellbeing resources
- Learning and development opportunities through structured training and career pathways
Benefits may vary depending on role and location.
Visit our careers site to read more about the benefits ICON offers.
Inclusion and Accessibility
ICON is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building an inclusive and accessible workplace where everyone feels valued and supported.
If you require reasonable accommodations during the recruitment process, please let us know or submit a request here.
Are you a current ICON Employee? Please click here to apply
Skills Required
- 10+ years hands-on enterprise networking experience
- Expertise with Cisco core networking including Cisco ACI
- Experience with Fortinet firewalls
- Experience with NetScaler or F5 load balancers
- Experience with SD-WAN technologies (CATO preferred) and SASE platforms
- Strong knowledge of BGP, OSPF, and enterprise routing and switching
- Azure and AWS networking experience
- Ability to automate network tasks using Ansible, Python, or PowerShell
- Network performance analysis and packet capture experience (Wireshark/TCPDump)
- Experience with network monitoring platforms (ThousandEyes, SolarWinds, Site24x7 or equivalent)
- Proven experience in 24x7 operations, major incident management, and RCA for critical incidents
- Experience supporting large-scale global network implementations, datacenter migrations, and cloud connectivity projects
- Strong analytical, communication, stakeholder management, and mentorship skills
- Preferred certifications: CCNP/CCIE, Fortinet NSE7/NSE8 or FCSS, Citrix NetScaler, CATO Certified, AWS/Azure Networking, ITIL Foundation (any two preferred)
- Legal right to work in the country where the role is based
ICON plc Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about ICON plc and has not been reviewed or approved by ICON plc.
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Healthcare Strength — Benefits are described as comprehensive, with medical coverage and wellness initiatives highlighted. Larger sites are also associated with added wellness supports such as onsite fitness options and access to an employee assistance program.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Time-off and flexibility provisions are positioned as a meaningful part of the total package, including vacation/annual leave and flexible work scheduling. Flexibility is sometimes cited as helping offset long hours in certain roles.
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Retirement Support — Retirement and savings support is presented as a core component of the benefits package, including offerings such as pension arrangements in some locations and a U.S. 401(k) plan with company match. Financial planning resources are also emphasized as part of broader security benefits.
ICON plc Insights
What We Do
Since our foundation in Dublin, Ireland in 1990, our mission has been to help our clients to accelerate the development of drugs and devices that save lives and improve quality of life. We do this by delivering best in class information, solutions and performance, with an unyielding focus on quality at all times. We offer a full range of consulting, development and commercialisation services from a global network of offices in 53 countries. We focus our innovation on the factors that are critical to our clients – reducing time to market, reducing cost, and increasing quality – and our global team of experts has extensive experience in a broad range of therapeutic areas.
