How to hire a data network specialist

How to hire a data network specialist, step by step

Here's a step-by-step data network specialist hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a data network specialist job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new data network specialist
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the data network specialist you need to hire. Certain data network specialist roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A data network specialist's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, data network specialists from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   This list shows salaries for various types of data network specialists.

   Type of Data Network Specialist	Description	Hourly rate
   Data Network Specialist	Computer networks are critical parts of almost every organization. Network and computer systems administrators are responsible for the day-to-day operation of these networks.	$25-59
   Administrator	Administrators are administrative professionals who oversee the whole office or department. They manage office activities and supervise administrative functions in the office... Show more	$22-54
   Systems Administrator	Systems administrators are employees who oversee information technology infrastructures in the office. They are skilled information technology professionals who are knowledgeable about the company's network systems and other technology-related infrastructures... Show more	$28-48

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Switches
   • Timely Maintenance
   • Business Rules
   • Network Management
   • Data Network Systems
   • VoIP
   • Network Services
   • Troubleshoot
   • Network Security
   • DHCP
   • User Accounts
   • Network Infrastructure
   • Network Environment
   • Ethernet

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Design, develop, and manage SharePoint sites on both classify and unclassify networks.
   • Maintain and manage a tactical network during military and combat operations, both in garrison and deploy.
   • Design, configure and run VMWare Vcenter servers to manage multiple ESXi host servers and optimize server resources.
   • Manage TCP/IP network, install and configure network peripherals, run DHCP clients and servers, and maintain WNS and DNS.
   • Ensure business continuity by managing and monitoring all infrastructure backups, and notifying business partners of fail backup jobs.
   • Assist customers, if necessary, with proper configuration of network devices to support VOIP implementation.

   More data network specialist duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your data network specialist job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. A data network specialist can vary based on:

   • Location. For example, data network specialists' average salary in florida is 39% less than in new hampshire.
   • Seniority. Entry-level data network specialists 56% less than senior-level data network specialists.
   • Certifications. A data network specialist with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in a data network specialist's salary.

   Average data network specialist salary

   $81,950yearly

   $39.40 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level data network specialist salary

   $54,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 21, 2025

   Average data network specialist salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	Washington	$92,526	$44
   2	New York	$87,996	$42
   3	Nevada	$82,877	$40
   4	Delaware	$81,034	$39
   5	Massachusetts	$79,788	$38
   6	Oregon	$78,856	$38
   7	Connecticut	$77,936	$37
   8	Indiana	$76,240	$37
   9	Colorado	$75,933	$37
   10	California	$75,599	$36
   11	Maryland	$75,487	$36
   12	Virginia	$74,543	$36
   13	New Jersey	$74,479	$36
   14	Texas	$74,305	$36
   15	Ohio	$73,231	$35
   16	Arizona	$72,677	$35
   17	Pennsylvania	$72,475	$35
   18	Utah	$71,186	$34
   19	North Carolina	$71,047	$34
   20	West Virginia	$70,875	$34

   Average data network specialist salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	JPMorgan Chase & Co.	$107,241	$51.56	139
   2	DXC Technology	$94,505	$45.44	6
   3	Banner Health	$81,993	$39.42	1
   4	Central State University	$66,779	$32.11
   5	Washington State University	$62,934	$30.26	1
   6	Eagle Academy Public Charter School	$62,358	$29.98

4. Writing a data network specialist job description

   A job description for a data network specialist role includes a summary of the job's main responsibilities, required skills, and preferred background experience. Including a salary range can also go a long way in attracting more candidates to apply, and showing the first name of the hiring manager can also make applicants more comfortable. As an example, here's a data network specialist job description:

   Data network specialist job description example

   Job DescriptionResponsibilities:
   i. Adhering to SLAs
   ii. Mentoring / Training Team Members
   iii. Handling tickets / requests
   iv. Perform root cause analysis
   v. Troubleshooting technical issues
   vi. Defining processes and ensuring that the processes are adhered to
   vii. Oversees and is responsible for successful completion of
   Installation, configuration and migration
   viii. Ensure maximum uptime according to the SLA
   ix. Understanding of Multi-geo support environment
   x. Responsible for building / maintaining a test environment
   xi. Improves and maintains customer and employee satisfaction
   xii. Suggests new technologies and design changes
   xiii. Monitoring and maintaining SLA requirements by the team members
   xiv. Testing / Auditing/processes as required from time to time
   xv. Identify Skill gaps and plan for training / knowledge updating
   
   Technology Knowledge:
   
   i. Router - Cisco, Avaya (Extreme), Juniper
   ii. Switch – Cisco and Avaya (Extreme), Juniper
   iii. WLAN Access Points – Cisco and Aruba
   iv. Firewalls – Cisco, Juniper and Fortinet
   v. WLAN Appliance – Cisco and Aruba
   vi. IPAM – Infoblox /others
   vii. WAN Optimizer - Riverbed / others
   viii. Packet Shaper - Bluecoat
   ix. Terminal Server - Ion systems /others
   x. Load Balancer - F5
   
   Qualifications:
   
   i. Min 8+ years of Network administration experience in large
   enterprise environment
   ii. Should have Cisco and other industry standard networking
   certifications
   iii. Extensive experience in System Fault Tolerance, Networking
   Designing, Business continuity and Disaster recovery
   iv. Expertise in the analysis, implementation, troubleshooting
   documentation of LAN/WAN architecture and good experience on IP
   services.
   v. Excellent communication and conversation skills (Verbal and Written)
   vi. Experience in representation in Change Advisory Board (CAB)
   meetings
   vii. In depth understand and troubleshooting skills for data
   centers Technologies (vPC, VDC, OTV, FEX)
   viii. Expert level knowledge of troubleshooting,
   
   implementing, optimizing and testing of static and dynamic routing protocols
   such as EIGRP, OSPF, BGP and ability to interpret and resolve complex route
   table problem
   ix. Excellent hands-on experience on Cisco, Juniper Extreme devices
   (Routers, Switches L2/L3, Firewalls etc)
   xii. Excellent hands-on in Cisco Aruba WLC/Access point
   xiv. Handling escalated troubleshooting calls related with Routing,
   Switching, Wireless, Firewalls VPN
   xv. Excellent hands-on experience on Cisco Nexus Series of switches,
   Juniper SRX series Fortigate.
   xvi. Excellent hands-on experience on Wireless LAN technologies – Cisco
   and Aruba
   xvii. Excellent hands-on experience on WAN Acceleration/optimization
   Riverbed
   xviii. Network Management tools – Solar Winds, HPNNMi or Splunk etc
   xix. Application Load balancers F5 Big IP LTM/GTM or Citrix NetScaler
   xx. Hands-on experience of implementing Troubleshoot of Infoblox
   solutions such as IPAM/DHCP/DNS/vDiscovery
   xxi. Hands on Experience on DHCP scope creation, DHCP option
   management understanding about servers, and windows platform
   xxii. Should have Experience in designing POA for complex Change/Project.
   knowledge in preparing RFO, RCAs, documentation, Knowledge Bank.
   xxiii. Experience in AWS or AZURE or any cloud technologies will be an
   added advantage
   
   Soft Skills :
   
   i. Excellent communication and conversation skills (Verbal and Written)
   ii. Good documentation skills
   iii. Should have excellent customer handling skills
   iv. Able to handle high pressure situations
   v. High level of acceptance
   vi. Can drive HCL's value and its methodology
   
   Certifications :
   
   ITIL v3 /v4
   CCIE -RS or equivalent associate
   CISSP, CISM, CCSP
   OEM specific Expert level certifications(Cisco,Juniper,Fortinet)

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find data network specialists for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any data network specialists they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level data network specialists with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   To find data network specialist candidates, you can consider the following options:

   • Post your job opening on Zippia or other job search websites.
   • Use niche websites that focus on engineering and technology jobs, such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
   • Post your job on free job posting websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with data network specialist candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   Sometimes, it's not enough to interview data network specialist candidates, so you can ask them to do a test project. If you are not a technical person and don't know what a test project should be, you can use these websites:

   • TestDome
   • CodeSignal
   • Testlify
   • BarRaiser
   • Coderbyte

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new data network specialist

   Once you've decided on a perfect data network specialist candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   To prepare for the new data network specialist first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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