How to hire a senior network operations technician

How to hire a senior network operations technician, step by step

Here's a step-by-step senior network operations technician hiring guide:

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

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   The senior network operations technician hiring process starts by determining what type of worker you actually need. Certain roles might require a full-time employee, whereas part-time workers or contractors can do others.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

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

   Yes

   No

   You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a senior network operations technician to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a senior network operations technician that fits the bill.

   This list shows salaries for various types of senior network operations technicians.

   Type of Senior Network Operations Technician	Description	Hourly rate
   Senior Network Operations Technician	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.	$32-69
   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:

   • Network Operations
   • Switches
   • NOC
   • Technical Support
   • OSPF
   • BGP
   • Juniper
   • Remedy
   • Windows
   • Trouble Tickets
   • Fault Isolation
   • Linux
   • Network Troubleshooting
   • LAN

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Recommend, engineer and manage office systems, including centralize productivity and communication systems such as e-mail and centralize desktop environments.
   • Act as a technical escalation point in a NOC environment for all technical support staff regarding all infrastructure issues.
   • Partner with internal/external clients and reduce T1 transport and VPN SLA conformance restrictions on new installations.
   • Experience troubleshooting both OSI and TCP/IP reference models; protocols such as: Ethernet, PPP, and TCP/IP.
   • Support 8000-plus users, over 360 branches and large corporate operation centers, with Avaya, Nortel and Cisco VOIP systems.
   • Define replacement architecture and migration to Cisco X.25 over TCP/IP encapsulation.

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in your senior network operations technician job description is a great way to entice the best and brightest candidates. A senior network operations technician salary can vary based on several factors:

   • Location. For example, senior network operations technicians' average salary in minnesota is 36% less than in california.
   • Seniority. Entry-level senior network operations technicians earn 53% less than senior-level senior network operations technicians.
   • Certifications. A senior network operations technician with a few certifications under their belt will likely demand a higher salary.
   • Company. Working for a prestigious company or an exciting start-up can make a huge difference in a senior network operations technician's salary.

   Average senior network operations technician salary

   $98,446yearly

   $47.33 hourly rate

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   Entry-level senior network operations technician salary

   $67,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 19, 2025

4. Writing a senior network operations technician job description

   A job description for a senior network operations technician 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 senior network operations technician job description:

   Senior network operations technician job description example

   Job DescriptionRight to Hire position within a large, St. Louis Hospital network.
   3+ years overall telecom support experience - 2+ years specifically with Cisco Call ManagerMust be flu/Covid vaccinated On-call support
   

   Overview:

   • Perform pro-active monitoring of the network, server, and application infrastructure.
   • Quickly identify infrastructure service degradations and failures using monitoring tools, management systems, and vendor specific utilities.
   • Actively troubleshoot high priority multi-user impact events escalating as business needs dictate.
   • Facilitate communications with end users and technical teams in support of both routine and reactionary monitoring events.
   • Maintain tickets, logs, and records in accordance with ITIL best practices via Mercy SOPs.
   • Utilize NOC run-book guidelines for first level break/fix restoration needs.
   • Initiate and coordinate outage conference bridges as part of the outage management process.
   • Support team members in dealing with large scale network events.
   • Monitor weather conditions across the Ministry and escalate to appropriate regional hospitals, clinics, and emergency management services.

   Qualifications:

   • Minimum 3+ years of experience administering enterprise networks.
   • Good knowledge of troubleshooting, identification, isolation, and resolution of network issues.
   • Maintain an active CCENT (Cisco Certified Entry Networking Technician) or MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate) certification.
   • Foundational knowledge of ITILv3 principles and HIPAA compliance.
   • Proven ability to work in a fast-paced, high-pressure, ever-changing environment.

   Competencies:

   • Strong customer service skills.
   • Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
   • Proven analytical skills.
   • Ability to multi-task and manage projects from beginning to end.
   • Must have a desire to learn.

   
   

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right senior network operations technician for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with senior network operations technicians they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit senior network operations technicians who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   To find senior network operations technician 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

   Recruiting senior network operations technicians requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.

   Sometimes, it's not enough to interview senior network operations technician 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 senior network operations technician

   Once you've decided on a perfect senior network operations technician 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 senior network operations technician 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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