Senior Network & Security Engineer
Potters Industries Inc Leawood, Kansas, United States · $126K/yr
Manufacturing · 1,001-5,000 employees
About the role
The role involves serving as the primary technical owner for enterprise network and security infrastructure, including the Fortinet platform and Cisco switching environment. Responsibilities include day-to-day operations, security incident response, network maintenance, and ensuring infrastructure documentation and performance.
What they look for
Requirements
Candidates must have at least 5 years of hands-on experience in network engineering and security operations with specific expertise in Fortinet and Cisco environments. Strong skills in vulnerability management, incident response, and the ability to work in a collaborative, lean IT organization are essential.
Benefits
Full description
Senior Network Engineer
Through the continuing ingenuity, dedication, and superior service of our employees through the years, Potters has grown into a $400 million global business. With approximately 900 employees contributing to our success every day in 30 production facilities located in 14 countries around the world.
What we have offer:
Full benefit package
Competitive 401K
Paid time off
Role Overview
We are looking for a Senior Network Engineer to serve as the primary hands-on technical owner of our Fortinet firewall platform. You will be responsible for the day-to-day operation, performance, and reliability of our FortiGate firewalls, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, and FortiClient EMS, along with the supporting network environment, across a globally distributed manufacturing organization.
This role operates within a lean, highly collaborative IT organization where everyone wears multiple hats. The ideal candidate thrives on hands-on work—configuring and hardening FortiGate firewalls, responding to network events, troubleshooting connectivity issues, maintaining documentation, and collaborating with colleagues.
Key Responsibilities
Fortinet Firewall Platform Ownership
- Serve as the primary hands-on owner of the Fortinet firewall landscape, including FortiGate firewalls, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, and FortiClient EMS.
- Configure, tune, and harden FortiGate firewall rules, policies, and profiles (IPS, web filtering, application control) to reduce attack surface while maintaining business-critical connectivity.
- Manage centralized policy and device administration through FortiManager, and centralized logging, reporting, and analytics through FortiAnalyzer.
- Administer FortiClient EMS for endpoint protection, deployment, and compliance across the enterprise.
- Own site-to-site and remote-access VPN configuration and connectivity across globally distributed sites.
- Monitor firewall events and logs; triage, respond to, and remediate incidents, escalating with clear technical summaries and recommended actions.
- Assess, segment, and monitor OT/ICS networks across manufacturing sites to reduce risk while preserving operational continuity.
- Support compliance, audit, and cyber-insurance requirements by maintaining firewall controls and producing evidence as needed.
Supporting Network Infrastructure
- Support the day-to-day operation, performance, and reliability of the globally distributed enterprise network.
- Maintain switching and routing connectivity (VLANs, trunking, and general LAN/WAN troubleshooting) that underpins the firewall environment.
- Troubleshoot and resolve network issues across LAN, WAN, and remote-access environments.
- Maintain accurate and up-to-date network and firewall documentation, diagrams, and configuration standards.
Collaboration & Communication
- Serve as the primary technical resource for networking and firewall operations within the IT team.
- Coordinate with managed service providers to ensure SLAs are met, and firewall standards are maintained.
- Evaluate and recommend third-party vendors and networking tools.
- Communicate technical status, risks, and recommendations clearly.
Required Qualifications
- 5+ years of hands-on experience in firewall administration and network operations, including 3+ years directly operating FortiGate firewalls, with demonstrated ownership of infrastructure and firewall tooling.
- Strong hands-on experience owning and operating the Fortinet firewall ecosystem (FortiGate, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, FortiClient EMS, VPN, IPS).
- Working knowledge of enterprise switching and routing including VLANs, trunking, and general LAN/WAN troubleshooting.
- Solid operational experience with firewall monitoring, vulnerability management, and incident response execution.
- Experience supporting networks in manufacturing or OT-adjacent environments is a strong plus.
- Ability to communicate technical issues clearly and concisely with IT leadership.
- Comfortable working in a small, lean, collaborative IT organization where self-direction, prioritization, and pragmatism are essential.
Preferred Qualifications
- Fortinet certifications, particularly NSE 4 (FortiOS), NSE 5 (FortiManager/FortiAnalyzer), NSE 6 (FortiClient EMS, OT); NSE 7 Enterprise Firewall is a strong differentiator
- Experience in Azure/Entra integrated environments
- Experience working in globally distributed or multi-region IT environments
What Success Looks Like (First 12–18 Months)
- Network and firewall infrastructure is stable, well-documented, and consistently maintained.
- Fortinet platform is fully optimized—firewall rules tuned, policies hardened, logging and alerting operational.
- OT network segmentation assessed and hardened across manufacturing sites.
- CIO can confidently delegate day-to-day network and firewall operations to this role.
Why Join Us
- Opportunity to own and operate the full network and firewall stack for a global manufacturing organization.
- Direct access to the CIO—no layers of management between you and decisionmakers.
- Modern Fortinet firewall stack with executive support for continued investment.
- High-impact role where your work directly protects the business.
- Collaborative, lean IT environment that values pragmatism, accountability, and getting things done over bureaucracy.
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