Network Engineer - Hawthorn East

We’ve been proudly serving Australian communities since 1914 and have grown to become a top 30-listed company on the ASX with a portfolio of iconic homegrown brands. At the heart of our continued success is over 115,000 team members working across the country, all contributing to bringing our customers smiles. You’ll not only get to see your work make a difference, you’ll be part of a team working together to help Australians eat and live better every day.

About the team

Our Technology team is the backbone of the business, building and maintaining the information technology infrastructure that support Coles Group. As a part of the Technology team, you get the opportunity to work through complex, challenging, meaningful problems using large data sets and new technologies to expand your skills and experience.

As part of Coles Group Technology, you’ll join our Infrastructure & Operations function and work within the Core Network Engineering team.

About the role

As a Network Automation Engineer - Core Networks, you’ll combine deep network engineering expertise with software development, Infrastructure-as-Code and DevOps practices to help automate how our core network environment is configured, deployed, validated and operated.

Our team is responsible for the network services that connect a large, complex and distributed technology environment across data centres, support centres, distribution and fulfilment centres, and retail locations.

You’ll work alongside Network Engineering, Cloud, Cyber Security, Infrastructure, Architecture, Service Management and DevOps teams to deliver secure, resilient and scalable network services.

We’re continuing to evolve the way we engineer and operate our networks, with a strong focus on automation, standardisation and reducing manual operational effort.

About you and your skills

You’re an experienced network engineer who has moved beyond traditional network administration and can bring together network engineering and software-driven automation.

You’ll bring strong experience working within large-scale enterprise network environments, along with hands-on capability building and operating network automation.

As part of this role, you will have the opportunity to design, develop and maintain network automation using Python and Ansible, creating reusable modules, playbooks, templates and engineering workflows.

You’ll automate configuration, provisioning, validation, compliance and Day 2 network operations, while applying Infrastructure-as-Code practices using Ansible, Terraform and network APIs.

You will build automated testing, health checks and rollback controls, develop CI/CD workflows using Azure DevOps Pipelines, and automate network lifecycle activities including configuration changes, backups, software upgrades and drift detection.

Working across technologies such as Cisco ACI/APIC, SDA/Catalyst Center, Nexus, Catalyst, Infoblox DDI, Radware Alteon and Azure networking, you’ll partner with Network, Cloud and DevOps teams to identify high-value automation opportunities and help embed an automation-first approach with strong security, governance and production controls.

The successful candidate should bring substantial enterprise network engineering experience, together with strong hands-on network automation capability.

• Ideally 5+ years in large-scale, complex disbursed environment
• Proven experience designing, implementing, maintaining and troubleshooting enterprise routing, switching and LAN/WAN services.
• Strong hands-on experience with Cisco core networking technologies such as ACI, SDA, APIC, Catalyst Center, ISE, Nexus, Catalyst and routing platforms.
• Demonstrated experience developing and operating network automation using Python and Ansible.
• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code, APIs, Git and CI/CD engineering practices.
• Experience automating network lifecycle activities, configuration changes, validation, compliance and operational workflows.
• Experience with network monitoring and management tools for health/performance monitoring, diagnostics, capacity planning and troubleshooting
• Proven capability defining and maintaining enterprise network services in a large-scale, complex and distributed business environment.
• Experience leading technical initiatives and contributing to technology roadmaps, engineering standards and continuous improvement.

• Experience with Terraform, Netmiko, NAPALM, Nornir, network telemetry, ServiceNow integrations, Docker or Kubernetes would also be advantageous.

Most importantly, you’ll bring an automation mindset and enjoy identifying repetitive engineering work that can be transformed into safe, scalable and reusable solutions.

What’s in it for you?

• Flexible working options: We know that work is only one part of your life, so we actively encourage a positive work-life balance and provide hybrid working options to help you achieve it.
• Office perks: Take advantage of our gym facility and fitness classes, free parking, BBQ area, mini-Coles supermarket, fooderie hub where you can sample new products before they hit the shelves, school holiday program and so much more when you come in.
• Discounts: Eligible team members receive 5% discount all year round on your Supermarket and Liquor online and in-store purchases. We also offer additional periods of double discount (10%) at various times throughout the year. As well as hotdeals exclusive to team members that translate into additional savings.
• Reward through recognition: Give and receive recognition, linked to our Coles values, through our digital recognition platform ‘mythanks’. You can accumulate points to redeem in the online shop for exciting gifts and electronic gift cards from an extensive range of retailers.
• Opportunities for learning and development: No matter where you start within our diverse business, you’ll have experiences, exposure, and education to satisfy you. Discover and explore a variety of career development programs and job-specific training.
• Paid parental leave: We understand how important your life outside work is and offer permanent team members paid parental leave to support you in balancing work and family.
• Investment in your future: Our annual team member share plan offer allows eligible team members to make regular pre-tax salary sacrifice deductions to purchase Coles Group shares.

About the recruitment process

We’re continuing to build a gender equitable team, and a culture that is just as diverse, inclusive and welcoming as the communities we serve. We are committed to creating a workplace that is safe and respectful for our team. We encourage applications from people of all ages, cultures (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples), abilities, sexual orientation and gender identities.

We’re happy to adjust our recruitment process to support candidates with disability. For further information and additional contact details visit the ‘Our Recruitment Process’ section of our careers site or email inclusionrecruitment@coles.com.au