IT Network Engineer

The role of a network engineer is responsible to install, maintain and support the computer communication network within an organisation or between different organisations. Other job titles used to refer to this kind of work include: network administrator, network support, systems administrator and systems support.

Ultimately the role is decided by the size of the organisation that a particular network engineer works for. For example in a large organisation, a network engineer may only have a specific responsibility for a certain area of the system.

A smaller companies network engineer may be responsible for troubleshooting any issues of the network, or even the whole of the IT set up in the companies location(s).

The role is also dependent on the type of network that the organisation has, for example maintaining a local area network (LAN) would limit the engineer to a home, small office or even a small group of buildings in close proximity. Larger networks such as Metropolitan Area Networks (MANS) or Wide Area Networks (WANS) would require the engineer to travel.

The role may also depend on the type of network the engineer works on, for example: local area networks (LANS), which link a limited area such as a home, office or small group of buildings; metropolitan area networks (MANS), linking a large area such as a campus or city; wide area networks (WANS), which link nationally or internationally; or global area networks (GANS), combining all of the above with satellite mobile communication technologies.