Full-Time

Lead IT Systems Engineer

Public Sector

CenturyLink

CenturyLink

10,001+ employees

Global telecommunications and IT services provider

Compensation Overview

$103.7k - $152.1k/yr

No H1B Sponsorship

Remote in USA

Remote

US Citizenship, US Top Secret Clearance Required

Category
DevOps & Infrastructure (2)
,
Required Skills
Chef
Kubernetes
Puppet
Ruby
Computer Networking
Postgres
AWS
Perl
Elasticsearch
Cryptography
VMWare
Ansible
Linux/Unix
Helm
Google Cloud Platform

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Requirements
  • 5+ years current Linux systems engineering experience (Redhat, CentOS, Rocky) and troubleshooting
  • 3+ years of Kubernetes experience to include developing helm charts and deploying applications on Kubernetes
  • 3+ years with Google Cloud Platform or Amazon Web Services
  • 5+ years with Elasticsearch experience to include indexing, clustering, managing, and troubleshooting
  • 5+ years with automation in Ansible, Puppet, or Chef
  • Knowledge and experience should include computer network operations, network access and protection techniques and technologies, security, encryption, and cross domain solutions
  • Available 24/7 for Network Outages and Maintenance window work
  • Ability to work with coworkers and customers to troubleshoot technical problems
  • Ability to travel
  • Candidate must be a US Citizen with an active Department of Defense TOP SECRET clearance
Responsibilities
  • The candidate will have demonstrated knowledge and experience in system architecture and engineering disciplines. Specific technical knowledge of enterprise level networking and network security.
  • Recommends optimized solutions to support current and long-range planning and collaborates with project team leads in the selection, recommendation and approvals of tools and technologies to improve efficiencies, reduce costs, and increase customer satisfaction.
  • Monitor, analyze, and resolve incidents for infrastructure running in Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services.
  • Deploy, configure, and administer systems in Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services.
  • Support and troubleshoot Kubernetes clusters and containers.
  • Designs requirements-based technical solutions in support of new projects and assists with transition of the solution and design into production.
  • Evaluate, Build, Integrate, Test and Prepare systems for operational use and patches for rapid remediation and deployment.
  • Install new/rebuild existing systems and configure hardware, peripherals, settings, directories, storage, etc. in accordance with standards and project/operational requirements.
  • Experienced with automation tools such as Ansible, Puppet, or Chef
  • Gather and analyze metrics and customer feedback to formulate system requirements.
  • Evaluates and recommends future technologies and methodologies that will enhance future capabilities.
  • Develop and execute test plans and procedures based upon system security and functional requirements.
  • Analyzes, develops, recommends, implements, and supports innovative, cost effective IPS/IDS protection systems.
  • Familiar with Unix Scripting language like Ruby, Perl or advanced KSH scripting.
  • Operational knowledge of system products like VMware vSphere ESXi, Virtual Center, Elasticsearch, Postgres, Google Cloud, and Amazon Web Services.
  • Supports due diligence activities including site surveys, design, design review, bill of materials creation, statement of work creation, vendor negotiation and coordination, proposal generation, and proposal delivery.
  • Maintain existing applications by fixing, upgrading, and adding functionality as needed.
  • Quickly develop new applications as the need arises. These applications should follow appropriate best practices.
  • Assess existing applications for deficiencies such as slow performance and use of deprecated dependencies and come up with a plan for resolving.
  • Keep existing applications current with the version of the programming language and releases.
  • Perform application testing to ensure that new features work or that fixes have not caused any regressions.
  • Mentor teammates by helping them learn new technologies where needed.
  • Provide rapid operational support, troubleshooting, and resolution to production equipment.

CenturyLink, now known as Lumen Technologies, provides telecommunications and IT services for businesses and government. It offers voice communications and network services such as VoIP, SIP Trunking, hosted VoIP, SD-WAN, MPLS, and IPVPN, along with cloud and IT solutions like Big Data as a Service, IoT, and cloud management across hybrid, private, and public clouds. It differentiates itself by offering a broad, integrated portfolio that combines traditional communications with modern network and cloud services at scale, backed by global data centers and infrastructure. Its goal is to help customers communicate, connect, and digitally transform through secure, scalable, and manageable network and cloud solutions.

Company Size

10,001+

Company Stage

IPO

Headquarters

Monroe, Louisiana

Founded

1930

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Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • Fiber-first enterprise demand can lift recurring revenue from higher-value network contracts.[5][8]
  • Cross-selling security, managed services, and cloud interconnect deepens account monetization.[3][5][7]
  • Legacy customer migrations from copper to fiber create upgrade opportunities.[2][12]

What critics are saying

  • FCC scrutiny over late outage reporting threatens fines and broader compliance reviews.[1]
  • Copper theft and aging legacy infrastructure continue disrupting service reliability.[1][2]
  • Legacy business exposure makes churn likely as customers shift to pure-fiber competitors.[2][10]

What makes CenturyLink unique

  • One of the largest fiber networks supports enterprise, government, and wholesale connectivity.[5][11]
  • Lumen bundles network, security, cloud, and collaboration services under one provider.[1][5]
  • Edge cloud positioning targets low-latency AI and multi-cloud workloads for enterprises.[1][6]

Help us improve and share your feedback! Did you find this helpful?

Benefits

Health Insurance

Life Insurance

Remote Work Options

Flexible Work Hours

Performance Bonus

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

-10%

1 year growth

-10%

2 year growth

-10%
KonectEaze
Jun 1st, 2026
Cox Business internet review 2026: plans & pricing.

Cox Business internet review 2026: plans & pricing. Cox Business internet reviewed for 2026 - plans, real pricing notes, speeds, contracts, and how it stacks up against Spectrum, AT&T, and CenturyLink. By Pablo Mendoza Quick answer: Cox Business is the right call for storefronts and small offices inside Cox's 18-state footprint that want locally built cable infrastructure and a path to fiber - Cox's network tops out at 2 Gbps on its live listings, with fiber-to-the-home available in select areas under the Cox Fiber brand. The caveat, as of June 2026: Cox Business pricing is quote-based rather than published, and Cox's residential listings ($55/mo for 300 Mbps) start $25/mo above Spectrum's entry tier. If you're outside a Cox market or fiber matters more than footprint, CenturyLink's Quantum Fiber and AT&T are the alternatives to price first. How KonectEaze evaluate providers: Plan and pricing details verified against KonectEaze's live Cox provider listings on June 9, 2026; business-tier quotes vary by address and are labeled accordingly. See its full methodology. Cox Business at a glance. Best for: storefronts, professional offices, and franchises in Cox's core markets - Arizona, Virginia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and parts of California, Connecticut, and Georgia. * Deep local infrastructure: Cox concentrates investment in its 18 states rather than spreading thin nationally * Fiber option (Cox Fiber) with symmetrical gigabit in select areas * 2 Gbps top tier on the cable network, with 100 Mbps upload at that tier * Panoramic WiFi for whole-location coverage; local retail stores for in-person support * Business pricing is quote-only - no published rates to comparison-shop against * Entry pricing runs high: $55/mo for 300 Mbps residential as of June 2026, versus $30/mo entry at Spectrum * Upload on cable tiers (10-35 Mbps below the top tier) trails fiber competitors badly * 18-state footprint means many readers simply can't get it Verdict: 3.5/5 for business use. Strong where it operates, priced like it knows it. Cox Business plans and pricing. What Cox lists publicly vs what's quote-only. Here's the part most reviews fudge: Cox does not publish flat business-internet pricing the way it publishes residential rates. Business quotes vary by address, term length, and add-ons like static IPs. Any article showing you a tidy "Cox Business: $X/mo" table is either printing a stale promo or a regional rate that won't survive contact with your address. KonectEaze confirmed on Cox's own business site (June 10, 2026) that no flat business-internet rates are published - it's call-for-quote. What KonectEaze can verify is Cox's live plan structure on its own provider page, which shows the network's real speed tiers and price ladder. These are residential listings - treat them as the floor for what an equivalent business-grade quote will come in above: | Plan (residential listing) | Download | Upload | Price (June 2026) | Contract | | Cox Fast 300 Mbps | 300 Mbps | 10 Mbps | $55.00/mo | Varies by plan | | Cox Go Even Faster 500 | 1 Gbps | 35 Mbps | $80.00/mo | Varies by plan | | Cox Go Super Fast 1 Gbps | 1 Gbps | 35 Mbps | $95.00/mo | Varies by plan | | Cox Go Beyond Fast (2 Gbps) | 2 Gbps | 100 Mbps | $115.00/mo | Varies by plan | Business tiers layered on top of this network add static IP options, business-grade support, and SLA-backed products - all custom quote. Run your address on its Cox page to start that conversation with real numbers. Fees, contracts, and price-after-promo. Cox typically offers both month-to-month and 12-24 month agreement options; the exact terms surface at checkout for your specific plan. Two questions to ask on any Cox Business quote before signing: what does the rate become after the promotional term, and what's the early termination fee on the agreement length you're choosing? Quote-based pricing cuts both ways - it lets a good negotiator do well, and it lets a rushed signer do badly. Speeds and reliability. Cox's network is hybrid fiber-coaxial with advanced DOCSIS on the higher tiers, which is why a cable plant can list 2 Gbps down. The structural weakness is upload: 10 Mbps on the 300 Mbps tier and 35 Mbps through the gigabit tiers, per its June 2026 listings. For a retail counter running card transactions, that's irrelevant. For an office uploading video files or living in cloud backups, it's the spec that should drive your decision - and the reason to ask whether Cox Fiber reaches your address, since the fiber product delivers symmetrical gigabit where built. Reliability-wise, Cox benefits from its concentrated-market strategy: it invests deeply in the metros it serves rather than stretching across 40 states. Outages happen on any cable network; a business that loses revenue when the connection drops should budget for a wireless failover line regardless of provider. Cox Business vs the alternatives. Cox vs CenturyLink. This is the matchup that matters in much of Cox's footprint, and it's a genuine contrast: cable scale versus symmetrical fiber. CenturyLink's Quantum Fiber listings run $50/mo for 500 Mbps symmetrical up to $155/mo for 8 Gbps symmetrical as of June 2026 - so at roughly Cox's 300 Mbps price point, CenturyLink lists more download and fifty times the upload. Cox answers with broader availability within its markets and bundling. Where both serve your address, see the full CenturyLink vs Cox comparison. Cox vs Spectrum business. Cable versus cable, and the price gap is the story: Spectrum's listings start at $30/mo (100 Mbps) and hit 1 Gbps at $60/mo, versus Cox's $55 entry and $95 gig tier as of June 2026. Spectrum also runs no annual contracts on residential plans with no data caps. Cox's counterargument is its top tier (2 Gbps with 100 Mbps up beats Spectrum's 35 Mbps up at 1 Gig) and its local-market depth. The two rarely overlap at the same address, but if you're choosing between markets or have both, its Cox vs Spectrum breakdown runs the numbers. Cox vs AT&T. Where AT&T Fiber overlaps a Cox market, fiber wins the spec sheet: under the fiber lineup AT&T refreshed on June 7, 2026, AT&T Fiber 300 runs 300 Mbps symmetrical at $60/mo - $50/mo with AutoPay and paperless billing, which undercuts Cox's $55 300 Mbps tier and its 10 Mbps upload - and AT&T Fiber 1 Gig runs 1 Gbps symmetrical at $90/mo ($80/mo with AutoPay) as of June 10, 2026 (residential listings in both cases; AT&T's 12-month new-customer promos run lower still, and equipment is included with no annual contract). Cox's case is availability: AT&T's fiber map is street-by-street, and its DSL fallback isn't business-grade. Check which one actually reaches your suite before debating specs. Where Cox Business is available. Cox's deepest markets are worth knowing by name. Phoenix is one of its flagship metros - Arizona is a core Cox state, and much of the valley has Cox as its strongest cable option. New Orleans anchors its Louisiana operation, and San Diego leads its California presence. If your business is in one of those metros, Cox is almost certainly on your shortlist by default; the question is whether fiber competition at your specific address changes the answer. Sign up if you're in a Cox market, you want infrastructure from a provider that invests locally, and your bandwidth need is download-heavy - retail, hospitality, professional services. Get the quote, ask the after-promo and ETF questions, and ask specifically whether Cox Fiber reaches you. Look elsewhere if your work is upload-heavy and a fiber competitor serves your address (CenturyLink or AT&T will beat cable upload at a comparable price), or if you're price-anchored and Spectrum is an option. And if Cox can't serve your location at all, its Cox page availability check will show you who can. Faq. Does Cox have fiber internet? Yes - Cox Fiber, in select areas, with symmetrical gigabit. The core network is hybrid fiber-coaxial cable. Is Cox available in my area? Cox covers 18 states and roughly 1,540 ZIP codes, concentrated in Arizona, Virginia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas. Confirm by address on its Cox page. How much is Cox internet? Residential listings run $55/mo (300 Mbps) to $115/mo (2 Gbps) as of June 2026. Business tiers are quote-based by address. Who owns Cox Communications? Cox Enterprises - a privately held company, making Cox one of the largest privately held cable operators in the US. Is Cox internet down? Cox outages are metro-level events, not national ones. Check the Cox app's outage map, power-cycle your gateway, and - if you're a business - keep a wireless failover line. What is a good internet speed for a business? 300 Mbps for a solo office, 500 Mbps-1 Gbps for a storefront, gigabit with strong upload for a 10+ seat office. On Cox, upload is the spec to scrutinize. Check Cox availability at your business address on its Cox provider page - and if Cox doesn't serve you, the same check shows who does. Prices verified against KonectEaze provider listings June 9, 2026; final pricing varies by address, promo, and installation fees. Check internet providers at your address. Use your ZIP code to move from research to real local plans.

Business Wire
Apr 2nd, 2024
1Stwest Ma Names Bryan Taylor As A New Managing Director

EVERGREEN, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--1stWest Mergers and Acquisitions announced today that it has named Bryan Taylor as a new Managing Director. Bryan will focus on Telecom, Cloud Technology, Cybersecurity, IT Services, and AI, sectors where Bryan has 25 years of experience as an accomplished deal execution leader in buy and sell transactions.Previously, Bryan worked as a financial analyst for Century Telephone Enterprises (a.k.a. CenturyLink and Lumen). After an initial six years mastering the telecom sector, Bryan joined CenturyLink’s M&A team to facilitate carve-out acquisitions of access lines. Over 22 years on CenturyLink’s M&A team, Bryan participated in acquisitions and divestitures with more than $80 billion in deal value, during which Bryan led the transformative acquisitions of Qwest and Embarq. Moving into data centers and managed services, Bryan led the acquisition of Savvis

Business Wire
Apr 2nd, 2024
1Stwest Ma Names Derek Koecher As A New Senior Advisor

EVERGREEN, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--1stWest Mergers and Acquisitions announced today that it has named Derek Koecher as a new Senior Advisor. Derek will bring his decades of M&A expertise to help guide 1stWest M&A’s clients through complex carve-outs, buy and sell transactions, growth strategies, and negotiation of transaction compensation for founders and executive teams.With a distinguished background in leadership roles at Fortune 100 companies such as Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and CenturyLink, Derek has facilitated over $100 billion in deal value across a wide spectrum of transactions. His journey began as a risk manager for a startup wireless communications company, before he advanced to pivotal roles in international telecom. Among his accomplishments, Derek played a key role in raising the largest VC-backed deal in Latin America as well as transformative acquisitions, including the sale of CenturyLink data centers, carveouts in towers, SaaS providers, and cyber security. Derek's recent focus on AI, Language Model (LM), mobility, fiber, and SaaS springs from his deep-rooted understanding of media, technology, and telecom.“Derek is among the most sought-after advisors for transactions in the hottest M&A sectors today, from telecom and SaaS to AI,” said Ted Rieple, 1stWest M&A’s Managing Partner. “Derek brings a sterling reputation to our firm, earned from his decades of service to many of the most well-known corporations in North American

StreamTV Insider
Jan 24th, 2024
Rayburn: CDN spotlight - Qwilt and Cirion partner on LATAM CDN coverage, Lumen shuts down CDN

In 2017, Level 3 was acquired by CenturyLink, and in 2020, CenturyLink changed its name to Lumen.

Blue Horizon Lines
Jan 16th, 2024
Technology Definition & Which Means

CenturyLink is regularly expanding its Fiber Gigabit Internet network that can deliver Internet speeds up to 940 Mbps.