What is a Network Development Engineer?

A rapidly growing and incredibly innovative field, the technology industry has a lot of exciting opportunities for recent grads who are passionate about working with cutting-edge technology. One of these opportunities is network development, an area of engineering that focuses on automating and scaling networks in order to allow companies to process data more efficiently. To learn more about network development, we sat down with the team at Dell to find out what you can expect from this career path.

Here’s what you need to know about being a network development engineer.

What is a network development engineer?

The short answer is that a network development engineer is a person responsible for building and scaling data networks. The slightly longer answer is that a network development engineer is responsible for creating, deploying and automating networks that will enable data to move swiftly between different data centers.

What does a network development engineer do?

Depending on the type of company they work for, network development engineers can be responsible for a variety of things. This can include meeting with clients to understand their networking needs, designing solutions to meet those needs and then testing the solutions to ensure that they’re able to scale as the company grows. Network development engineers are problem solvers and project managers who are able to see the big picture and address challenges related to how data is transmitted. At a large company like Dell, this means leveraging the organization’s resources and technologies to create solutions that will not only scale, but that can also be automated and updated as needed.

What training do you need to become a network development engineer?

Training to become a network development engineer starts with taking relevant classes during college. These include technical computer classes that will give you the coding skills you need to do the job and also more theoretical classes that will teach you about the theoretical side of programming. After completing your undergraduate education (or even while you’re still in college) you can look for opportunities to get hands-on training. Dell’s University Relations Program offers a lot of these opportunities and gives students and recent grads a chance to learn about what it means to work in network development.

What are the benefits of being a network development engineer?

One of the main benefits of working in network development is being able to solve problems creatively and coming up with unique processes that help companies scale their business. In addition to the creative challenges of the role, network development also provides great insights into other areas of the tech industry and gives you a wonderful overview of exciting things that are happening across different fields. Working at a company like Dell also comes with additional benefits including access to cutting-edge solutions and employee-focused initiatives designed to help employees grow both personally and professionally.

What is a typical network development engineer salary?

Although network development engineer salaries vary slightly depending on location, they typically start at around $60,000 for an entry-level position and go up from there with experienced network development engineers earning upwards of $110,000 per year.

An exciting part of the technology industry, network development is a great opportunity to develop your technical skills while helping companies establish processes that will allow them to handle and process data.