remote job opportunities for different networking roles

Over past one and half year, most of us have been working remotely (perhaps not fully remote). With offices opening up slowly, some companies are not adapting or encouraging remote work. In Network Engineering there are some roles that can do most of their work remotely while others require the presence on campus. I would like to start a discussion about different roles and their likelihood of remote work opportunity. This will help people looking for new remote job opportunity and which role they should target. Listed below are my thoughts about different roles, please provide any comments/feedback.

- Network Automation Engineer

This is a good candidate for remote work.

- Cloud Network Engineer

This is a good candidate for remote work.

- Network Security Engineer

Most of the work can be done remote but you might need to be on campus for some work like SW upgrades, HW refresh etc. In some bigger teams, Firewall racking, installation and initial bring is network infrastructure team's responsibility so you might not be needed frequently on campus.

- Network Engineer

This is very common role for enterprise, data center and service provider's networks. This role is involved in network design, deployment and operations. In larger environment, you might be doing a specific part but in medium and small environment you are wearing multiple hats. For this role most of the companies will require some one to be on campus. It is possible that for larger environments people take rotation as all network engineers are not needed on campus simultaneously.

- Network Architect

This could be good candidate for remote work. The role requires some meetings and presentations but I believe this can be accomplished remotely.

- Technical Marketing Engineer

This role mostly belongs to vendor side. This will most probably require to setup a lab so you can test and write papers. Initial lab setup could be on campus or in the cloud. Once that part is done, testing, writing and presenting can be done remotely. I would say this role is also good candidate for remote work.

- Product Manager

Again this role mostly belongs to vendor side. This involves lot of meeting with development teams as well as with customers. I think when physical meeting becomes the norms in the near future, remote work for this role would be a bit difficult.

- Network Test Engineer

This is typically found in vendor's test labs. If you are not involved in setting up the lab, then chances are you will be working remotely.

- Support Engineer

This role could be with network equipment vendor, partner or managed service provider. You typically provide support through email, phone, web and remote sessions. This role is good candidate for remote work

- Sales Engineers

This involves meeting with potential customers and sometimes setting up demos and proof of concept. A lot of companies require building relationship with customer for this role, so remote work may not be encouraged with employer's point of view.

- WiFi Engineer

Some large enterprises have network engineers dedicated for WiFi. This role does not seem to be suited for remote work.

Project Manager

This role requires to run a lot of meetings, and communicate status to stakeholders. Depending upon company culture, this can be a good candidate for remote work.