Network Operations Center Engineers

Network operations centers are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so the work is shift-oriented. Many new hires are assigned night and weekend shifts until they gain seniority.

Travel is required for some positions since some large companies and government agencies have several NOCs—either to manage different networks or to provide a backup site in case one site becomes unavailable.

This occupation can be stressful when incidents occur and members of the team do not agree on how to solve the problem or disagree about other issues. It can also be stressful to try to quickly solve problems because network downtime can be very costly to businesses. In fact, the "average cost of a single hour of downtime now exceeds $300,000 for over 90 percent of mid-size and large enterprises," according to the 2024 Hourly Cost of Downtime Survey from research and consulting firm ITIC. These costs are exclusive of litigation, civil, or criminal penalties. Despite these challenges, many NOC engineers enjoy their jobs. In fact, 74 percent of NOC engineers reported being “highly satisfied” with their careers, according to a 2024 survey by PayScale.com.