Ariadne Haske - Network Troubleshooter

Summary

Tier 3 network engineer. 13 years across Cisco in TAC and HTTS roles — IOS, IOS-XE, IOS-XR — supporting large networks with complex troubleshooting, frequently during outages: governments, NGOs, ISPs, banks, hospitals and enterprises.

Jobs

Technical Consulting Engineer - HTTS

TEKSystems

Contract with Cisco

May 2024 – Mar 2026

Remote

Provided Tier 3 technical support for public sector and enterprise customers across the United States and internationally, operating within Cisco’s Expert Care High Touch Technical Support organization. Supported mission-critical environments including federal agencies and healthcare institutions, with direct escalation paths to engineering.

Route/Switch (May 2024 – Nov 2024): Supported HTTS customers on the Catalyst 9000 switching platform across all form factors — C9200, C9300, C9400, C9500, and C9600 — including StackWise and StackWise Virtual high availability deployments. Troubleshot complex IOS-XE environments spanning hardware and software faults and UADP ASIC behavior.

After Hours (Nov 2024 – Nov 2025): One of two engineers providing Tier 3 coverage across the full Cisco portfolio on the after-hours shift, handling only high-severity cases — primarily network-down situations — while collaborating with global TAC teams.

Wireless (Nov 2025 – Mar 2026): Specialized in the Catalyst 9800 WLC platform across all form factors — C9800-L, C9800-40, C9800-80, and C9800-CL — with hands-on experience in High Availability/SSO, N+1 redundancy, ISSU, and rolling AP upgrades. Troubleshot complex deployments spanning FlexConnect, Local mode, Monitor mode, and SE-Connect, including site, policy, and RF tag architecture, RRM, DCA, and CleanAir. Supported 802.1X and ISE integrations, OFDMA, 6 GHz band deployments, dual 5 GHz configurations, and Flexible Radio Assignment.

Network Engineer

GDH

Contract with Cisco
Contract with Bank of America

Feb 2021 – May 2024

Remote

Provided network engineering support for Bank of America’s global core network infrastructure, operating within a high-stakes environment where network availability and change accuracy were the highest priorities. Executed maintenance operations on ASR 9000 series routers providing core connectivity to all Bank of America sites worldwide, with a flawless change record across three years of weekend maintenance windows. Specialized in IOS-XR software upgrades — a high-complexity operation avoided by many engineers — delivering consistent, outage-free results. Supported decommissioning operations and infrastructure lifecycle management across a large-scale, globally distributed network.

IPv6 Test Engineer

Cisco

Jun 2016 – Jul 2020

Research Triangle Park, NC

Supported Cisco’s Security and Trust Organization in achieving and maintaining two critical IPv6 certifications: USGv6 and IPv6 Ready Logo. USGv6 is a US government procurement standard directly tied to federal purchasing eligibility across defense and civilian agencies, representing significant public sector revenue. IPv6 Ready Logo is the industry-standard certification validating protocol correctness across a suite of 300+ tests covering SLAAC, neighbor discovery, and core IPv6 fundamentals.

Day-to-day responsibilities included managing IPv6 testing infrastructure, developing and automating test suites, validating Cisco products against certification requirements, and advocating for IPv6 readiness across internal engineering teams. Maintained external industry engagement through participation in networking conferences and standards community events.

IOS-XR Customer Support Engineer

Cisco

Apr 2015 – Jul 2016

Research Triangle Park, NC

Continued Tier 3 TAC support for IOS-XR platforms with a focus on ISP customers running CRS and XR 12000 series equipment. Core case work centered on MPLS, L3VPN, and SP-grade routing environments. Maintained the same end-to-end case ownership model and WAN specialization established in the earlier role.

Network Engineer

Secant Technologies

Oct 2014 – Mar 2015

Kalamazoo, MI

Secant is an IT solutions provider and VAR serving education and commercial customers in the Kalamazoo area, offering network design, server co-location, structured cabling, managed services, and more.

Worked in Professional Services implementing solutions designed by pre-sales architects — switching, wireless, security, and voice, primarily Cisco with some Ubiquiti. Also handled escalated network tickets from existing customers that the service desk couldn’t resolve.

IOS-XR Customer Support Engineer

Cisco

Jul 2012 – Oct 2014

Research Triangle Park, NC

Part of a global team providing 24/7 Tier 3 support to ISPs and large enterprises running Cisco IOS-XR platforms — CRS and NCS 6000 for core routing, ASR 9000 for edge, and XRv as a virtual platform. Supported high-density, fault-tolerant environments operating at line rate across link speeds from 1Gbps to 100Gbps, including G.709, DWDM, and TDM transport.

Owned cases end-to-end: reproducing complex faults, filing bugs, engaging escalation resources, updating documentation, and managing an active backlog — with an emphasis on setting accurate customer expectations and delivering on them. Specialized in WAN technologies including MPLS, L3VPN, and arcane but business-critical protocols such as Circuit Emulation Service (CEM) and Multilink PPP — serving as one of the only engineers on the team with deep CEM expertise.

IT Consultant

Otterbase

Contract with Bronson Healthcare Group

Feb 2012 – Jul 2012

Kalamazoo, MI

The large local hospital needed someone to help change out hundreds of APs. I used Cisco NCS to locate them in diverse clinical environments including Surgery, Emergency, and Mother Baby. Performed wireless site surveys with AirMagnet to validate coverage after each replacement.

The priority was zero-disruption migrations — a single AP swap is usually harmless as devices roam to neighbors, but corner cases exist. The goal was a hard ceiling of 2 minutes of outage per AP, which in a hospital environment is significant. Tested, provisioned, installed, and retested hundreds of APs without a single complaint.

Also assisted the broader network team with fiber cross connects for redundancy, auditing unused access layer switch ports, and equipment upgrades.