Thembekile Thwala

Results-driven Network Engineer & IT Service Management professional with 10+ years designing, deploying, and optimizing complex enterprise network infrastructures across Telco and banking environments. CCNP Enterprise certified and ITIL v4 Trained, specializing in Problem Management, Root Cause Analysis, high-tier incident resolution, and Continual Service Improvement. Proven track record of leveraging deep analytical skills and ServiceNow/monitoring platforms to identify incident trends, manage Known Error Databases, and drive permanent structural resolutions.

Adept at improving network availability, reducing MTTR, and ensuring SLA compliance through vendor management, Post-Incident Reviews, and cross-functional coordination in high-availability environments.

2nd Line Network Engineer (Standard Bank Account) at Vodacom MSOC (2025-12 – Present)

• Manage and optimize the underlay network, core link infrastructure, and dedicated internet services for Standard Bank South Africa (SBSA) campuses, branches, ATM's, and Kiosks.
• Deliver tier-2 technical escalation support for complex failures across Fibre, Microwave, and LTE Topologies.
• Act as the lead technical authority on high-priority bridge calls, guiding field engineers through complex connection setups and live remote link restoration.
• Orchestrate end-to-end performance diagnostic checks utilizing NID probes and Nokia, Huawei, and Tellabs nodes.
• Oversee network operational integrity and service availability for critical Standard Bank Africa customer-edge (CE) sites.

Cisco Support Specialist – Express VIP Team (Contract) at Vodacom CSOC (2023-09 – 2024-03)

• Delivered high-level service assurance and tier-2 network engineering support to Vodacom Business VIP enterprise clients.
• Maintained, diagnosed, and troubleshooted converged network infrastructure architectures incorporating MPLS, SD-WAN (VeloCloud, Meraki, Viptela), LTE, and Broadband.
• Handled full-lifecycle last-mile troubleshooting across RADWIN Point-to-Point (PTP/PTMP) microwave links and Nokia/CBNL nodes.
• Governed incident management and vendor escalation workflows with third-party providers including Dark Fibre Africa (DFA), OpenServe, Vulatel, and Motivity to enforce SLA compliance.

L1 Network Engineer at In2it Technologies (2023-03 – 2023-07)

• Monitored network health and managed internet gateway infrastructure for critical South African Government facilities.
• Performed initial diagnostics and routing analysis on Huawei enterprise routers using VRF instance pings and route inspection.
• Managed immediate link Fail-overs and ticket administration across COMSOL/SKYWIRE microwave networks and DFA fibre lines.

Help Desk Support Engineer at BitCo Telecoms (2020-12 – 2021-05)

• Monitored live network traffic, endpoints, system logs, and security infrastructure events to identify and isolate threats.
• Provided high-tier technical customer support for wireless LAN IP addressing, core routing issues, and broad Telecom faults.
• Logged, classified, tracked, and escalated critical platform incidents through formalized corporate ticketing systems.

Cisco Support Specialist (Contract) at Vodacom CSOC (2014-08 – 2018-10)

• Sustained a 99% network availability target for millions of enterprise consumers throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
• Managed continuous proactive threat/alert tracking using enterprise monitoring systems (IBM Netcool and Integrity).
• Conducted granular Layer 1 to Layer 3 troubleshooting across BGP sessions, IP routing tables, access control lists (ACLs), and Spanning Tree Protocols (STP).
• Successfully integrated ITIL framework strategies (Incident, Problem, and Change Management) into everyday operations, driving an 87% service delivery rate during peak network traffic times (06:30 – 09:00).

Junior Network Engineer / Field Engineer at B2E Technologies (2008-11 – 2010-04)

• Deployed, configured, and troubleshooted medium-sized Cisco routers and enterprise Ethernet switches across physical client premises.
• Managed infrastructure reliability and hardware recovery policies for educational clients, including Crawford and Abbott's Schools networks.

Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Enterprise in Network Engineering – Cisco Systems

Cisco Certified Specialist - Enterprise Core in Network Engineering – Cisco Systems

Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA 200-301) in Network Engineering – Cisco Systems (2023)

ITIL v4 Foundation in IT Service Management – Unknown (2026-08-28)

CompTIA N+ / CompTIA A+ / Cisco ITE Essentials in IT Support – Sci-Bono ICT Academy (2012 – 2013)

Systems Engineering Diploma in Systems Engineering – PC Training and Business College (2007)

PC Engineering Certificate in PC Engineering – Havatech College (2004)

Senior Certificate (Grade 12) in General Education – Lofentse Girls High School (2001)