Senior Director, Network Engineering

About the role

The Senior Director of Network Engineering plays a pivotal role in the strategic leadership of network engineering across cloud environments and on-premises data centers. Reporting to the Vice President of Network & Access, this position oversees the design, implementation, and management of network infrastructure to support business-critical applications. The role also involves leading network integration efforts for mergers and acquisitions, ensuring seamless connectivity and alignment with organizational goals.

Responsibilities

• Works with internal and external customers to understand business needs.
• Contributes to the development of an IT strategy.
• Manages the development and implementation of IT initiatives to support business strategy.
• Collaborates with division directors across the organization and key stakeholders for the coordination and alignment of objectives and functions across multiple functional areas.
• Develops and executes a comprehensive network strategy for cloud-based and on-premises environments in alignment with business objectives.
• Collaborates with IT leadership to support application performance and availability across the enterprise.
• Stays ahead of industry trends and emerging technologies to drive innovation in network solutions.
• Oversees the design and management of network infrastructure in hybrid environments, including public cloud platforms (Azure) and data centers.
• Ensures high availability, scalability, and security for critical business applications hosted in cloud and on-premises environments.
• Led efforts to optimize network operations, including monitoring, automation, and proactive issue resolution.
• Serves as the primary lead for network integration during mergers and acquisitions.
• Establishes and maintains network policies, procedures, and standards to ensure compliance and security.
• Maintains and reports on network performance metrics, driving continuous improvement and operational efficiency.
• Oversees vendor relationships and negotiates contracts to ensure cost-effective and high-quality services.
• Participates in the development of IT budgets.
• Tracks and takes appropriate steps to stay within budget.
• Provides high-quality services at optimal cost to customers.
• Measures service performance and implements improvements.
• Provides input to financial parameters that drive service costs.
• Directs the development and implementation of technologies/processes that make it easier for customers and suppliers to do business with increased profitability.
• Participates and provides input to the SLA development process.
• Ensures internal SLAs are met.
• Provides advice and counsel to the vendor relationship decision-making and contract development processes.
• Reviews service provider performance.
• Identifies and confirms performance problems and notifies contract managers.
• Communicates organization information through department meetings, one-on-one meetings, and other communication vehicles.
• Supports an environment of open and upward communication with all staff to ensure positive employee morale, effective conflict resolution, and upward flow of creative ideas for the benefit of the Company and its employees.
• Leads, mentors, and develops a team of network engineers and architects to drive a culture of innovation and collaboration.
• Fosters strong relationships with cross-functional teams, including security, application development, and infrastructure.
• Promotes employee engagement, professional development, and succession planning within the team.
• Generates appropriate communication, process, and educational plans for mitigating the disruption of change.
• Identifies and removes obstacles to change.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in computer science, information systems, business administration, or another related field.
• Typically has 10 or more years of IT and business/industry work experience, with knowledge of one process/service.
• Requires experience in managing teams and building relationships with people at a variety of levels.
• Demonstrated ability to launch and deliver one or more IT projects on time and within budget.
• Demonstrated ability to formulate and execute business strategies to exceed operational expectations and further enhance customer experience.
• Deep understanding of business strategy and ability to translate strategy into system and technology solutions.
• Demonstrated “hands on” experience working in large-scale environments and tweaking business processes to support growth and productivity.
• Demonstrated ability to lead change, able to take calculated risks and seek continuous improvement.
• Demonstrated ability in building a successful organization and experience delivering results via improved customer satisfaction, lower production costs, and high levels of employee engagement.
• Effective communication skills, both oral and written.
• Strong teamwork and interpersonal skills.
• Strong presentation skills; ability to present and discuss strategies and technical information in a manner that establishes rapport, persuades others, and gains understanding.
• Ability to establish solid relationships with vendors in support of initiatives; ability to negotiate and manage outside vendors against deliverables.
• Strong project management skills including the ability to effectively deploy resources and manage multiple projects of various diverse scopes in a cross-functional environment.