Lead Director, Network Core Infrastructure Operations

What you'll do

• Own the operational health, performance, and security of the core routing and switching environment across datacenters, campus, and cloud.
• Manage core network services including DNS, DHCP, and IPAM using Infoblox for enterprise-wide name resolution and address management.
• Implement and oversee software-defined networking (SDN) and SD-WAN capabilities to enhance network agility and multi-cloud connectivity.
• Lead a Level 1–3 network operations team by providing technical mentorship, career development, and shift coverage management.
• Drive network stabilization by proactively identifying vulnerabilities and leading root-cause analysis for high-impact network issues.
• Develop and enforce robust change control processes to manage network configuration modifications with minimal operational impact.
• Automate routine operational tasks such as diagnostics and configuration compliance using scripting and AI-assisted operations.
• Track KPIs and lead capacity planning to forecast investment needs across the core routing and switching estate.

What we're looking for

• 10+ years of enterprise network infrastructure operations and engineering experience.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in enterprise routing and switching on Cisco platforms including BGP, OSPF/EIGRP, and VXLAN/EVPN.
• 3+ years of experience leading teams while remaining capable of performing hands-on technical work.
• 3+ years of experience operating core network services including DNS, DHCP, and IPAM (Infoblox) at enterprise scale.
• 3+ years of WAN and LAN experience across datacenter, campus, and multi-site environments, including MPLS and/or SD-WAN.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience (HS diploma + 4 years relevant experience).
• Experience with load balancing (F5) and working with security teams on firewalls and segmentation (preferred).
• Demonstrated ownership of incident, problem, and change management in a 24x7 operations environment (preferred).
• Working automation baseline using scripting/automation like Python or Ansible (preferred).
• Excellent leadership, communication, and mentoring skills (preferred).
• Familiarity with AI-driven network operations (AIOps) and telemetry-based anomaly detection (preferred).
• Experience with streaming telemetry, SNMP, NetFlow/IPFIX, and syslog data pipelines at scale (preferred).
• Advanced automation / infrastructure-as-code using NETCONF/YANG, Ansible, or Terraform (preferred).
• Hands-on experience with Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, ACI, or Catalyst Center (preferred).
• Multi-cloud networking experience in AWS and/or Azure (preferred).
• Experience in a large, regulated enterprise such as healthcare (preferred).
• Industry certifications such as Cisco CCNP or CCIE (or equivalent), and ITIL (preferred).