Director IT Network Services

This senior leadership position is responsible for the end-to-end engineering, delivery, and ongoing operations of enterprise network services. The role ensures a highly reliable, secure, and scalable connectivity foundation that supports company growth and large-scale business transformation initiatives.

The position blends deep technical expertise with strong operational leadership to modernize network, voice, security, and cloud connectivity services-while delivering consistent, high-quality outcomes across retail locations, distribution environments, corporate offices, and cloud platforms.

Enterprise Strategy & Execution

• Leads engineering, delivery, and operational execution of enterprise network services including SD-WAN/WAN, remote access, wireless, data center LAN, voice, cloud networking (Azure), firewalls, load balancers, proxy services, and DNS.

• Ensures high availability, security, and performance across geographically distributed environments.

• Provides senior-level technical leadership during major incidents, including executive communication and coordinated service restoration.

• Drives root cause analysis (RCA) and corrective actions to improve system stability, resilience, and end-user experience.

• Aligns disaster recovery and resiliency planning with business continuity and IT service management (ITSM) practices.

• Translates enterprise network strategy and reference architectures into scalable engineering standards and roadmaps.

• Oversees solution design and implementation, balancing performance, scalability, security, risk, and total cost of ownership.

• Leads modernization efforts across network infrastructure, including SD-WAN, wireless, data center, voice, and cloud platforms.

• Introduces automation, telemetry, and configuration management to improve consistency, scalability, and operational efficiency.

• Oversees lifecycle management, including refresh strategies, technical debt reduction, and retirement of legacy technologies.

• Ensures initiatives are properly scoped, resourced, and delivered on time and within budget.

• Coordinates execution across internal teams, managed service providers, carriers, and technology partners.

• Partners with IT leadership on prioritization, governance, and investment alignment.

• Enhances service levels, monitoring capabilities, and operational processes.

• Serves as a trusted advisor to IT, Information Security, Operations, and other business stakeholders.

• Collaborates with security teams to strengthen segmentation, perimeter controls, and risk mitigation strategies.

• Champions technologies that improve workforce productivity and business outcomes.

Vendor & Contract Management

• Serves as the primary escalation point for managed service providers and strategic vendors.

• Maintains strong understanding of outsourcing, carrier, and supplier agreements.

• Drives vendor accountability for service delivery, cost management, and performance outcomes.

• Partners with Procurement on governance, service improvement initiatives, dispute resolution, and contract negotiations.

• Promotes operational excellence and performance management across supplier relationships.

Leadership

• Leads network engineering and operations teams, establishing clear expectations for performance and accountability.

• Develops technical and leadership capabilities through coaching, mentoring, and structured development plans.

• Defines career paths, certification strategies, and skill development aligned with modern technologies.

• Partners with HR on workforce planning, succession strategies, and organizational design.

• Fosters a culture of engineering excellence, data-driven decision-making, and continuous improvement.

• Demonstrates executive presence and the ability to influence cross-functional teams and external partners.

Financial Management

• Supports development and management of operating and capital budgets for network services.

• Leads capacity planning and forecasting to ensure scalable and cost-effective investments.

• Validates vendor consumption models and cost structures.

• Identifies cost optimization opportunities through standardization, automation, and lifecycle management.

• Bachelor's degree required (Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or related field)

• Master's degree preferred

• Relevant certifications preferred (e.g., Cisco, Fortinet, Palo Alto, Aruba, Microsoft Azure)

Experience:

• 15+ years of experience in large-scale, distributed enterprise network environments

• 10+ years of leadership experience across network engineering and/or operations in complex, multi-vendor settings

• Proven experience designing, delivering, and operating enterprise SD-WAN, wireless, LAN, voice, and cloud networking solutions

• Strong expertise in Azure cloud networking and modern network security architectures

• Demonstrated success improving operational stability through structured engineering practices and lifecycle management

• Experience managing managed service providers, carriers, and strategic vendors in matrixed organizations

• Experience in retail or other highly distributed enterprise environments strongly preferred

Skills & Expertise

• Deep knowledge of SD-WAN, routing, switching, wireless technologies, segmentation, and secure edge services

• Strong understanding of firewalls, secure web gateways, proxies, load balancers, DNS, and remote access solutions

• Experience with voice and collaboration technologies, including VoIP and SIP

• Expertise in cloud networking (Azure) and hybrid enterprise environments

• Strong grasp of network security, resiliency, disaster recovery, and lifecycle management

• Familiarity with ITIL-based operations, incident management, and service governance frameworks

• Ability to clearly communicate complex technical and financial concepts to both technical and business stakeholders