IT MANAGER - NETWORK HARDWARE

• Ability to lead, coach, schedule, evaluate, and hold staff accountable while maintaining effective customer service.

Major Responsibilities and Duties:

Leadership and Personnel Management

• Direct the daily work of the Networking Team; establish priorities, schedules, service expectations, and performance measures.

• Participate in employee selection and make hiring recommendations; onboard, train, coach, evaluate, and support retention of high-quality team members.

• Address performance and conduct concerns; maintain appropriate documentation and recommend corrective or disciplinary action in coordination with the Director of Information Technology and Human Resources.

• Identify staff development needs and ensure required technical and operational training is completed and documented.

Network Engineering and Operations

• Plan, configure, administer, monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot district routing, switching, wired and wireless networks, firewalls, IDS/IPS, load balancers, voice-related network services, and data center network infrastructure.

• Review network capacity, availability, performance, and security; recommend architecture, lifecycle replacement, and resiliency improvements.

• Lead resolution of complex outages and performance issues, coordinating escalation with vendors and other Technology teams as needed.

• Maintain network diagrams, configurations, inventories, standards, procedures, change records, and recovery documentation.

• Implement approved changes using defined testing, change-control, backup, rollback, and communication practices.

Security, Continuity, and Compliance

• Apply district cybersecurity standards and least-privilege practices to network systems; support vulnerability remediation, logging, monitoring, segmentation, and incident response.

• Support continuity of operations and disaster recovery planning by maintaining redundant services, current recovery procedures, configuration backups, and periodic tests.

• Protect confidential district information and comply with applicable district policies, procedures, contractual requirements, and legal obligations.

Planning, Service, and Communication

• Develop and maintain written Networking Team standards, operating procedures, service documentation, and customer-support expectations.

• Coordinate with the Operations Manager, Infrastructure Manager, Information Security staff, campus leadership, and other departments to deliver reliable services and resolve needs.

• Evaluate products and services; assist with specifications, purchasing, licensing, contracts, vendor performance, budgets, and long-range planning.

• Prepare records, reports, project updates, risk information, and recommendations for the Director of Information Technology and Chief Technology Officer.

• Communicate planned maintenance, outages, risks, and service impacts to appropriate stakeholders in a timely manner.

• Perform other duties as assigned by the Director of Information Technology or Chief Technology Officer, consistent with the general scope and level of responsibility of the position.

Working Conditions:

Mental/Physical/Environmental Factors:

• Mental demands: Maintain emotional control under stress; work with frequent interruptions; analyze complex technical problems; manage multiple priorities and deadlines; communicate effectively during service disruptions and emergencies.

• Tools/equipment used: Standard office equipment; computers; network testing and diagnostic tools; hand tools; ladders; district vehicle; enterprise network, monitoring, ticketing, and documentation systems.

• Physical demands: Frequent sitting, standing, walking, keyboarding, and repetitive hand motions; occasional climbing, stooping, kneeling, reaching, and work in confined equipment spaces; occasional lifting and carrying of equipment up to 50 pounds, with assistance or mechanical support when appropriate.

• Environmental factors: Work in offices, schools, data centers, telecommunications rooms, warehouses, and occasionally outdoors; exposure to electrical equipment, noise, dust, temperature variation, and construction or maintenance areas; districtwide travel required.

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, management information systems, information technology, or a related field, and at least five years of progressively responsible network support or network administration experience; or

• Five years (or more) successfully leading network support or network administration experience may substitute for the degree and experience combination.

Certifications:

• Relevant current networking certification, such as Cisco CCNA/CCNP or CompTIA Network+, is preferred but not required.

Special Knowledge/Skills:

• Advanced knowledge of enterprise LAN/WAN design, routing, switching, VLANs, subnetting, IP address management, and network address translation.

• Working knowledge of Cisco networking technologies, wireless networks, firewalls, IDS/IPS, load balancers, data center network architecture, voice systems including UCCX, and Cisco Application Centric Infrastructure.

• Knowledge of network monitoring, configuration management, disaster recovery, cybersecurity controls, change management, and technical documentation.

• Ability to analyze complex incidents, evaluate technical options, establish standards, manage vendors and projects, and communicate clearly with technical and nontechnical stakeholders.