Network Lead

Job Purpose: The Network & Network Security Lead will play a major role in ensuring the integrity, performance, and security of the organization’s networking environment. This role goes beyond operations, demanding an expert-level understanding of complex network and security architectures, a hands-on ability to troubleshoot high-impact issues, and the capability to lead cross-functional teams in delivering secure and resilient infrastructure for a regulated financial environment. Key Responsibilities & Duties: ·  Architecture & Design Leadership: · Lead the design and evolution of enterprise network and security architecture aligned with business and compliance requirements. ·   Ensure integration of network security principles in all architectural decisions. ·  Collaborate with the design & architect team for the new project or new initiative ·  Advanced Troubleshooting & Problem Resolution: · Own and resolve high-severity incidents by diving deep into Layer 1–7 issues spanning networking, firewalls, routing, DNS, proxies, and cloud networking. · Lead root cause analysis and implement long-term preventive measures. ·  Multiskilling & Cross-Functional Expertise: ·  Provide mentorship across routing, switching, firewalls (NGFW), load balancers, VPNs, SD-WAN, ACI, SD-Access, and network access control (NAC). ·   Encourage skill development across multiple technology domains within the team.   ·   Security Posture & Threat Management: · Implement and maintain network segmentation, access control, and zero-trust strategies. ·   Collaborate with the cross-departmental teams on incident response and threat mitigation. ·  Operations Oversight & Optimization: ·   Oversee the performance, availability, and efficiency of the network and its security services. ·   Develop and enforce network operations procedures, ensuring compliance with industry and regulatory standards. ·  Project Leadership: ·  Lead critical infrastructure projects, including migrations, upgrades, and partner connectivity. ·  Coordinate cross-departmentally to ensure secure rollout of new services and systems. ·   Vendor & Contract Management: ·   Evaluate, select, and manage vendors and service providers. ·   Ensure SLA compliance and conduct regular performance reviews. ·   Compliance & Audit Readiness: ·   Maintain documentation and policies to meet the requirements of financial sector audits and compliance checks (e.g., PCI-DSS, ISO 27001). ·       Monitoring & Incident Detection: ·       Experience with proactive monitoring for performance and threats using tools like SIEM, NMS, and flow analysis. ·       Define thresholds, alerts, and escalation workflows for operational and security incidents. ·       Team Development: ·       Provide coaching, conduct regular performance reviews, and build development plans for team members. ·       Foster a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous learning. ·       Documentation: ·       Strong experience using documentation tools (Microsoft Office 365, Visio, Lucid chart). ·       Ensure all documentation aligns with compliance, audit, and organization standards. ·       Strong presentation skills.  Skills & Qualifications: ·       Typically, 7+ years of relevant work experience in industry, with a minimum of 3 years in a similar role ·       Deep hands-on expertise in enterprise networking, SDN solutions, network security, and firewall administration (Cisco, Aruba, Fortinet, Palo Alto, etc.). ·       Full-stack network knowledge (routing, switching, DNS, VPN, proxies, load balancers, SD-WAN, NAC, Wi-Fi, ACI, SD-Access). ·       Strong experience designing and managing secure, scalable, and high-performance networks. ·       Proficient in troubleshooting complex multi-vendor, multi-layer issues under pressure. ·