Associate Director, Cloud Network Engineer

S&P Global•Princeton, NJ

About The Position

The Associate Director, Cloud Network Engineer will join Global Network Services, a globally distributed engineering team responsible for designing, securing, and automating S&P Global’s cloud and hybrid network infrastructure. The role focuses on GCP network architecture, automation, and security modernization, with influence over standards and architecture for business-critical enterprise connectivity. The position owns enterprise GCP network architecture and engineering, including infrastructure-as-code and automated delivery. It also designs and operates Palo Alto Networks VM-Series firewalls and supports egress inspection, segmentation, and migration from legacy firewall platforms. The role serves as a senior technical authority for GCP networking, troubleshooting hybrid environments and working with security, application, infrastructure, and operations teams to meet governance, audit, and compliance requirements.

Requirements

10+ years of enterprise networking experience, including significant hands-on experience in large-scale cloud environments.
Hands-on experience designing, deploying, and operating Palo Alto Networks firewalls, including cloud VM-Series and centralized management via Panorama.
Deep hands-on GCP networking experience, including VPC and Shared VPC design, Cloud Interconnect, Cloud Router, Cloud NAT, Cloud DNS, Cloud Load Balancing, and Private Service Connect.
Production experience with network automation and infrastructure-as-code, including Terraform and Python, and version control using Git.
Excellent knowledge of networking standards, protocols, and technologies, including BGP, OSPF, routing policy, switching, VPNs, DNS, and load balancing.
Working knowledge of AWS and Azure networking, including Direct Connect, Transit Gateway, VPC and security groups, ExpressRoute, and Virtual WAN.
Excellent troubleshooting and analytical skills to diagnose and resolve complex network issues across cloud and hybrid environments.
Ability to work independently and collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams.
Ability to manage multiple priorities, commitments, and projects.
Bachelor’s or advanced degree in Computer Science, Information Security, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience demonstrating technical leadership capabilities.

Nice To Haves

Google Professional Cloud Network Engineer certification.
Palo Alto Networks PCNSE certification.
HashiCorp Terraform Associate, AWS Advanced Networking Specialty, or Microsoft Azure Network Engineer Associate certification.
Experience with network segmentation and micro-segmentation technologies such as Akamai Guardicore or Illumio.
Familiarity with Cloud Native NaaS platforms such as Alkira, Prosimo, or Aviatrix.
Understanding of AI and its practical application to cloud networking, including LLM-based assistants and AI-assisted tooling for Terraform and policy generation, configuration review, log and flow analysis, root-cause troubleshooting, and documentation.
Experience with Ansible and automated network testing tools such as Batfish or pyATS.
Exposure to network observability and AIOps platforms such as Selector AI or ThousandEyes.
Experience in a regulated financial services environment with formal change, audit, and evidence requirements.

Responsibilities

Own the enterprise GCP network architecture, designing, deploying, and managing VPCs and Shared VPC, Cloud Interconnect, Cloud Router, Cloud NAT, Cloud DNS, Cloud Load Balancing, Private Service Connect, hierarchical firewall policies, VPC Service Controls, and hybrid connectivity using BGP and routing policy.
Build and maintain Terraform modules for GCP and multi-cloud network provisioning; develop Python and Ansible automation to reduce manual work and configuration drift and shorten delivery timelines.
Establish and operate CI/CD pipelines for network changes, including automated validation, policy-as-code checks, pre-deployment testing, and controlled rollback; establish version-controlled, peer-reviewed, modular engineering standards.
Design, deploy, and operate enterprise-scale Palo Alto Networks VM-Series firewalls, including autoscaling, centralized policy management via Panorama and Strata Cloud Manager, security policy configuration, and SIEM and observability integrations.
Contribute to migration of legacy firewall platforms to the Palo Alto estate.
Drive network segmentation and security posture across cloud, data center, and hybrid infrastructure in partnership with Security, InfoSec, application, and infrastructure teams.
Support egress proxy platform onboarding and phased policy enforcement.
Serve as the senior technical authority for GCP networking across engineering and operations; troubleshoot complex hybrid network failures, participate in an on-call rotation, deliver approved changes within maintenance windows, and identify opportunities to reduce risk, optimize capacity, and improve engineering standards.