I&T Infrastructure Director, Global Network & Connectivity Services

CSL•Kankakee, IL

About The Position

The Director, Global Network & Connectivity Services is responsible for defining, evolving, and operationalizing the enterprise strategy for global network and connectivity services in a mission-critical, multinational biotech environment. This role owns the vision, operating model, and outcomes for global connectivity platforms—including LAN, WAN, cloud and hybrid networking, firewall, network access control, and voice—ensuring services are secure, resilient, scalable, and tightly aligned to business priorities across R&D, manufacturing, corporate, and commercial environments. As the enterprise leader for global connectivity, this role ensures consistent service delivery, observability, and operational resilience across regions, sites, cloud platforms, and managed service providers. The Director sets standards, establishes governance, builds organizational capability, and partners across Infrastructure, Security, Cloud, and Application teams to reduce risk, simplify the environment, and enable business transformation.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree / Master's degree or equivalent experience; education preferably concentrated in IT, Engineering, or Science; MBA desirable.
12+ years of progressive experience in enterprise IT infrastructure, with significant focus on network and connectivity services.
Prior leadership experience managing large-scale network engineering and operations teams, with accountability for strategy, service outcomes, and operational resilience.
Proven experience designing, operating, and modernizing highly available global or multi-site LAN/WAN/WLAN environments.
Hands-on experience with hybrid and cloud connectivity (Azure, AWS or GCP).
Experience leading major network transformation initiatives (e.g., SD-WAN, cloud migrations, data center exits).
Track record of vendor and carrier management, contract negotiation, lifecycle planning, and cost optimization.
Experience operating within regulated enterprise environments.
Demonstrated ownership of network service budgets, forecasting, and financial management.
Demonstrated ability to define vision, strategy, and operating models for network platforms and services aligned to business priorities.
Aligns network and connectivity strategy with business goals and digital transformation initiatives.
Anticipates future connectivity needs and develops scalable, resilient roadmaps.
Ensures high availability, reliability, and performance of enterprise network services.
Drives disciplined incident, problem, and change management practices.
Demonstrates hands-on leadership as needed to drive timely resolution of complex technical issues and maintain operational stability.
Embeds security and resiliency principles into network design and operations.
Proactively identifies and mitigates operational, security, and vendor risks.
Builds, mentors, and retains high performing engineering and operations teams.
Establishes accountability, performance standards, and development pathways.
Communicates complex technical topics effectively to executive and business stakeholders.
Acts as a trusted advisor across infrastructure, application, and security teams.
Builds strong, trust-based relationships across teams and stakeholder groups.
Successfully leads large-scale transformations with strong governance and change management.
Balances innovation, risk, and operational stability.
LAN, WAN, WLAN, and data center networking.
Global and multi-site network design and operations.
High-availability and resilient network architectures.
Hybrid cloud networking (Azure, AWS, GCP).
ExpressRoute, Direct Connect, VPN, and peering architectures.
Cloud network performance and connectivity optimization.
Network security architecture and segmentation.
Zero Trust and SASE networking models.
Firewall and perimeter security technologies.
Prisma Access, Zscaler, and Palo Alto Networks product suite.
Network operations and reliability management.
Incident, problem, and change management.
Network monitoring, observability, and performance tools.
IT service management frameworks (ITIL or equivalent).
Carrier, ISP, and network vendor management.
Contract negotiation and vendor performance oversight.
Budgeting, forecasting, and total cost of ownership (TCO).
Technical and executive-level communication.
Cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder engagement.
Hands-on technical leadership during critical incidents.

Nice To Haves

MBA desirable.

Responsibilities

Define and own the global network and connectivity services strategy and operating model, ensuring consistent capabilities, standards, and outcomes across regions.
Establish enterprise and regional reference architectures and technology roadmaps that support site operations, cloud platforms, partner connectivity, and mergers and acquisitions.
Reduce complexity and technical debt through standardization, simplification, and rationalization of legacy technologies and balance global standardization with regional and regulatory requirements.
Ensure end-to-end availability, performance, and resilience of global connectivity services supporting regulated manufacturing, R&D, and corporate operations.
Own service-level expectations (availability, latency, incident trends) and drive proactive risk mitigation, capacity planning, and failure prevention across all regions.
Act as the senior escalation and decision authority for global connectivity incidents impacting business operations.
Define and own the global network monitoring and observability strategy, ensuring consistent visibility across on-prem, cloud, hybrid, and managed service environments.
Ensure network telemetry (metrics, logs, events, flows) is integrated with the enterprise monitoring and observability platforms to enable correlated, service-level insights.
Use observability to drive proactive detection, faster root cause analysis, and preventative improvement, not just reactive incident response.
Partner closely with Information Security to ensure network platforms are secure by design, incorporating zero-trust principles, segmentation, and strong access controls.
Ensure connectivity services support regulatory and compliance requirements (e.g., GxP, SOX), including audit readiness and traceability.
Balance risk tolerance, resiliency, and usability in architectural and operational decisions.
Drive the managed service strategy and operating model for network services, including clear accountability, performance measures, and escalation paths.
Provide governance and oversight of managed service providers and key technology vendors, ensuring service quality, cost efficiency, and alignment to enterprise standards.
Lead and develop a globally distributed Network & Connectivity Services organization with clear roles, service ownership, and accountability.
Build capability in platform operations, automation, observability, and service management.
Shift teams away from reactive operations and device-centric thinking to the end-to-end services, business outcomes and user experiences they support.