Director, Network Engineering & Communications

Arizona State University • Tempe, AZ

1d • $145,000 - $165,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Enterprise Technology is seeking a Director, Network Engineering & Communications to lead the strategy and operations behind the campus network, voice technologies, and Arizona’s regional network the Sun Corridor Network (SCN). Reporting to the Executive Director, the Director, Network Engineering & Communications acts as the primary technical manager for the network at one of the largest and most innovative university communities in the country and to provide technical leadership for the Sun Corridor Network, Arizona's statewide research and education network. This is a rare opportunity to build a unified technical organization, bringing network engineering, unified communications/telephony, and research and education networking under one roof and to shape how ASU and Arizona's research community connect for years to come. As with all members of the Enterprise Technology team, this role carries core responsibilities, including fostering a sense of belonging and cultivating a culture that is relational, visionary, and empowering. With a strong emphasis on authenticity and compassion, this position is dedicated to embodying and advancing our culture.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree and seven (7) years of experience appropriate to the area of assignment/field including two (2) years managerial experience; OR, Any equivalent combination of experience and/or training from which comparable knowledge, skills and abilities have been achieved.
• Applicants must be eligible to work in the United States.
• Resume or CV

Nice To Haves

• Demonstrated ability to model empathy, compassion, and emotional intelligence.
• Experience in a values-driven organization with a strong commitment to inclusion and belonging.
• Ability to cultivate a psychologically safe environment where all team members can thrive.
• Capacity to inspire and drive meaningful change in individual, institutional, and corporate behaviors to support a more sustainable environment.
• Commitment to leading by example through effective communication, active participation, and advocacy for the institution’s sustainability programs.
• Demonstrated experience leading or closely partnering across multiple technical domains — enterprise network infrastructure, voice/UC or telephony, and provider network infrastructure — rather than deep expertise in a single discipline alone.
• Experience managing complex, multi-vendor network or telecommunications infrastructure projects, including budget oversight, RFP development, and vendor contract negotiation.
• Experience with, or working knowledge of, research and education (R&E) networking — including regional/state R&E networks, Internet2, or similar multi-institutional network consortia — strongly preferred given this role's oversight of the Sun Corridor Network.
• Higher education or large multi-site enterprise experience preferred.
• Strong working knowledge of enterprise network architecture (wired, wireless, firewall, access control, provider).
• Understanding of E911 requirements and regulatory compliance obligations for voice systems in a multi-campus environment.
• Working knowledge of research and education networking architecture and governance, including multi-institutional backbone networks and connectivity to Internet2.
• Proven program- and portfolio-level governance skills: budget ownership, vendor management, and prioritization across concurrent, competing initiatives.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to represent complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences, including external institutional partners, and at the leadership level.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute long-term strategy for ASU's campus network infrastructure, including wired & wireless networking and voice/unified communications systems along with Sun Corridor Network (SCN), Arizona’s research & education network.
• Serve as the single point of accountability for cross-domain technical strategy and roadmap execution across Network Engineering, Voice Communications, and SCN.
• Represent Intelligent Infrastructure engineering priorities in ET-wide planning and leadership forums; translate enterprise strategy into team-level standards, tooling decisions, and operational practice.
• Lead modernization initiatives across network, cabling, voice/UC platforms, and SCN including convergence of standards and tools that today operate independently across the teams.
• Oversee architecture, design, and operational support for enterprise wired and wireless networks, core network, provider network, and border/data center firewall services.
• Ensure NOC practices, monitoring, and incident response are consistent and coordinated across network and voice/UC domains.
• Oversee network security posture in coordination with ET Security teams, including access control and video surveillance system integration where applicable.
• Own the enterprise voice and unified communications strategy, including telephone systems, voicemail, VoIP, SIP trunking, video conferencing, and cloud-based UC/UCaaS platforms.
• Ensure E911 compliance and accurate location data for VoIP and remote-worker telephony across all campuses and locations, in accordance with applicable regulations.
• Direct planning for telephony system upgrades, migrations, and lifecycle replacement, including integration with contact center and collaboration tools used across the university.
• Ensure voice/UC systems are appropriately represented in disaster recovery and business continuity planning, including redundancy for outages affecting telephony services.
• Provide technical leadership and direction for the Sun Corridor Network, Arizona's tri-university research and education network connecting ASU, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Arizona to Internet2 and the national research and education community.
• Represent ASU's technical interests to the Sun Corridor Network Technical Committee and coordinate with NAU and UA technical counterparts on network architecture, capacity planning, and service delivery.
• Oversee the technical team responsible for day-to-day engineering and operations of the Sun Corridor Network's backbone infrastructure, including connections to Internet2 and community anchor institutions (K-12 schools, community colleges, libraries, and museums) across Arizona.
• Align Sun Corridor Network's research and education networking strategy and roadmap with ASU's broader network and infrastructure strategy.
• Provide input into the combined operating budget across Network Engineering, Voice Communications, SCN, and Sun Corridor Network functions.
• Develop technical RFP specifications, lead vendor selection, and participate in contract negotiations for network, telephony/UC, and research/education networking systems and services.
• Participate in vendor relationship management and service agreements for network, voice, and research/education networking infrastructure, ensuring cost-effective, high-quality service delivery.
• Set the strategy for AI-assisted and automated tooling across Network Engineering, Voice Communications, and the SCN — for example, standardizing on shared monitoring, ticketing, or NOC tooling with AI-assisted triage and diagnostics.
• Own governance of AI-assisted operations across these teams to ensure consistent, secure adoption aligned with ET's broader technology direction.
• Lead a multidisciplinary engineering organization spanning network, voice/UC, and research/education networking provider disciplines; hire, develop, mentor, and evaluate managers and technical leads across the combined organization.
• Build succession and bench strength across the combined organization, reducing single-point-of-failure risk.
• Foster collaboration across campus partners, faculty, researchers, and administrative units, as well as NAU and UA technical counterparts, to understand and meet evolving network and communications needs.
• Leverage AI in routine tasks and contribute ideas for using AI to improve the unit’s efficiency and overall performance.
• Take responsibility for fostering a positive culture, upholding organizational values, and championing engagement in all its forms.
• Collaborate across teams and actively participate in ET/ASU events and programs.

Benefits

• ASU’s comprehensive benefits package is a key part of your total compensation.
• World-class, low cost education. Our professional development is built in! ET encourages staff to seek additional certificates and degrees via ASU’s top ranked programs with major tuition breaks.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager