Lead Director - Network Core Infrastructure Operations

CVS Health • Work At Home-California, CA

19d • $144,200 - $288,400

About The Position

CVS Health is seeking a network leader for its Infrastructure Operations & Service Delivery organization. The role leads engineers responsible for core routing and switching infrastructure spanning datacenters, campuses, WAN edge, cloud connectivity, and more than 10,000 locations. The environment supports approximately 10,000 applications, including about 4,100 cloud-hosted applications, and 190,000 users.

The Lead Director is accountable for the stability, performance, and security of the company’s WAN and LAN; core DNS, DHCP, and IPAM services; and day-to-day operations of a Level 1–3 network operations team. The position combines technical leadership and hands-on expertise with team development, vendor management, operational strategy, and problem and change management.

The role oversees core network operations and services, SDN and SD-WAN capabilities, multi-cloud and carrier connectivity, monitoring and reporting, network stabilization, change control, team coverage, KPIs, capacity planning, automation, and potential AI-assisted operations. The position is eligible for a CVS Health bonus, commission or short-term incentive program, and an award target in the company’s equity award program.

Requirements

• 10 or more years of enterprise network infrastructure operations and engineering experience.
• 5 or more years of hands-on enterprise routing and switching experience on Cisco Nexus, Catalyst, and ISR/ASR platforms, including BGP, OSPF or EIGRP, VLANs, spanning tree, VXLAN/EVPN, VRFs, QoS, and ACLs.
• 3 or more years of experience leading teams, with the ability to set direction and work hands-on.
• 3 or more years of experience operating enterprise-scale DNS, DHCP, and IPAM services using Infoblox.
• 3 or more years of WAN and LAN experience across datacenter, campus, and multi-site environments, including MPLS and/or SD-WAN.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience; equivalent experience is defined as a high school diploma plus 4 years of relevant experience.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with F5 load balancing and collaboration with security teams on firewall, proxy, and network-edge segmentation.
• Demonstrated ownership of incident, problem, and change management in a 24x7 operations environment, with a strong monitoring and observability background.
• Working automation experience using scripting or automation tools such as Python or Ansible for routine tasks, configuration audits, and reporting.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and mentoring skills, and the ability to collaborate across departments and organizational levels.
• Familiarity with AI-driven network operations, including telemetry-based anomaly detection, event correlation and noise reduction, and AI-assisted troubleshooting.
• Experience with streaming telemetry, SNMP, NetFlow/IPFIX, and syslog data pipelines at scale.
• Advanced automation or infrastructure-as-code experience, including NETCONF/YANG, Ansible, or Terraform.
• Hands-on experience with Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN, ACI, or Catalyst Center (DNA Center).
• Multi-cloud networking experience with AWS and/or Azure, such as Transit Gateway, Route 53, or PrivateLink.
• Experience in a large, regulated enterprise, such as healthcare or HIPAA/PCI DSS environments, operating thousands of locations.
• Industry certifications such as Cisco CCNP or CCIE (or equivalent), and ITIL.

Responsibilities

• Own the operational health, performance, and security of core routing and switching across datacenter, campus, WAN edge, and cloud connectivity, primarily using Cisco platforms.
• Oversee the design, implementation, and maintenance of resilient WAN and LAN networks.
• Manage routing and switching operations, including BGP, OSPF/EIGRP, VLANs, spanning tree, VXLAN/EVPN, VRFs, QoS, and access control; oversee turn-ups, changes, and remediation.
• Operate and safeguard enterprise DNS, DHCP, and IPAM services using Infoblox.
• Maintain supporting services such as NTP and network authentication, including RADIUS and 802.1X, in partnership with identity and security teams.
• Implement and oversee software-defined networking and SD-WAN capabilities, including Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN and ACI.
• Manage multi-cloud connectivity and coordinate carrier and WAN services.
• Ensure network device monitoring is captured, acknowledged, and reported; streamline monitoring into a single-pane-of-glass view.
• Create automated reporting on network health, outages, and status, and keep network monitoring tools current and accurate.
• Identify potential network issues and vulnerabilities and implement preventive solutions.
• Lead investigations and resolution of complex, high-impact network issues, including root-cause analysis.
• Develop and enforce network change-control processes and collaborate across teams to minimize operational impact.
• Review daily network changes with the team and establish workflows that support a high success rate for approved changes.
• Lead, mentor, and develop a Level 1–3 network operations team, fostering a collaborative, high-accountability culture and supporting career growth.
• Manage staffing and shift coverage to sustain a stable, flexible, and available network.
• Develop and track KPIs for network performance, reliability, and efficiency; use results to identify improvements and build strategic plans.
• Lead capacity planning and forecast investment needs across the core routing and switching estate.
• Drive practical automation of routine diagnostics, configuration compliance, and reporting under change-control, approval, testing, and rollback processes.
• Adopt AI-assisted or AIOps capabilities where valuable, with engineers reviewing and approving recommendations.

Benefits

• Medical coverage
• Dental coverage
• Vision coverage
• Paid time off
• Retirement savings options
• Wellness programs
• Other resources to support physical, emotional, and financial well-being, based on eligibility
• CVS Health bonus, commission, or short-term incentive program eligibility
• Company equity award program award target

What This Job Offers

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