NETWORK ADMINISTRATOR LEAD

Sandia Area Federal Credit Union • Albuquerque, NM

244d • Onsite

About The Position

At Sandia Area, every position plays a vital role in fulfilling our mission to deliver high-value banking and lending services that strengthen the financial well-being of our members and community. Each team member is expected to embody our core values of Service, Sustainability, Efficiency, Trust, Stewardship, and Growth, contributing to our vision of empowering lifelong achievement through better banking. While specific responsibilities vary by role, every position carries universal expectations aligned with its level of responsibility and authority across the organization. As a Supervisor at Sandia Area, you play a key role in guiding and supporting your team to achieve operational goals and deliver exceptional member experiences. You are responsible for fostering a culture of trust and accountability while ensuring team alignment with the organization's mission, vision, and values. By mentoring staff and addressing day-to-day challenges, you contribute to a workplace environment that promotes collaboration, service excellence, and long-term success. Reporting directly to the VP of IT Security and Infrastructure, the Network Administrator Lead is responsible for overseeing the Network Administration staff and resources dedicated to achieving operational goals. The Network Administrator Lead plays a key role in designing, building, and implementing network systems across the credit union. This includes planning, developing, installing, configuring, maintaining, supporting, and optimizing all local and wide area network connections, corporate servers, associated software, and communication links. Further, the Lead will troubleshoot network performance issues, as well as analyze network traffic and provide capacity planning solutions.

Requirements

• Associate's degree in related field required.
• Four (4) years of applicable experience required with progressive responsibilities in a leadership capacity.
• Net+ and Sec+ certifications required.
• Expertise in network automation tools, VPN technology, and server systems architecture with a requisite understanding of financial institution operations.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills to convey goals, set expectations, provide feedback, and inspire and develop teams.
• Strong leadership, time management and organizational skills, with the ability to prioritize tasks, manage multiple responsibilities, and adapt to a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to analyze data and metrics to drive team performance and efficiency.
• Willingness to engage in difficult situations using outstanding interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office, including Outlook, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Ability to safely work with and in proximity of electrical devices including UPS', 220V Power Strips, etc.
• Ability to work independently, demonstrating attention to detail in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to perform essential functions, including the ability to lift up to 50 lbs. as needed.

Nice To Haves

• Fortinet and Extreme Networks experience is desired.
• Preferred certifications: CCNA/CCNP or equivalent.
• General knowledge of credit unions or financial institutions is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead by example, reinforce, and consistently uphold Sandia Area's Values: Service, Sustainability, Efficiency, Trust, Stewardship, and Growth.
• Contribute to leading a high-performing team; monitor performance targets, foster a culture of continuous improvement, encourage innovation, learning, and adapting best practices to optimize performance.
• Provide leadership, coaching, and mentorship to employees, fostering a positive and high-performing team environment.
• Oversee day-to-day operations and ensure alignment with departmental and organizational objectives.
• Assist in the recruitment, interviewing, and hiring process, ensuring candidates align with the credit union's mission, values, and service culture.
• Support the onboarding, training, and development of new hires, fostering a positive and growth-oriented work environment.
• Directly supervise staff with the goal of enhancing professional development and personal growth.
• Develop staffing plans and schedules to ensure effective coverage and team balance.
• Optimize resource allocation, including personnel, budget, and resources, to maximize effectiveness while controlling costs.
• Collaborate with other managers to drive cross-departmental alignment and operational excellence.
• Lead the Network Administration team's initiatives by setting standards and maintaining project timelines.
• Ensure alignment by providing regular feedback and project status updates to the VP of IT Security and Infrastructure via multiple channels, meetings, project management updates, etc.
• Responsible for designing, installing, maintaining and supporting VMware, SAN, and various application servers and services throughout the credit union.
• Responsible for management of switches, firewalls, and SD-WAN appliances including patches, secure configuration, and implementation of new features and functions.
• Monitors wireless network for issues and provides configurations that actively evolve.
• Provides high-level technical support for these systems, creates and maintains documentation, maintains hardware and software standards, and works projects and tasks as needed in order to upgrade to new and/or improved equipment and procedures.
• Overall responsibility for the availability and integrity of physical/virtual server and SAN infrastructure.
• Manages system back-ups and restores, including SAN and VM snapshots.
• Maintains a highly secure infrastructure, protecting sensitive private member data from internal and external threats.
• Researches, diagnoses and resolves problems within the network infrastructure. Maintains activity logs and makes recommendations for new network products.
• Monitors server and related systems performance and implements performance tuning and alerting.
• Oversee VoIP System Support & Management.
• Acts as a resource and provides escalation support, guidance, and/or direction to team members.
• Stays abreast of hardware and software developments. Recommends new technologies and processes that enhance the efficiency and security of the network infrastructure.
• Communicates problems and unusual situations to leadership in a timely fashion.
• Works with IT team as needed on projects such as servers, applications, core systems, etc.
• Triage and direct escalations to the correct resource; within the IT department, another department, or through vendor support.
• Participate in on-call support rotation.
• Effectively engage with external vendors to identify, evaluate, and implement solutions for complex IT support challenges. Coordinate vendor relationships to ensure timely resolution of issues, manage service level agreements (SLAs), and escalate concerns when necessary.
• Reviews performance metrics for vendor connections making recommendations as needed to ensure optimum and consistent performance.
• Maintains and recommends changes to network support contacts and assists in maintaining current and accurate licensing.
• Conduct periodic audits, testing, and remediation in accordance with IT policies.
• Creates updates and changes Information Technology operational information, system utilization logs and other vital recordkeeping as directed.
• Trains and educates staff on network problems, changes to topology, policy and procedure manuals.
• Maintain network monitoring tools.
• Generate and analyze reports regarding network performance, up-time, and proactive trend analysis to predict issues and weak points in the network.
• Perform and review network vulnerability analysis.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance
• Paid Short-Term Disability, Life Insurance and AD&D
• Paid Federally Recognized Holidays
• Vacation, Birthday, Floating Holiday & Sick Leave
• Tuition Reimbursement
• 401(k) with Employer Match
• Pension Plan
• Opportunities for advancement

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Industry: Credit Intermediation and Related Activities
• Education Level: Associate degree