Network Lead

New American Funding•Santa Ana, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

The Network Lead provides day-to-day technical and project leadership for the Network team and serves as the working link between management and technical subject matter experts. The role oversees network and cloud networking projects, coordinates team resources and work, and ensures the capacity, resiliency, and security of office, cloud, and AI network infrastructure. The Network Lead serves as acting manager when the Network Manager is absent and takes on delegated management responsibilities to build readiness for a management role. This onsite position is based in Santa Ana, California, and follows Pacific Standard Time hours. The role combines hands-on hybrid cloud networking expertise with project management, change and problem management, communication, and team development. It includes coordinating with internal teams, business stakeholders, offshore teams, and vendors; supporting on-call coverage; and delivering changes with minimal disruption. Candidates must be able to verify identity and employment eligibility to work in the United States.

Requirements

Proven ability to lead projects, coordinate resources, and guide technical teams without relying on formal authority.
Strong hands-on experience with cloud networking, including ExpressRoute, VNet peering, Private Link/Private Endpoints, VPN gateways, and hybrid on-premises-to-cloud connectivity.
Advanced experience with Palo Alto firewalls and network security, and demonstrated experience with infrastructure vendors such as Cisco, Arista, and Alkira.
Working knowledge of network architecture, network administration, and cloud IaaS administration in a complex environment.
Experience with network automation and Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform, Ansible, or Python, and with network monitoring or observability platforms.
Demonstrated success designing and operating highly available, resilient networks and delivering changes with minimal service disruption.
Understanding of project management methodologies and process-oriented operations, including change, incident, and problem management.
Ability to mentor, delegate, hold team members accountable, and build strong working relationships.
Ability to prioritize competing demands, meet deadlines, and remain composed under pressure.
Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills, including the ability to communicate with staff and management at all levels and with non-technical executives.
Knowledge of security and privacy frameworks such as CIS Controls, NIST CSF, and PCI DSS, and financial services requirements such as GLBA and FFIEC guidance.
Self-motivation and ability to exercise independent judgment and step into a management role as needed.
Ability to participate in an on-call or after-hours support rotation as required.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
15 or more years of experience in network engineering roles.
10 or more years of experience leading projects, technical teams, or serving in a lead or supervisory capacity.
2 or more years of experience with cloud networking in Azure and/or AWS.
Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) certification required.
Palo Alto Networks Certified Next-Generation Firewall Engineer or legacy PCNSE certification required.
Cisco CCNP certification required.
Must be able to verify identity and employment eligibility to work in the United States.
Must be able to lift up to ten pounds and perform the physical functions described in the posting, with reasonable accommodations as applicable.

Nice To Haves

Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Associate (AZ-700) certification.
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification.
Process or project management certification, such as ITIL, PMP, or Six Sigma.
Experience in the mortgage or financial services industry.
Experience supporting high-performance networking for AI or data-intensive workloads, such as low-latency, high-throughput fabrics.

Responsibilities

Oversee planning, prioritization, and delivery of network and cloud networking projects, including scope, timelines, milestones, dependencies, and risks.
Track project status, report progress and resource needs to the Manager, and escalate issues that threaten quality, scope, or schedule.
Coordinate project work with cloud, infrastructure, security, application, Infrastructure as Code teams, business stakeholders, and third-party vendors.
Incorporate resiliency, redundancy, and rollback considerations into project designs and implementation plans.
Improve network processes and standards to maintain consistent network and cloud network services.
Assign, balance, and track work across Network Architects, Network Engineers, and Network Administrators according to priorities, skills, and capacity.
Monitor ticket queues and escalations, ensure timely resolution, and serve as an escalation point for complex or high-impact issues.
Coordinate on-call and 24/7 coverage, schedules, and workload across hybrid cloud networking and offshore teams.
Partner with the Manager on capacity planning, staffing, vendor resources, and budget inputs.
Coordinate vendor engagements, service delivery, and escalations.
Lead planning and execution of network and cloud network changes while minimizing disruption to business operations, users, and dependent services.
Ensure changes follow established change management processes, including documented requests, risk and impact assessments, peer review, and Change Advisory Board approval.
Require and review detailed implementation, validation, and rollback plans; schedule changes within approved maintenance windows and coordinate timing with stakeholders and offshore teams.
Use low-risk deployment approaches, Infrastructure as Code, templates, and automation where appropriate to standardize changes and reduce errors.
Communicate planned changes, expected impacts, and implementation status to affected stakeholders; perform pre- and post-change health checks and lead reviews of failed or problematic changes.
Coach engineers on change risk assessment and disciplined change practices.
Lead root cause analysis for major incidents, recurring issues, and service degradations across on-premises, cloud, and AI network infrastructure.
Own the network problem management process, identifying, logging, prioritizing, and tracking problems through resolution in alignment with ITIL practices.
Analyze incident trends, monitoring data, logs, and configuration history to identify underlying problems proactively.
Use structured root cause analysis methods, develop corrective and preventive actions, and drive them through completion.
Document known errors and workarounds, prepare blameless post-incident reports, and present findings, business impact, and remediation plans.
Partner with vendors, cloud providers, security teams, and application teams to resolve cross-domain problems and track problem management metrics.
Serve as a subject matter expert in hybrid cloud networking, including Azure networking, ExpressRoute, VPN gateways, Palo Alto firewalls, and cloud-to-cloud connectivity.
Review designs, changes, and implementation plans, and ensure architecture designs are translated into supportable implementations.
Troubleshoot critical incidents and validate complex changes as needed.
Promote modern network practices and high-availability design, including redundancy, failover testing, capacity planning, and disaster recovery readiness.
Mentor and coach Network Architects, Network Engineers, and Network Administrators; support onboarding, training, and certification growth.
Set expectations for quality, scope, and delivery; provide regular feedback and performance input to the Manager.
Participate in recruiting and interviewing, and foster collaboration, accountability, and knowledge sharing.
Act as manager in the Manager’s absence by running meetings, setting priorities, and making operational decisions within delegated authority.
Represent the Hybrid Cloud Networking team in meetings with technology leadership, business partners, and vendors; take on delegated management duties and maintain documentation of team priorities, projects, risks, and key relationships.
Create and maintain procedures, runbooks, SLAs, network diagrams, and knowledge base articles.
Develop and present project updates, technical plans, and presentations for technical and business stakeholders, translating network constraints into business terms.
Support adherence to security, privacy, and regulatory frameworks applicable to network infrastructure.
Perform additional related duties as assigned.