Sr Manager Core Technologies Connectivity Platforms

Academy Sports + Outdoors•Katy, TX

3d•Onsite

About The Position

In this role, you lead the connectivity platforms that support corporate, retail, and supply chain objectives. Your work provides a resilient, secure, and reliable foundation across enterprise network, firewall, cloud networking, wireless, SD-WAN, and voice services. By connecting platform strategy, service delivery, and operational performance, you help the business operate effectively while advancing scalable and cost-conscious technology solutions. Working across strategy and execution, you develop and deliver the annual operating plan and technology roadmap for network, firewall, and telecom platforms. You oversee solution evaluation and design, monitor platform health, drive automation and process improvement, and lead major incident response, root cause analysis, and problem management. You also manage budgets, vendors, service levels, success metrics, project portfolios, cross-functional technical programs, compliance, stakeholder communication, and executive reporting while building and developing a high-performing technical team.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related discipline, or equivalent work experience
10+ years of progressive experience in IT infrastructure, with a deep focus on enterprise network and telecom engineering
4+ years of proven managerial and leadership experience, with a track record of building, mentoring, and leading high-performing technical teams
Demonstrated experience developing and executing annual technology roadmaps and strategies that align with core business goals
Proven track record of architecting, implementing, and managing innovative, highly available, and fault-tolerant network architectures
Proven experience in leading IT operations, incident response, and problem management functions at scale
Extensive experience in strategic and tactical vendor and Managed Service Provider management, including contract negotiation, defining statements of work, and driving partner performance to defined service level agreements
Demonstrated experience directly linking technical operations and infrastructure investments to financial outcomes, including budget, total cost of ownership, and return on investment
Expert-level knowledge of enterprise network architecture, including switching, routing, BGP or OSPF, VLANs, firewalls, and wide-area networking such as MPLS and SD-WAN
Deep knowledge of modern wireless networking, including Wi-Fi 6 or 6E, mobility, and BYOD, for large-scale retail and corporate environments
Deep understanding of cloud networking across GCP, Azure, and AWS, including hybrid-cloud connectivity, VPC design, transit gateways, and cloud-native security
Advanced knowledge of network security principles and systems, including next-generation firewalls, network access control, Zero Trust concepts, and SASE
Expertise in modern voice platforms and a comprehensive understanding of telecom infrastructure and cost management
Proficiency in leveraging network monitoring and observability tools, such as SolarWinds and Dynatrace, to drive operational stability and rapid root cause analysis
Excellent communication skills, with a proven ability to report technical status, project delivery, and incidents to leadership
Strong understanding of IT governance frameworks and experience managing environments subject to regulatory compliance, including PCI and SOX
Strong financial acumen with experience managing large operational and capital budgets
Methodical problem-solving skills, with the ability to lead high-stakes incident response and drive root cause analysis
A team-first attitude

Nice To Haves

Experience managing other managers is strongly preferred
Advanced industry certifications are highly preferred, such as CCNP or CCIE, PCNSE, or cloud-specific networking certifications
Direct experience with the Fortinet platform, including FortiGate and FortiManager, is highly desired

Responsibilities

Lead the connectivity platforms that support corporate, retail, and supply chain objectives.
Provide a resilient, secure, and reliable foundation across enterprise network, firewall, cloud networking, wireless, SD-WAN, and voice services.
Connect platform strategy, service delivery, and operational performance.
Develop and deliver the annual operating plan and technology roadmap for network, firewall, and telecom platforms.
Oversee solution evaluation and design.
Monitor platform health.
Drive automation and process improvement.
Lead major incident response, root cause analysis, and problem management.
Manage budgets, vendors, service levels, success metrics, project portfolios, cross-functional technical programs, compliance, stakeholder communication, and executive reporting.
Build and develop a high-performing technical team.
Partner with IT and business leadership to understand objectives and translate them into scalable, secure, supportable, and cost-effective connectivity solutions.
Work across Security, Cloud, Store Operations, and other IT teams, coordinating with business stakeholders to plan and execute projects, manage risks, and align technical priorities with operational needs.
Lead network engineers and analysts, define team structure and resource priorities, and support recruitment, onboarding, performance evaluation, and professional development.
Manage strategic and tactical relationships with vendors and managed service providers, establish performance expectations, negotiate contracts and statements of work, and hold partners accountable to service level agreements.