Network Operations Lead Specialist Engineer

Job Title: Network Operations Lead Specialist Engineer
Location: San Jose CA
Experience: 12 Years
Employment Type: Contract
Interview Type: In-Person or Webcam

We are seeking an experienced Network Operations Lead Specialist Engineer with extensive hands-on expertise managing large-scale enterprise networks network operations centers (NOC) and mission-critical infrastructure. The ideal candidate will be responsible for overseeing network operations ensuring high availability of network services leading incident response and driving continuous improvements in network performance and reliability. This role requires strong leadership skills deep technical knowledge across routing switching firewalls SD-WAN cloud networking and network monitoring tools.

• Lead daily network operations monitoring and performance management activities for complex enterprise environments.

• Drive troubleshooting root cause analysis and timely resolution of high-severity network incidents and outages.

• Oversee end-to-end network operations including LAN WAN WLAN Security Data Center and cloud networking.

• Manage NOC processes escalation workflows and operational standards to ensure network uptime and service reliability.

• Develop and implement capacity planning network performance optimization and proactive monitoring strategies.

• Coordinate and guide cross-functional teams including engineering security infrastructure and support groups.

• Create and maintain network documentation runbooks dashboards topology maps and operational procedures.

• Support upgrades patching enhancements migrations and deployment of new network solutions.

• Lead vendor management evaluate tools and equipment and participate in technology roadmap planning.

• Ensure compliance with security standards data protection policies and regulatory requirements.

• Mentor junior engineers providing technical guidance and training as needed.

• Conduct incident post-mortem reviews and implement improvement plans.

• 12 years of experience in network operations network engineering or NOC leadership roles.

• Strong expertise in routing and switching technologies (BGP OSPF EIGRP MPLS STP VXLAN EVPN).

• Hands-on experience with firewalls and security platforms such as Palo Alto Cisco ASA Check Point or Fortinet.

• Experience managing SD-WAN environments (Cisco Viptela Meraki Aruba Silver Peak etc.).

• Proficiency with Data Center network infrastructure including Nexus ACI F5 load balancers and VPN technologies.

• Strong knowledge of network monitoring tools (SolarWinds Splunk Nagios Wireshark NetBrain SevOne etc.).

• Experience supporting cloud/hybrid networks (AWS Azure GCP).

• Proven leadership and team management experience with large-scale distributed networks.

• Excellent analytical troubleshooting and communication skills.

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Engineering or related field.

• Relevant certifications such as CCNP CCIE PCNSE JNCIP AWS/Azure network certification or equivalent.

• Experience with automation and scripting (Python Ansible Bash) for operational efficiency.

• Knowledge of ITIL processes and experience in ITSM environments (ServiceNow preferred).

• Experience managing carrier services telecom circuits SDN and network virtualization.

• Prior experience working in high-availability environments such as telecom cloud or large enterprise networks.