Network Operations Lead

JOB DESCRIPTION :Senior Network Operations Lead Enterprise Networking & Security

Step into a senior network operations leadership role supporting a complex enterprise network environment across security, routing, switching, wireless, SD-WAN, data center, cloud networking, and load balancing.

This role is ideal for a hands-on NOC Lead or Senior Network Engineer who work in a Hybrid onsite/remote capacity with the team in Grand Rapids, MI (3 days onsite with 2 days allowable for remote work from home). Bring your strong troubleshooting skills, architect-level network knowledge, and the ability to lead incident response, mentor L1/L2 engineers, improve operational processes, and partner with engineering teams on long-term network reliability.

What You ll Do

• Lead day-to-day NOC operations and provide technical direction to L1/L2 engineers.
• Serve as a senior escalation point for complex network issues.
• Oversee response to network alerts, hardware issues, performance problems, and service interruptions.
• Lead and coordinate P1/P2 bridge calls, including troubleshooting direction and communication.
• Perform root cause analysis for recurring network issues and recommend preventive actions.
• Improve monitoring, incident response, documentation, and escalation processes.
• Develop and maintain SOPs, runbooks, incident reports, and operational standards.
• Collaborate with network engineering, infrastructure, security, cloud, and application teams.
• Support continuous improvement of network reliability, visibility, and operational readiness.

    Strong hands-on experience with several of the following:

• Palo Alto firewalls

• Juniper SRX firewalls

• Juniper Mist wireless and wireless authentication

• Juniper and/or Cisco access layer switching

• SD-WAN

• L3 routing, especially BGP

• Data center switching

• ACI / VXLAN fabrics preferred

• Cloud networking, preferably Azure or Google Cloud Platform

• Load balancing, preferably F5

• VPNs, access points, monitoring tools, and network troubleshooting

Required Qualifications

• Extensive experience in network operations, network engineering, or NOC leadership.

• Proven ability to lead or mentor L1/L2 NOC engineers.

• Strong troubleshooting experience across routing, switching, wireless, firewall, VPN, and network performance issues.

• Experience leading incident response and coordinating technical teams during high-priority outages.

• Ability to document issues clearly, create SOPs, and improve operational processes.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.

• Ability to work hybrid onsite 3 days per week.

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology, or related field.

• Certifications such as CCNA, CCNP, JNCIA, JNCIS, Palo Alto, CISSP, or similar.

• Experience with enterprise-scale environments.

• Experience supporting data center, SD-WAN, cloud networking, or network security operations.