Lead Director - Network and Data Center Engineering

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Position Summary The Lead Director, AI Network & Data Center Engineering is responsible for leading the strategy, design, and delivery of the organization’s network infrastructure supporting enterprise applications and next-generation AI/ML workloads. This role oversees the development of high‑performance, low‑latency data center and cloud networking capabilities that enable large-scale GPU environments, advanced data processing, and modern application platforms. By establishing architectural standards, driving consistent execution, and ensuring secure, resilient connectivity, this position plays a critical role in supporting the organization’s most demanding technology initiatives.

This leader is accountable for building and guiding a high-performing team of network and data center engineers, while aligning infrastructure capabilities to evolving business and security needs. Working closely with cloud, platform, and cybersecurity leadership, the role drives adoption of modern architectures, automation, and performance optimization practices to improve reliability, scalability, and efficiency. Through strong strategic direction and operational leadership, the Lead Director ensures the network function can support long-term growth, increasing AI demand, and enterprise-wide digital transformation.

Role Responsibilities Development & Enforcement

• Define and enforce network architecture standards, security controls, and compliance policies
• Establish best practices for configuration, deployment, and operations
• Ensure alignment with enterprise governance frameworks (HIPAA, NIST, PCI, HITRUST, CSA)

Collaboration & Expertise

• Advise executives on network strategy, roadmaps, emerging technologies, and industry trends
• Partner with cross-functional teams (platform, cloud, security, infrastructure) to deliver integrated, secure and scalable solutions
• Engage vendors on solution architectures, design, contracts, and delivery

Analysis & Configuration

• Design and implement:
• Data center fabrics (leaf-spine, Clos, EVPN/VXLAN)
• AI/GPU-optimized networking (low latency, high throughput) and related technologies
• Optimize performance for GPU workloads (RDMA, RoCE, ECN, PFC)
• GCP and multi-cloud network architectures
• Routing & switching (BGP, OSPF, MPLS, STP; Cisco, Juniper, Arista)
• High-speed networking (100/200/400Gb+)
• GPU cluster networking, traffic optimization, and congestion management
• Drive network monitoring and performance optimization (SolarWinds, NetFlow, Wireshark)
• Support SaaS and multi-tenant environments with zero trust patterns

Operational Support

• Oversee 24/7 network operations across cloud and data centers
• Lead incident response and ensure high availability, resiliency and scalability across network and cloud environments

Mentorship & Training

• Build and mentor high-performing engineering teams
• Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning

Innovation and Research

• Advance networking capabilities for:
• AI/ML infrastructure and GPU clusters (NVIDIA architectures)
• High-performance networking (RoCE, PFC, ECN)
• Champion automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
• Contribute to industry and open-source initiatives

Strategic Planning

• Own network architecture strategy and roadmap
• Define standards for AI, cloud, and data center environments
• Support budgeting, risk management, and long-term planning

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years’ experience in network and/or data center engineering
• 5+ years’ experience in a strategic leadership position with people management
• 5+ years’ experience in large scale enterprise environments

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong expertise in large-scale data center design, security, and high availability
• Advanced problem-solving, execution, and stakeholder management skills
• Experience with AI factory / GPU cluster environments at scale
• Enterprise networking, Cisco Nexus/ACI or similar platf…