Network Operations and Engineering Lead
Infrastructure
Johannesburg – Gauteng – South Africa
Network Operations and Engineering Lead
Salary: R1 100 000 – R1 850 000
Area: Bryanston
Type: Onsite
Summary
A senior, hands-on leadership role for an experienced network specialist who can own both the design and operational performance of a large enterprise network environment.
This role is best suited to candidates from service providers, managed network services, carriers or large-scale network environments. You will lead a small team of 3, while remaining technically hands-on across WAN, SD-WAN, LAN, Wi-Fi, Data Centre networking and VoIP or Unified Communications enablement.
You will be responsible for network stability, performance, technical standards, design quality and advanced troubleshooting. You will also act as the technical authority for key network changes, site rollouts, migrations and major improvements.
Responsibilities
- Lead the network operations and engineering function, including 3 direct reports.
- Own the technical and operational architecture for the network environment.
- Ensure the network is secure, resilient, standardised and supportable.
- Produce and maintain High-Level Designs and Low-Level Designs for network initiatives, major changes, migrations and upgrades.
- Define and maintain network standards, reference architectures and design patterns across routing, segmentation, QoS, wireless, data centre networking and naming conventions.
- Review network solution designs and ensure alignment with enterprise architecture standards.
- Act as the technical authority for new site rollouts, site migrations, SD-WAN changes, wireless improvements, data centre changes and Unified Communications readiness.
- Perform hands-on configuration, administration and optimisation across WAN, Internet links, carrier circuits, SD-WAN, LAN switching, WLAN, data centre networking and VoIP network enablement.
- Lead complex incident restoration and problem investigations using packet captures, telemetry, logs and technical analysis.
- Drive root cause analysis and implement permanent fixes to reduce repeat incidents.
- Improve monitoring, alerting and operational visibility across the network estate.
- Support automation and scripting for validation, repeatable builds and configuration checks.
- Reduce technical debt and enforce configuration baselines.
- Maintain network diagrams, technical standards, build guides and operational runbooks.
- Coach and upskill engineering, operations and support teams.
Requirements
- Proven enterprise network engineering and operations experience in a large, complex environment.
- Experience leading or mentoring network engineers or technical specialists.
- Background in a service provider, carrier, managed network services or large-scale network environment is strongly preferred.
- Strong hands-on experience across WAN, SD-WAN, LAN, Wi-Fi, Data Centre networking and VoIP or Unified Communications.
- Demonstrated experience producing HLDs and LLDs for complex enterprise network environments.
- Strong understanding of routing, switching, VLANs, trunking, STP, port security, segmentation, QoS, application steering, path selection and wireless performance.
- Experience working with service providers, carriers and third-party vendors.
- Advanced troubleshooting skills across multi-layered network environments.
- Solid understanding of network security, resilience, segmentation and operational stability.
- Ability to communicate technical issues clearly and explain the business impact.
- Strong analytical, decision-making and problem-solving ability.
- Calm and effective under pressure during high-severity incidents.
- ITSM or ITIL experience will be an advantage.
- Relevant certifications such as Cisco CCNP, CCIE, Meraki, Fortinet or equivalent will be beneficial.
Apply
Apply now if you are a senior network specialist who enjoys leading engineers, staying hands-on and building reliable enterprise networks at scale.