Senior Director of IP Network Operations Center

The Role

The Senior Director of IP Network Operations Center is responsible for leading and managing the IP NOC and Metro IP NOC teams, ensuring the availability, performance, and security of the network infrastructure, and overseeing the resolution of network incidents and problems.

The ideal candidate will excel in establishing and maintaining strong partnerships with other leaders and stakeholders to align operations and processes with business goals and objectives. They must have a passion for building and developing highly qualified technical teams and as a leader, embody Lumen’s 8 cultural beliefs of Teamwork, Trust, Transparency, Clarity, Courage, Customer Obsession, Growth Mindset, and Allyship.

The Main Responsibilities

• Accountable for identifying, triaging, and resolving customer network trouble situations, providing 24/7 support in areas such as surveillance and fault management for global and metro IP networks. This includes coordinating technical resolutions across multiple groups, planning and assisting with network additions, moves, changes, and maintenance activities.
• Monitor and report on network availability, performance metrics, and SLAs, while overseeing performance management of NOC support teams. Utilize data and analytics to identify, prioritize, and resolve degraded optical performance issues.
• Define and implement NOC procedures, standards, and best practices. Participate in and optimize problem management practices to reduce future incidents.
• Manage network change and configuration processes, ensuring compliance and minimal disruption.
• Plan and execute network maintenance, upgrade, and expansion projects, aligning with network architecture and design.
• Drive modernization and advancement of NOC capabilities, including automation, fault prediction, and the use of AI/ML to better serve customers.
   

What We Look For in a Candidate

Required Qualifications

·       Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or related field; or relevant work experience.

·       10+ years experience in network operations, engineering, or administration with 5+ years in a leadership role overseeing technology teams.

·       Expert in building, configuring, and operating large-scale IP networks as well as IP protocols (BGP, OSPF, ISIS, TCP/IP), critical services (DNS, DHCP), and Metro Ethernet ring architectures and protocols (Cisco REP).

·       Strong skills in network troubleshooting, analysis, and optimization.

·       Clear communication about customer importance, fostering urgency toward customer needs, and building effective partnerships.

·       Ability to build respectful relationships across the organization and with external partners and customers.

·       Experience modernizing network operations through automation and AI/ML models, and collaborating with data scientists to use big data, ML, and AI models for optimizing network and service performance.

·       Ability to act with a sense of urgency, demonstrate leadership, maintain high engagement and performance with supervisors and team members, and manage escalations related to core network jeopardy situations, outages, and customer service impacts.

·       Capable of performing under emergency conditions, managing competing tasks simultaneously with frequent interruptions.

Preferred Qualifications

·       CCNP, CCIE, or equivalent certifications (Cisco, Alcatel, Juniper).