Network Team Lead

Job Purpose:

The Network & Network Security Lead will play a major role in ensuring the integrity, performance, and security of the organization's networking environment. This role goes beyond operations, demanding an expert-level understanding of complex network and security architectures, a hands-on ability to troubleshoot high-impact issues, and the capability to lead cross-functional teams in delivering secure and resilient infrastructure for a regulated financial environment.

Key Responsibilities & Duties:

· Architecture & Design Leadership:

· Lead the design and evolution of enterprise network and security architecture aligned with business and compliance requirements.

· Ensure integration of network security principles in all architectural decisions.

· Collaborate with the design & architect team for the new project or new initiative

· Advanced Troubleshooting & Problem Resolution:

· Own and resolve high-severity incidents by diving deep into Layer 1–7 issues spanning networking, firewalls, routing, DNS, proxies, and cloud networking.

· Lead root cause analysis and implement long-term preventive measures.

· Multiskilling & Cross-Functional Expertise:

· Provide mentorship across routing, switching, firewalls (NGFW), load balancers, VPNs, SD-WAN, ACI, SD-Access, and network access control (NAC).

· Encourage skill development across multiple technology domains within the team.

· Security Posture & Threat Management:

· Implement and maintain network segmentation, access control, and zero-trust strategies.

· Collaborate with the cross-departmental teams on incident response and threat mitigation.

· Operations Oversight & Optimization:

· Oversee the performance, availability, and efficiency of the network and its security services.

· Develop and enforce network operations procedures, ensuring compliance with industry and regulatory standards.

· Project Leadership:

· Lead critical infrastructure projects, including migrations, upgrades, and partner connectivity.

· Coordinate cross-departmentally to ensure secure rollout of new services and systems.

· Vendor & Contract Management:

· Evaluate, select, and manage vendors and service providers.

· Ensure SLA compliance and conduct regular performance reviews.

· Compliance & Audit Readiness:

· Maintain documentation and policies to meet the requirements of financial sector audits and compliance checks (e.g., PCI-DSS, ISO 27001).

· Monitoring & Incident Detection:

· Experience with proactive monitoring for performance and threats using tools like SIEM, NMS, and flow analysis.

· Define thresholds, alerts, and escalation workflows for operational and security incidents.

· Team Development:

· Provide coaching, conduct regular performance reviews, and build development plans for team members.

· Foster a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous learning.

· Documentation:

· Strong experience using documentation tools (Microsoft Office 365, Visio, Lucid chart).

· Ensure all documentation aligns with compliance, audit, and organization standards.

· Strong presentation skills.

Skills & Qualifications:

· Typically, 7+ years of relevant work experience in industry, with a minimum of 3 years in a similar role

· Deep hands-on expertise in enterprise networking, SDN solutions, network security, and firewall administration (Cisco, Aruba, Fortinet, Palo Alto, etc.).

· Full-stack network knowledge (routing, switching, DNS, VPN, proxies, load balancers, SD-WAN, NAC, Wi-Fi, ACI, SD-Access).

· Strong experience designing and managing secure, scalable, and high-performance networks.

· Proficient in troubleshooting complex multi-vendor, multi-layer issues under pressure.

· Understanding of secure cloud networking (Azure/AWS) and hybrid environments.

· Familiar with compliance frameworks such as Cybersecurity Framework, NCA, ISO 27001, NIST.

Education & Certifications:

· Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, Network Engineering, or a related field.

· Preferred certifications:

· Cisco CCIE (DC, Enterprise, Security) preferred Enterprise.

· CISSP / CISM (a plus for security leadership)

· Cloud certifications (AWS/Azure Network Specialty)

Working Conditions:

· Based in Saudi Arabia with on-site visits to data centers and site offices.

· Availability for critical incidents and changes outside of normal working hours.

· Hybrid collaboration with global teams, regulators, and auditors.

Platform Proficiency (Required)

· SolarWinds NPM (performance monitoring), NTA (traffic analysis), NCM (configuration governance — golden baselines, drift detection, scheduled backups, rollback)

· Dynatrace with Davis AI for full-stack observability and AIOps-driven root cause analysis

· Bridge AIOps for event correlation and alert noise reduction

· ServiceNow as the system of record for all ITSM workflows (incidents, changes, CMDB, approval gates)

· Palo Alto NGFW and Cisco ASA/FTD for firewall administration

· Cisco ISE for Network Access Control (posture, guest, BYOD workflows)

· Cisco SD-WAN (controller-based) with MPLS underlay across all sites

· Citrix NetScaler for load balancing (diagnostic-first approach)

Delivery Model Responsibilities

· Lead the on-site KSA network team (Network Tower Lead/Architect + L3 engineer) while overseeing 24×7 offshore NOC teams (Egypt & India) responsible for monitoring, incident response, and change execution.

· Coordinate with ISPs for MPLS/Internet underlay circuit management.

· Ensure bilingual (Arabic and English) communication across all network touchpoints.

Network Automation Oversight

· Own the delivery of network automation use cases:

· WAN degradation diagnostics (auto-collect interface counters, path stats)

· Port flap triage (approval-gated port bounce via ServiceNow)

· AP recovery and client rebalancing (controller-based recovery, RF adjustment)

· Configuration drift detection and restore (NCM golden baselines)

· BGP neighbor failure diagnostics (routing state collection, ISP escalation)

· Pre-meeting wireless readiness validation for VIP areas

· Automation pattern: SolarWinds events → ServiceNow workflows → Ansible playbooks

Compliance & Regulatory

· NCA (National Cybersecurity Authority) — Saudi regulatory framework

· NDMO (National Data Management Office) — Saudi data governance

· ISO 27001, NIST, CIS hardening baselines