IT Associate Director, Network Engineering

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Overview

Yale ITS seeks an experienced networking leader to serve as Associate Director, Network Engineering, responsible for the architecture, design, modernization, and lifecycle management of Yale's enterprise network infrastructure.

This role provides technical leadership for Yale's next-generation network strategy, including the evolution of a large-scale Cisco-based software-defined campus network, network resiliency initiatives, network automation, and the design of the network and data center network fabric supporting Yale's research, academic, and administrative missions.

The Associate Director will lead a team of network engineers and serve as Yale's principal authority for network architecture and engineering standards. Working closely with the Director of Network and Data Center Services, the Manager of Network Operations, the Associate Director of Data Center Services, Information Security, Automation Engineering, and Observability Engineering, this role will drive the technical direction of Yale's network infrastructure while ensuring it remains secure, resilient, scalable, and operationally sustainable.

Success in this role requires balancing strategic vision with engineering execution, modernizing infrastructure while building the foundation for a more automated, observable, and resilient network platform.

Network Architecture & Engineering Leadership

• Lead the architecture, engineering, and lifecycle management of Yale's campus-wide network infrastructure.
• Define and maintain engineering standards, reference architecture, and design principles across routing, switching, wireless, segmentation, and connectivity services.
• Serve as the senior technical authority for Yale's Cisco-based network environment and future networking technologies.
• Develop and maintain the strategic network roadmap aligned with university growth, research demands, and enterprise technology initiatives.
• Ensure network architectures support high availability, scalability, security, and operational simplicity.

Campus Network Modernization

• Lead the ongoing evolution of Yale's next-generation network architecture.
• Drive network refresh initiatives across campus, establishing multi-year strategies for hardware lifecycle management and technology adoption.
• Develop architectural approaches that improve performance, reduce operational complexity, and simplify supportability.
• Evaluate emerging networking technologies and recommend adoption where they provide measurable institutional value.
• Partner with operational leaders to ensure modernized designs can be effectively supported and maintained.

Data Center Fabric Engineering & Future-State Design

• Lead the engineering strategy for Yale's data center network architecture and fabric modernization.
• Partner closely with the Associate Director of Data Center Services to define future-state network designs supporting on-premises, colocation, and cloud-connected environments.
• Design highly resilient network topologies that eliminate single points of failure and support critical enterprise and research workloads.
• Develop architectures supporting disaster recovery, business continuity, and hybrid infrastructure strategies.
• Establish network standards and patterns that enable scalable growth and improved service resiliency.

Network Automation & Infrastructure as Code

• Champion an automation-first engineering culture across the networking organization.
• Partner with Automation Engineering to expand Infrastructure as Code capabilities for network provisioning, configuration management, compliance validation, and lifecycle management.
• Reduce operational risk through standardized, repeatable, and automated engineering practices.
• Drive adoption of automation frameworks and tools that improve engineering efficiency and service reliability.
• Establish engineering standards that minimize manual intervention and improve consistency across network services.

Network Resiliency & Reliability Engineering

• Design resiliency in all major network platforms and services.
• Lead initiatives focused on redundancy, fault tolerance, failover validation, and network recovery capabilities.
• Develop engineering standards for availability, capacity planning, and performance management.
• Partner with Information Security and Network Operations to ensure network architectures support operational resilience and security requirements.
• Routinely assess architectural risks and develop mitigation strategies.

Security Architecture Partnership

• Collaborate closely with Information Security and cybersecurity leadership to ensure secure-by-design network architectures.
• Support network segmentation, zero-trust initiatives, secure access strategies, and threat containment capabilities.
• Ensure engineering standards align with institutional security requirements and regulatory obligations.
• Participate in security architecture reviews and strategic technology planning.
• Observability Engineering Partnership
• Partner with Observability Engineering to establish comprehensive visibility into network performance, health, utilization, and user experience.
• Drive adoption of telemetry, analytics, and next-generation monitoring capabilities.
• Ensure network architectures produce meaningful operational data

Observability Engineering Partnership

• Partner with Observability Engineering to establish comprehensive visibility into network performance, health, utilization, and user experience.
• Drive adoption of telemetry, analytics, and next-generation monitoring capabilities.
• Ensure network architectures produce meaningful operational data to support proactive service management.

Required Skills and Abilities:

1. Proven ability to manage and develop staff.
2. Well-developed time management, organizational, oral, and written communication, and presentation skills.
3. Proven ability to recognize problems and create effective plans.
4. Proven ability to manage multiple/complex projects, meeting deadlines and budget.

Principal Responsibilities

1. Oversees and manages in the strategic planning process; disseminates strategic goals to the team and ensures goals are implemented; develops and establishes best practices.
2. Manages, hires, develops existing as well as new staff; assists in the workforce staffing plans.
3. Responsible for making moderate to significant improvements of processes, systems, and functional output of the department or work/objectives of a team/s.
4. Participate in the development of communication plans for administrative, operational, or technical changes; determine timeline for the dissemination of communications and the support and resource requirements associated with each change.
5. Analyzes and resolves problems through drawing from prior experiences. Interprets policies (e.g., fiscal management, HR, contracts, resource management in defined areas).
6. Supervises staff to assure accountability and stewardship of campus resources (operational, financial, and human) in compliance with departmental goals and objectives.

Required Education and Experience

Bachelor's Degree and eight years of experience or equivalent education and experience.

Skills and Abilities

Proven ability to manage and develop staff.

Well-developed time management, organizational, oral, and written communication, and presentation skills.

Proven ability to recognize problems and create effective plans.

Proven ability to manage multiple/complex projects, meeting deadlines and budget.

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Background Check Requirements

All candidates for employment will be subject to pre-employment background screening for this position, which may include motor vehicle, DOT certification, drug testing and credit checks based on the position description and job requirements. All offers are contingent upon the successful completion of the background check. For additional information on the background check requirements and process visit "Learn about background checks" under the Applicant Support Resources section of Careers on the It's Your Yale website.

Health Requirements

Certain positions have associated health requirements based on specific job responsibilities. These may include vaccinations, tests, or examinations, as required by law, regulation, or university policy.

Posting Disclaimer

Salary offers are determined by a candidate’s qualifications, experience, skills, and education in relation to the position requirements, along with the role’s grade profile and current internal and external market conditions.

The intent of this job description is to provide a representative summary of the essential functions that will be required of the position and should not be construed as a declaration of specific duties and responsibilities of the position. Employees will be assigned specific job-related duties through their hiring department.

The University is committed to basing judgments concerning the admission, education, and employment of individuals upon their qualifications and abilities and seeks to attract to its faculty, staff, and student body qualified persons from a broad range of backgrounds and perspectives. In accordance with this policy and as delineated by federal and Connecticut law, Yale does not discriminate in admissions, educational programs, or employment against any individual on account of that individual’s sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, age, disability, status as a special disabled veteran, veteran of the Vietnam era or other covered veteran.

Inquiries concerning Yale's Policy Against Discrimination and Harassment may be referred to the Office of Institutional Equity and Accessibility (OIEA).

Note

Yale University is a tobacco-free campus.