Director, Network Engineering

Director, Network Engineering

The Director of Network Engineering leads the strategy, architecture, and operational execution of the company's enterprise-wide network infrastructure. This role oversees the engineering, implementation, and lifecycle management of all network technologies across data centers, cloud environments, and distributed enterprise locations. The Director will ensure a secure, resilient, and scalable network foundation that enables business growth, supports hybrid cloud adoption, and delivers an exceptional end-user experience.

A critical focus of this position is driving the strategy and hands-on implementation of network automation, encompassing provisioning, configuration management, patching, observability, and self-healing capabilities. The Director will modernize legacy processes, build an automation-first culture, and ensure the network operates as a programmable, data-driven platform leveraging Cisco, Palo Alto, Fortigate, Netscaler, Solarwinds, and Aruba technologies.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a multi-year network automation and modernization strategy, integrating automation across provisioning, configuration, compliance, patching, and telemetry workflows.
• Define the enterprise network architecture roadmap aligned with business priorities, security frameworks, and cloud adoption initiatives.
• Partner with Enterprise Infrastructure Architecture, Cloud, and Cybersecurity leaders to ensure the network design supports automation, scalability, and zero-trust principles.

Operational Excellence

• Oversee the availability, performance, and resilience of global network operations across data centers, cloud, and edge locations.
• Lead continuous improvement initiatives that leverage automation, orchestration, and observability tools to reduce MTTR and manual interventions.
• Drive consistent configuration management and patching compliance through code-based deployment models for network infrastructure.

Technology Ownership & Implementation

• Direct the design, implementation, and optimization of existing technology environments across LAN/WAN, wireless, and data center segments.
• Lead the deployment and scaling of network automation frameworks using Python, Ansible, Terraform, or API-driven integrations with associated automating tools.
• Establish standards and reusable automation playbooks for provisioning, configuration drift detection, patch orchestration, and service validation.
• Champion observability initiatives to unify network telemetry, performance analytics, and event correlation through AIOps and modern monitoring platforms.

Vendor & Budget Management

• Manage technology partnerships and contracts to ensure alignment with automation and operational excellence goals.
• Collaborate with the IT Procurement organization to negotiate vendor terms that include knowledge transfer, embedded enablement, and automation tool integration.
• Develop and manage annual budgets covering network engineering projects, tools, people, and lifecycle investments.

Team Leadership & Development

• Build and mentor a high-performing, automation-focused network engineering team.
• Foster a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and cross-domain collaboration between infrastructure and security teams.
• Establish clear performance and skill development goals around automation adoption and operational efficiency.

Security, Governance & Compliance

• Maintain comprehensive architecture diagrams, automation scripts, and operational runbooks.
• Ensure network change management and configuration baselines are governed through code repositories and approval workflows.
• Partner with Information Security to implement network segmentation, policy automation, and compliance reporting as required.
• Perform other duties and participate in strategic initiatives as assigned.

RRD's current salary range for this role is $155,000 to $248,200 / year. The salary range may be adjusted based on the applicable geographic location of the hired employee, and the range may change in the future. At RRD, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their role and compensation decisions may vary based upon, but not limited to education, skills, experience, proficiency, performance, shift and location. Depending on the role, in addition to base salary, the total compensation package may also include participation in a bonus, commission or incentive program. RRD's benefit offerings include medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, disability insurance, 401(k) with company match, life insurance and other voluntary supplemental insurance coverages, plus parental leave, adoption assistance, tuition assistance and employer/partner discounts.