Network Lead

Overview

Position: Network Lead

Location: Santa Ana, CA - onsite role. **Not a remote opportunity**

                Pacific Standard Time hours

Compensation:  

*Actual compensation may vary from posting based on geographic location, work experience, education, and/or skill level.

Position Summary:

The Network Lead provides day-to-day technical and project leadership for the Network team, serving as the working link between Management and technical subject matter experts (SMEs). This role oversees network and cloud networking projects, manages team resources and work coordination, and ensures network capacity, resiliency, and security of offices, cloud, and AI network infrastructure.

The Network Lead also serves as acting manager in the network manager’s absence.  The position is designed to take on increasing management responsibility, support continuity of team leadership, and develop the skills needed to move into a management role. The role requires a technically credible, highly organized leader who combines strong cloud and network expertise with project management discipline, clear communication, a passion for developing people, and a commitment to delivering changes and project rollouts with minimal disruption.

Disclaimer:  Identity Verification checks are in place throughout the Candidate journey to prevent candidate fraud.

Responsibilities

Project Oversight & Delivery

• Oversee planning, prioritization, and delivery of network and cloud network projects, including scope, timelines, milestones, dependencies, and risks.
• Track project and initiative status; report progress, risks, and resource needs to the Manager, and escalate issues that threaten quality, scope, or schedule.
• Coordinate project work with cloud, infrastructure, security, application, and Infrastructure as Code teams, as well as business stakeholders and third-party vendors.
• Build resiliency, redundancy, and rollback considerations into project designs and implementation plans from the outset.
• Drive continuous improvement of network processes and standards to maintain a consistent, standardized environment across all network and cloud network services.

Resource Management & Work Coordination

• Assign, balance, and track work across Network Architects, Network Engineers, and Network Administrators based on priorities, skills, and capacity.
• Monitor the team’s ticket queues and escalations to ensure timely resolution; serve as the escalation point above the engineering team for complex or high-impact issues.
• Coordinate on-call and 24/7 coverage, schedules, and workload across the hybrid cloud network team and offshore teams.
• Partner with the Manager on capacity planning, staffing needs, vendor resources, and budget inputs.
• Coordinate vendor engagements, service delivery, and escalations to ensure network services are delivered as contracted.

Change Management

• Lead the planning and execution of network and cloud network changes with a focus on minimizing disruption to business operations, end users, and dependent services.
• Ensure all changes follow the established change management process, including documented change requests, risk and impact assessments, peer review, and Change Advisory Board (CAB) approval.
• Require detailed implementation, validation, and rollback plans for every change; confirm rollback steps can be executed quickly if issues arise.
• Schedule changes within approved maintenance windows and coordinate timing with business stakeholders, application owners, and offshore teams to avoid peak business periods such as month-end and high-volume lending cycles.
• Favor low-risk deployment approaches, such as lab or pre-production validation, pilot groups, phased rollouts, and redundant-path or failover-based cutovers, to achieve zero- or minimal-downtime changes.
• Leverage Infrastructure as Code, configuration templates, and automation where appropriate to standardize changes and reduce human error.
• Communicate planned changes, expected impact, and status clearly and in advance to affected stakeholders, with timely updates during and after implementation.
• Perform pre- and post-change health checks and monitoring to confirm service stability; lead post-implementation reviews for failed or problematic changes to capture lessons learned.
• Champion a culture of disciplined, well-documented change across the team, coaching engineers on change risk assessment and best practices.

Root Cause Analysis & Problem Management

• Lead root cause analysis (RCA) for major incidents, recurring issues, and service degradations affecting on-premises, cloud, and AI network infrastructure.
• Own the network problem management process: identify, log, prioritize, and track problem records through resolution in alignment with ITIL practices.
• Analyze incident trends, monitoring data, logs, and configuration history to proactively identify underlying problems before they cause service impact.
• Apply structured RCA methods such as the 5 Whys, fishbone diagrams, and timeline reconstruction to determine contributing factors, not just immediate symptoms.
• Develop and drive corrective and preventive actions (CAPA), including design changes, configuration standards, monitoring improvements, and automation, through to completion.
• Document known errors and workarounds in the knowledge base to speed resolution of future incidents and reduce repeat escalations.
• Prepare clear, blameless post-incident reports and present findings, business impact, and remediation plans to technology leadership and stakeholders.
• Partner with vendors, cloud providers, security, and application teams to resolve cross-domain problems and hold third parties accountable for remediation.
• Track problem management metrics, such as repeat incidents, mean time to resolve, and open problem aging, and use them to drive continuous improvement.

Technical Leadership

• Serve as technical subject matter expert for hybrid cloud networking, including Azure networking, ExpressRoute, VPN gateways, Palo Alto firewalls, and cloud-to-cloud connectivity.
• Review designs, changes, and implementation plans; ensure Architect designs are translated into sound, supportable implementations.
• Remain hands-on as needed to troubleshoot critical incidents and validate complex changes.
• Help drive modern network and cloud network practices across the enterprise, staying current on Microsoft, vendor, security, and regulatory developments.
• Champion high-availability and resilient network design, including redundancy, failover testing, capacity planning, and disaster recovery readiness across on-premises and cloud environments.

Team Development & Mentoring

• Mentor and coach Network Architects, Network Engineers, and Network Administrators; support onboarding, training, and certification growth.
• Provide direction and clear expectations for quality, scope, and time of delivery; give regular feedback and provide performance input to the Manager.
• Participate in recruiting and interviewing to bring in best-fit network talent.
• Foster collaboration, accountability, and knowledge sharing within the team.

Acting Management & Leadership Transition

• Serve as acting manager in the Manager’s absence, including running team meetings, setting daily priorities, and making operational decisions within delegated authority.
• Represent the Hybrid Cloud Networking team in meetings with technology leadership, business partners, and vendors.
• Take on delegated management responsibilities, such as planning, vendor management, and performance feedback, as directed by the Manager to build readiness for management role.
• Support continuity of team leadership by maintaining current documentation of team priorities, projects, risks, and key relationships.

Documentation, Communication & Governance

• Create and maintain standard operating procedures, runbooks, SLAs, network diagrams, and knowledge base articles; ensure team documentation reflects current deployments.
• Develop and present project updates, technical plans, and presentations to technical and business stakeholders, translating complex network constraints into clear business terms.
• Support adherence to security, privacy, and regulatory frameworks applicable to network infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Proven ability to lead projects, coordinate resources, and guide technical teams without relying on formal authority
• Strong, hands-on experience with cloud networking (ExpressRoute, VNet peering, Private Link/Private Endpoints, VPN gateways) and hybrid on-premises-to-cloud connectivity
• Advanced experience with Palo Alto firewalls and network security; demonstrated experience with leading infrastructure vendors such as Cisco, Arista, and Alkira
• Working knowledge of network architecture, network administration, and cloud IaaS administration in a complex environment
• Experience with network automation and Infrastructure as Code tools (e.g., Terraform, Ansible, Python) and network monitoring/observability platforms
• Demonstrated success designing and operating highly available, resilient networks and delivering changes with minimal service disruption
• Understanding of project management methodologies and process-oriented operations (change, incident, and problem management)
• Ability to mentor, delegate, and hold team members accountable while building strong working relationships
• Ability to prioritize competing demands, meet deadlines, and maintain composure under high-pressure situations
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills; ability to communicate with staff and management at any level, including non-technical executives
• Knowledge of common security and privacy frameworks such as CIS Controls, NIST CSF, and PCI DSS, as well as financial services requirements such as GLBA and FFIEC guidance
• Self-motivated with the ability to exercise independent judgment and step into a management role as needed
• Ability to participate in an on-call or after-hours support rotation as required

Education, Experience & Certification:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent work experience)
• 15+ years of experience in network engineering roles
• 10+ years of experience leading projects, technical teams, or acting in a lead or supervisory capacity
• 2+ years of experience with cloud networking in Azure and/or AWS
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) certification required
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Associate (AZ-700) certification preferred
• Palo Alto Networks Certified Next-Generation Firewall Engineer (or legacy PCNSE) certification required
• Cisco CCNP certification required
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification preferred
• Process or project management certification (ITIL, PMP, Six Sigma) preferred
• Experience in mortgage or financial services industry preferred
• Experience supporting high-performance networking for AI or data-intensive workloads (e.g., low-latency, high-throughput fabrics) preferred

Work Authorization: Must be able to verify identity and employment eligibility to work in the U.S.

Other Duties: This job profile is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of job duties and responsibilities, as one may perform additional related duties as assigned in order to meet the needs of the organization.

Physical Demands: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. Must be able to lift up to ten pounds. Primary functions require sufficient physical ability and mobility to work in an office setting; to stand or sit for prolonged periods of time; to occasionally stoop, bend, kneel, crouch, reach, and twist; to lift, carry, push, and/or pull light to moderate amounts of weight; to operate office equipment requiring repetitive hand movement and fine coordination including use of a keyboard; and to verbally communicate to exchange information. VISION: See in the normal visual range with or without correction. HEARING: Hear in the normal audio range with or without correction.

[EOE/M/F/D/V. Drug-free workplace.]

Pay Transparency Disclosure:If based in New American Funding’s offices, this role has the annual base salary range stated below.   

Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location. The listed range is a guideline, and the range for this role may be modified. For roles that are available to be filled remotely, the pay range is localized according to employee work location by a factor of between 80% and 100% of range. Please discuss your specific work location with your recruiter for more information.

New American Funding offers competitive package of additional benefits, including health, dental & vision, retirement with company contribution, parental leave , mental health & wellness benefits, and generous PTO. New American Funding also offers sales incentive pay for most sales roles and an annual bonus plan for eligible non-sales roles. New American Funding’s compensation and benefits are subject to change and may be modified in the future.

New American Funding recruiters may contact candidates through LinkedIn, phone, text message, or email. Official email communications will come from an address ending in @nafinc.com. We will only request sensitive personal information through our secure application and onboarding systems – not through email, social media, text message, or instant messaging. New American Funding will never request payment from candidates at any stage of the recruiting process.

#LI-JS3