Job Description

"Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future visa sponsorship."

Position Summary

The Director, Network Engineering & Operations is responsible for leading the strategy, architecture, implementation, and operational excellence of Family Dollar’s enterprise network across data centers, Public Cloud, distribution centers, corporate offices, and retail stores. This role will drive modernization, resilience, and scalability to support Family Dollar’s transformation journey and operational independence from Dollar Tree.

The Director will lead a high-performing team of network engineering and operations professionals, ensuring best-in-class availability, performance, and security across LAN/WAN, wireless, SD-WAN, and cloud network environments, with a strong Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) mindset — focused on more automation and less manual work.

This position reports to the VP, Cloud & Infrastructure Engineering.

Key Areas of Responsibility

• Lead, mentor, and develop the Network Engineering & Operations team, fostering a culture of ownership, accountability, and technical excellence.
• Define and execute network architecture and modernization strategies — including SD-WAN, SASE, Zero Trust, and automation frameworks.
• Own end-to-end network performance, reliability, and security, ensuring uptime and availability as per business SLA requirements.
• Oversee incident management and escalation processes for store, data center, and corporate network issues.
• Partner with key stakeholders (Security, Cloud, Infrastructure, Applications, and Business) to deliver aligned, resilient network solutions.
• Manage vendor relationships with major partners including Cisco, Aruba, Palo Alto Networks, Akamai, and F5, ensuring strategic alignment and SLA adherence.
• Develop and manage CapEx and OpEx budgets, ensuring fiscal discipline and measurable ROI on network investments.
• Drive automation and observability initiatives to increase agility, reduce downtime, and enhance operational efficiency.
• Establish clear KPIs, performance dashboards, and metrics for proactive monitoring, capacity planning, and executive visibility.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain enterprise-grade network architecture supporting cloud, edge, and hybrid workloads.
• Ensure network infrastructure meets reliability, scalability, and capacity requirements defined by business SLAs.
• Lead root cause analysis (RCA) for critical incidents and drive continuous improvement initiatives.
• Govern network standards, documentation, and change control processes.
• Ensure compliance with security, regulatory, and audit requirements across all network domains.
• Collaborate with Cybersecurity and Cloud teams on network segmentation, Zero Trust enablement, and cloud interconnect security.
• Optimize vendor contracts, renewals, and managed service performance, ensuring value realization.
• Promote operational excellence through automation, SRE principles, and proactive monitoring.
• Encourage innovation and continuous technical learning within the team.

Requirements / Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Information Systems, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years managing large-scale, distributed enterprise networks — with at least 5 years in a senior leadership role.
• Proven experience supporting multi-site, high-availability retail or logistics environments (stores, DCs, corporate, and cloud).
• Deep expertise in network architecture and design, including routing, switching, wireless, and security integration.
• Strong proficiency with:
• Cisco (Catalyst, Nexus, ACI, SD-WAN, DNA Center)
• Aruba (Central, ClearPass, wireless infrastructure)
• Palo Alto Networks (firewalls, Prisma Access, GlobalProtect)
• Akamai (edge performance, CDN, application security)
• F5 (LTM, APM)
• Strong understanding of BGP, OSPF, SD-WAN, IPsec/GRE VPNs, VLAN, Spanning Tree, LACP, and VPC.
• Experience with network observability and automation platforms (Ansible, Terraform, Python, SolarWinds, NetBox, ThousandEyes, LogicMonitor).
• Proven success managing large MSP/vendor ecosystems and complex infrastructure programs.
• Excellent executive communication, analytical, and cross-functional leadership skills.
• Familiarity with ITIL and ServiceNow, including incident, problem, and change management processes.
• Network/security certifications (CCNP, CCIE, PCNSE, or equivalent) preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to improve stability, scalability, and cost optimization in enterprise environments.

Leadership Mindset

“Empower teams through simplicity, accountability, and transparency — building networks that are not only reliable and secure, but automated, agile, and ready for Family Dollar’s future.”

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