Lead Network Operations Engineer

Job Description

Job Description

About CENIC:

Join the team that connects California to the world — advancing education and research statewide by providing the world-class computing network essential for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth. Our organization operates the California Research and Education Network (CalREN), a high-capacity computer network with more than 8,000 miles of optical fiber. The network serves over 20 million users across California, including the vast majority of K-20 students, together with educators, researchers, and individuals at other vital public-serving institutions.

Bring your IT career and technical expertise to help support the California Research and Education Network (CalREN), a high-bandwidth, fiber-optic network that serves over 20 million users. CENIC is a nonprofit governed by its member K-12 schools, libraries, community colleges, universities, and other public-serving institutions. Its mission is to advance education and research by providing a world-class network essential for innovation, collaboration, and economic growth.

We are looking for Network Engineers at various levels: mid-career, senior, technical expert, and leadership roles! Please see our career center for other positions available.

Position Summary

The Lead Network Operations Engineer is a senior technical individual contributor and shift leader within CENIC's Network Operations Center (NOC). This role combines deep, hands-on expertise in large-scale IP and optical network operations with direct responsibility for the performance, accountability, and output of the network operations team during an assigned shift. The Lead Network Operations Engineer guides and supports a team of Network Operations Engineers and Administrators, serving as the primary escalation point and ensuring that all shift activity, from routine operations to major incidents, meets CENIC's standards for quality, timeliness, and documentation. This role requires mastery of CENIC's network technologies and the operational judgment to make real-time decisions that protect the integrity of CalREN and the services it provides to over 20 million users across California's research and education community.

Supervisory Responsibility

• Direct supervision and mentorship of Network Operations Engineers and Network Operations Administrators assigned to the shift, including task delegation and workload management

• Own shift-level accountability for team performance, incident response quality, and adherence to NOC processes and procedures

• Conduct weekly reviews of all ticket updates, providing structured feedback and ensuring documentation standards are met

• Ensure all supervised personnel are aware of and operating in accordance with current NOC processes and procedures, both established and evolving

• Lead the documentation of shift turnover, ensuring an accurate, complete, and actionable handoff to the incoming shift - including open incidents, ongoing work, and any items requiring follow-up

• Serve as the primary escalation point on shift and escalate to senior management or engineering as required

• Conduct regular one-on-one meetings with shift staff to support professional development, address performance, and identify continuous improvement opportunities

• Track and report on shift- and NOC-level metrics, KPIs, and operational trends to support continuous improvement to improve network reliability, workflow efficiency and transparency, and engineer accountability

• Cross-departmental collaboration across CENIC to drive business needs and network improvements to better serve our member institutions

Essential Functions

• Serve as the senior technical authority on shift, leading the team's response to complex network issues, major incidents, and service-affecting events from detection through resolution

• Apply expert-level knowledge of DWDM, IP routing (BGP, OSPF, IS-IS), MPLS (Segment Routing, or LDP), and VPN services (L2VPN, IPVPN, EVPN) to diagnose and resolve incidents on CENIC's large-scale networks and optical infrastructure

• Troubleshoot and resolve issues across CENIC's DWDM optical line systems, DCI deployments, and transport layer, including physical layer faults and capacity events

• Lead incident management during major outages: coordinate team actions, manage member communications, escalate to senior leadership as appropriate, document the incident timeline, and ensure a thorough post-incident review

• Maintain shift accountability for all open tickets and work items: review ticket quality, ensure timely updates, and verify that issues are resolved or properly handed off before shift end

• Oversee the execution and documentation of a complete shift turnover at the end of each shift, briefing the incoming shift on all open incidents, pending escalations, scheduled maintenance, and anything requiring monitoring

• Proactively monitor network health; identify emerging issues, traffic anomalies, or capacity concerns before they become service-affecting events

• Contribute to the ongoing development of NOC processes and procedures, identifying gaps, proposing improvements, and piloting changes 

• Identify opportunities to reduce manual, repetitive operational tasks to improve operational workflows

• Serve as a technical resource and mentor for engineers on the shift, supporting knowledge transfer, skills development, and consistent application of operational best practices

• Keep current with emerging trends and technologies in research and education networking; apply relevant developments to improve network operations and CENIC's network capabilities