Sr. Load Balancer Engineer

Sr. Load Balancer Engineer

Remote EST preferred

The Senior Load Balancer Engineer within the Strategic Initiatives Group is responsible for architecting and optimizing advanced traffic management solutions across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. This role is central to the organization’s digital transformation strategy, ensuring high availability, scalability, and security of critical applications and services. You’ll lead enterprise-wide initiatives involving application delivery controllers (ADCs), global traffic management (GTM), and automation, while collaborating with architects, developers, and cybersecurity teams to align infrastructure with strategic business goals.

In addition, this role functions as a Network Strategic Initiatives leader—advising, communicating, and driving delivery for global and transformational programs. When global 'critical incidents' arise, the leader rapidly aligns teams on a tactical response, identifies resolution paths, and documents gaps to evolve into standards, governance, or longer-term initiatives. The position is designed to serve holistically, connecting product teams to strategic goals and milestones while ensuring execution from the ground up. This position requires the ability to build from the ground up—establishing frameworks, governance, delivery models, and operational mechanisms to scale across a global enterprise.

This role is not limited to technical depth—it demands multi-disciplinary expertise, leadership across matrixed environments, and proven ability to execute from zero by building frameworks, governance, and delivery models. Familiarity with Agile/Lean practices is expected, enabling incremental value delivery and continuous improvement.

Key Responsibilities

Architecture & Strategy

• Design and implement enterprise-grade load balancing solutions across data centers, cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), and edge environments.

• Develop strategic roadmaps for application delivery modernization, including migration to cloud-native and container-based platforms.

• Evaluate and recommend ADC technologies (e.g., F5 BIG-IP, NGINX, Citrix NetScaler, AVI Networks) based on business and technical requirements.

• ADC/Load Balancer modernization with declarative configs, advanced routing, TLS/WAF rendering, and service mesh alignment.

• Tactical Response — Rapid activation to resolve global incidents, codify playbooks, and translate lessons learned into enduring standards.

• Network Consulting — Conduct assessments, provide reference architectures, and guide decision-making with executive-ready recommendations.

• Solution & Planning — Define and execute well-structured solution packages (HLD, LLD, BoM, QA, automation models) aligned with the One Management model. Emphasize Infra-as-Code, observability, and governance at every stage.

• Gap Analysis — Map as-is to to-be states across people, process, technology, and compliance, prioritizing remediation into quick wins and strategic programs.

• Policy-as-Code and automation-first delivery, harmonizing firewall and cloud perimeter controls, detecting drift, and ensuring compliance.

Engineering & Optimization

• Configure and manage L4–L7 load balancing policies, SSL offloading, content switching, and health monitoring.

• Implement global traffic management (GTM/DNS-based load balancing) and disaster recovery failover strategies.

• Optimize performance and availability of mission-critical applications through intelligent traffic steering and caching.

Automation & Integration

• Develop infrastructure-as-code solutions for ADC provisioning and configuration using tools like Ansible, Terraform, and Python.

• Integrate load balancers with CI/CD pipelines, service meshes (e.g., Istio), and container orchestration platforms (e.g., Kubernetes).

• Automate certificate management, policy updates, and telemetry collection.

Security & Compliance

• Collaborate with cybersecurity teams to enforce WAF policies, DDoS protection, and secure TLS configurations.

• Ensure compliance with regulatory standards (e.g., PCI-DSS, HIPAA, SOX) through secure traffic management and logging.

• Conduct regular audits and vulnerability assessments of ADC infrastructure.

Cross-Functional Leadership

• Lead strategic initiatives involving application modernization, cloud migration, and digital experience optimization.

• Partner with enterprise architects, application owners, and DevOps teams to align delivery infrastructure with business objectives.

• Present technical strategies and outcomes to executive stakeholders and governance boards.

Required Skills & Qualifications

Technical Expertise

• Advanced knowledge of L4–L7 protocols, TCP/IP, DNS, TLS, and application delivery principles.

• Hands-on experience with F5 BIG-IP (LTM, GTM, ASM), NGINX Plus, Citrix NetScaler, or AVI Networks.

• Proficiency in scripting and automation (Python, Bash, Ansible, Terraform).

• Familiarity with cloud-native load balancing (AWS ELB/ALB/NLB, Azure Front Door, GCP Load Balancer).

Certifications

• Preferred: F5 Certified Technology Specialist (CTS), AWS Advanced Networking, Kubernetes CKA, CISSP (network focus)

Experience

• 12+ years in application delivery and load balancing engineering.

• 10+ years leading strategic infrastructure or cloud transformation projects.

Soft Skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.

• Excellent communication and presentation abilities for technical and executive audiences.

• Strategic mindset with a focus on innovation and business alignment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with service mesh architectures and API gateways.

• Knowledge of observability tools (e.g., Grafana, Prometheus, ELK stack).

• Background in regulated industries or high-security environments.