Lead Director - Network and Data Center Engineering

Lead Director, Ai Network & Data Center Engineering

We're building a world of health around every individual shaping a more connected, convenient and compassionate health experience. At CVS Health, you'll be surrounded by passionate colleagues who care deeply, innovate with purpose, hold ourselves accountable and prioritize safety and quality in everything we do. Join us and be part of something bigger helping to simplify health care one person, one family and one community at a time.

The Lead Director, AI Network & Data Center Engineering is responsible for leading the strategy, design, and delivery of the organization's network infrastructure supporting enterprise applications and next-generation AI/ML workloads. This role oversees the development of high-performance, low-latency data center and cloud networking capabilities that enable large-scale GPU environments, advanced data processing, and modern application platforms. By establishing architectural standards, driving consistent execution, and ensuring secure, resilient connectivity, this position plays a critical role in supporting the organization's most demanding technology initiatives.

This leader is accountable for building and guiding a high-performing team of network and data center engineers, while aligning infrastructure capabilities to evolving business and security needs. Working closely with cloud, platform, and cybersecurity leadership, the role drives adoption of modern architectures, automation, and performance optimization practices to improve reliability, scalability, and efficiency. Through strong strategic direction and operational leadership, the Lead Director ensures the network function can support long-term growth, increasing AI demand, and enterprise-wide digital transformation.

Role Responsibilities:

Development & Enforcement

• Define and enforce network architecture standards, security controls, and compliance policies
• Establish best practices for configuration, deployment, and operations
• Ensure alignment with enterprise governance frameworks (HIPAA, NIST, PCI, HITRUST, CSA)

Collaboration & Expertise

• Advise executives on network strategy, roadmaps, emerging technologies, and industry trends
• Partner with cross-functional teams (platform, cloud, security, infrastructure) to deliver integrated, secure and scalable solutions
• Engage vendors on solution architectures, design, contracts, and delivery

Analysis & Configuration

• Design and implement:
• Data center fabrics (leaf-spine, Clos, EVPN/VXLAN)
• AI/GPU-optimized networking (low latency, high throughput) and related technologies
• Optimize performance for GPU workloads (RDMA, RoCE, ECN, PFC)
• GCP and multi-cloud network architectures
• Routing & switching (BGP, OSPF, MPLS, STP; Cisco, Juniper, Arista)
• High-speed networking (100/200/400Gb+)
• GPU cluster networking, traffic optimization, and congestion management
• Drive network monitoring and performance optimization (SolarWinds, NetFlow, Wireshark)
• Support SaaS and multi-tenant environments with zero trust patterns

Operational Support

• Oversee 24/7 network operations across cloud and data centers
• Lead incident response and ensure high availability, resiliency and scalability across network and cloud environments

Mentorship & Training

• Build and mentor high-performing engineering teams
• Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, and continuous learning

Innovation and Research

• Advance networking capabilities for:
• AI/ML infrastructure and GPU clusters (NVIDIA architectures)
• High-performance networking (RoCE, PFC, ECN)
• Champion automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
• Contribute to industry and open-source initiatives

Strategic Planning

• Own network architecture strategy and roadmap
• Define standards for AI, cloud, and data center environments
• Support budgeting, risk management, and long-term planning

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years' experience in network and/or data center engineering
• 5+ years' experience in a strategic leadership position with people management
• 5+ years' experience in large scale enterprise environments

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong expertise in large-scale data center design, security, and high availability
• Advanced problem-solving, execution, and stakeholder management skills
• Experience with AI factory / GPU cluster environments at scale
• Enterprise networking, Cisco Nexus/ACI or similar platforms
• Network automation / IaC, SDN, service mesh, and cloud-native security frameworks
• High availability/disaster recovery design and cyber resilience
• Certifications: CCIE/CCNP, PCNSE, CISSP, Cloud networking

Education

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience (High School Diploma and 4 years relevant experience)

The typical pay range for this role is:

$144,200.00 - $288,400.00

This pay range represents the base hourly rate or base annual full-time salary for all positions in the job grade within which this position falls. The actual base salary offer will depend on a variety of factors including experience, education, geography and other relevant factors. This position is eligible for a CVS Health bonus, commission or short-term incentive program in addition to the base pay range listed above. This position also includes an award target in the company's equity award program.

Our people fuel our future. Our teams reflect the customers, patients, members and communities we serve and we are committed to fostering a workplace where every colleague feels valued and that they belong.

Great benefits for great people

We take pride in offering a comprehensive and competitive mix of pay and benefits that reflects our commitment to our colleagues and their families.

This full-time position is eligible for a comprehensive benefits package designed to support the physical, emotional, and financial well-being of colleagues and their families. The benefits for this position include medical, dental, and vision coverage, paid time off, retirement savings options, wellness programs, and other resources, based on eligibility.