IT Manager

JOB SUMMARY The University of Connecticut Information Technology Services (ITS) is seeking a Manager of Network Engineering and Operations to lead the University's Network Engineering and Network Operations teams. This position is responsible for overseeing the daily operation, support, and continuous improvement of the University's enterprise network infrastructure and services that support the academic, research, administrative, and residential communities across the Storrs campus, regional campuses, and the School of Law. Reporting to the Director of Network Services, the Manager provides leadership and operational oversight for network engineering, network operations, monitoring and management systems, automation initiatives, and related enterprise network services. The position is responsible for ensuring the availability, performance, security, and resiliency of mission‑critical network services through effective staff leadership, operational management, process improvement, and technical governance. The Manager actively performs technology planning, service development, and network modernization initiatives while ensuring successful execution of departmental priorities and objectives. The successful candidate will be an experienced technical manager who can effectively balance operational leadership, personnel development, customer engagement, and technical oversight in a complex enterprise environment. The Manager fosters a culture of collaboration, accountability, continuous improvement, and service excellence while empowering staff to develop professionally and deliver reliable, high‑quality services to the University community. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES Foster a culture of collaboration, accountability, curiosity, innovation, continuous improvement, and exceptional customer service through leadership, mentoring and coaching. Provide unified leadership for the Network Engineering and Network Operations functional areas, ensuring coordinated planning, implementation, operation, observability and lifecycle management of enterprise network services. Provide management oversight for enterprise routing, switching, wireless networking, automation efforts, monitoring and management systems, DDI infrastructure, data center networks, and cloud connectivity. Empower technical staff to pursue professional development, acquire and apply new skills to automate systems and processes, improve efficiency and reduce toil. Serve as the primary management contact for customer communications, operational issues, service escalations and cross‑functional coordination. Develop technology road maps, service strategies, methods and procedures, workforce plans in collaboration with the Director of Network Services to advance the network environment. Establish service objectives and metrics mapped to customer expectations for each target community and implement methods of observability to inform changes for continual improvement. Develop and implement integrated workflows with the Network Infrastructure, Data Center Operations and Telecommunications groups within Network Services and Information Security Engineering that result in a streamlined and accelerated deployment of network infrastructure, systems and services. Collaborate with peers and stakeholders to define and plan network services to meet University community and departmental objectives for IT system resiliency, business continuity, disaster recovery, information security and daily performance objectives. Promote team awareness and compliance with university policies, information security standards and applicable federal and state regulations. Define and manage change management procedures consistent with university and departmental policies and practices to ensure high availability and resiliency of network services. Oversee and develop departmental operating and project budget requests, manage funding and resources mapped to established priorities and monitor to ensure timely completion. Perform related duties as required. MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS Bachelor's degree and six (6) years of relevant experience; Associate degree and eight (8) years of relevant experience; or ten (10) years of progressively responsible experience in enterprise networking. Demonstrated experience leading technical teams, managing complex network infrastructure projects, mentoring technical staff, and supervising personnel, including a minimum of two (2) years of supervisory experience. Demonstrated experience administering enterprise technologies in mission‑critical environments. Demonstrated knowledge of enterprise technologies with sufficient depth to mentor and coach technical staff in problem definition, decision making, planning, and communication. Demonstrated written and verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively with engineers, executive leadership, vendors, and organizational stakeholders. Demonstrated knowledge of enterprise network services and platforms, including wired and wireless networking, firewall technologies, authentication and identity services, SIEM, IPAM, DNS, DHCP, network monitoring, and automation sufficient to provide effective technical oversight and critically evaluate technical recommendations, risks and proposed solutions. Demonstrated ability to balance strategic technology planning with hands‑on engineering leadership, including budgeting, vendor management, project delivery, and operational service excellence. Experience managing and supporting 24x7 mission‑critical network infrastructure, services and operational support processes. PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS Experience supporting higher education, research, healthcare, government, or other large multi‑site enterprise organizations. Demonstrated experience of architecting, designing, implementing, and operating large‑scale enterprise network environments, including campus LAN, WAN, wireless, cloud, and data center architectures. Experience administering enterprise network environments utilizing technologies comparable to Cisco Catalyst/Nexus, Juniper MX/QFX, HPE Mist/Aruba, Palo Alto, Fortinet, Cisco ISE, Infoblox, and Microsoft Azure networking solutions. Experience leveraging BGP, OSPF, MPLS, EVPN/VXLAN, traffic engineering, and software‑defined networking technologies in complex enterprise environments. Experience developing network architecture standards, technology roadmaps, operational procedures, service delivery metrics, and continuous improvement initiatives. Professional certifications such as Cisco CCNP/CCIE, Juniper JNCIP/JNCIE, Palo Alto PCNSE, Aruba ACP/ACMP, ITSM/ITIL, PMP or equivalent industry credentials are desirable but not required. APPOINTMENT TERMS This is a full‑time, permanent position located at the Storrs Campus in Storrs, CT. The University offers a competitive salary, and outstanding benefits, including employee and dependent tuition waivers at UConn, and a highly desirable work environment. This position is on‑site. This is not a remote position. The position may be eligible for a hybrid work schedule under applicable bargaining agreements and management approval. We are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position. Other rights, terms, and conditions of employment are contained in the collective bargaining agreement between the University of Connecticut and the University of Connecticut Professional Employees Association (UCPEA). TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT Employment of the successful candidate is contingent upon the successful completion of a pre‑employment criminal background check. All employees are subject to adherence to the State Code of Ethics. All members of the University of Connecticut are expected to exhibit appreciation of, and contribute to, an inclusive, respectful, and diverse environment for the University community. The University of Connecticut aspires to create a community built on collaboration and belonging and has actively sought to create an inclusive culture within the workforce. The success of the University is dependent on the willingness of our diverse employee and student populations to share their rich perspectives and backgrounds in a respectful manner. This makes it essential for each member of our community to feel secure and welcomed and to thoroughly understand and believe that their ideas are respected by all. We strongly respect each individual employee’s unique experiences and perspectives and encourage all members of the community to do the same. All applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, age, sex, marital status, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, genetic information, physical or mental disabilities, veteran’s status, status as a victim of domestic violence and/or sexual assault and/or trafficking in persons as defined by Connecticut law, prior conviction of a crime, workplace hazards to the reproductive systems, or gender identity or expression. The University of Connecticut is an AA/EEO employer including for Disability and Veteran status. #J-18808-Ljbffr