Network Operations Lead, Johannesburg

Take ownership of a complex enterprise network environment where performance, resilience, and security are non-negotiable. This is a hands-on leadership role for a specialist who thrives on solving deep technical challenges while shaping long-term network strategy.

As Network Operations Lead, you will act as the design authority across the full network domain, ensuring architecture is standardised, scalable, and aligned to business needs. You will lead from the front—driving architecture, configuration, optimisation, and advanced troubleshooting across WAN, SD-WAN, LAN, WLAN, Data Centre networking, and Unified Communications. This role balances strategic oversight with deep technical execution, requiring someone equally comfortable defining standards and diving into packet-level analysis.

You will play a critical role in maintaining uptime, improving performance, and reducing recurring incidents through strong design principles and operational discipline. Working closely with internal stakeholders, service providers, and architecture teams, you will ensure the network environment supports business-critical operations without compromise.

The client is a well-established organisation operating in a highly connected, performance-driven environment where network reliability underpins service delivery. They are investing in strengthening their infrastructure capability and are seeking a senior technical leader to elevate their network operations maturity.

What You'll Do

• Own network architecture across WAN, SD-WAN, LAN, WLAN, Data Centre, and UC environments
• Develop and maintain high-level and low-level network designs
• Define and enforce network standards, reference architectures, and governance practices
• Lead complex incident resolution, root cause analysis, and remediation
• Perform hands-on configuration, optimisation, and troubleshooting
• Drive monitoring improvements, automation, and operational efficiency
• Collaborate with enterprise and solution architects on design alignment
• Oversee network changes including site rollouts, migrations, and upgrades
• Maintain documentation, diagrams, and operational runbooks

What You Bring

• Strong hands-on expertise across enterprise networking technologies
• Proven experience designing and implementing complex network architectures
• Advanced troubleshooting capability in multi-layered environments
• Solid understanding of network security, segmentation, and resilience
• Experience working with carriers, vendors, and service providers
• Ability to translate technical issues into business impact
• Strong analytical thinking and decision-making under pressure
• Relevant certifications such as CCNP, CCIE, or equivalent preferred
• ITIL or ITSM exposure advantageous

What Success Looks Like

• High network availability, stability, and consistent performance
• Reduced MTTR and effective incident resolution
• Measurable reduction in repeat incidents through strong RCA
• High-quality, scalable network designs
• Successful and accurate network changes with minimal disruption
• Improved performance across Wi-Fi, SD-WAN, and voice environments
• Strong documentation and operational readiness
• Minimal audit findings and strong governance adherence

Client Information
A leading organisation with a large-scale, business-critical network environment, focused on delivering reliable and secure connectivity across multiple sites and platforms.