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IT Network Manager
Lafayette, LA
Corporate / Administrative & Support
Exempt
Full-time
Acadian Ambulance has an immediate opening for an IT Network Manager in the Information Technology department.
We are seeking an experienced and strategic Network Manager to lead our dedicated IT network team. This leadership role is pivotal in ensuring our network infrastructure's stability, integrity, and scalability, which is the backbone of our 24/7, mission-critical Emergency Medical Services (EMS) operations.
The ideal candidate will blend deep technical expertise in Cisco-centric environments with proven people leadership skills and will be responsible for setting the strategic direction for the network, managing the team, and overseeing all operational aspects of our life-safety network.
While this is primarily a leadership position, it requires the ability to remain hands-on (approximately 20-30%) to guide the team through major incidents, complex design reviews, and critical escalations.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: This job description is not intended, nor should it be construed, to be an all-inclusive list of responsibilities, duties, skills, or working conditions associated with the job. It is intended to be a general description of the essential duties and requirements common to positions of this type and may be subject to change. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform essential functions.
- Lead, mentor, and develop a high-performing network team, managing performance, career development, and resource allocation while fostering a culture of accountability and continuous improvement.
- Develop and execute the multi-year network technology roadmap, establishing architecture standards for routing (OSPF, BGP), switching, wireless, and security.
- Champion continuous improvement initiatives, evaluating tools, and promoting automation to enhance network reliability and team efficiency.
- Lead network design and capacity planning for expansions, lifecycle refreshes, and new services, including reviewing and approving all technical design documentation (High Level & Low Level Diagrams).
- Oversee ITIL-based service delivery, acting as the primary incident commander for major outages and governing the incident, problem, and change management processes.
- Drive down Mean Time To Resolution (MTTR) by leading blameless post-mortems and implementing corrective actions.
- Collaborate with Information Security to implement and enforce network security policies, device hardening standards, and vulnerability management programs.
- Ensure network design and operations comply with all regulatory and audit requirements, maintaining a comprehensive risk register.
- Manage the annual CAPEX and OPEX budgets for all network infrastructure, including asset lifecycle planning and license management.
- Oversee all vendor relationships, contracts, and SLAs with hardware providers (e.g., Cisco) and telecom carriers, leading procurement (RFP) and serving as the primary escalation point.
- Define, track, and report on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for network health, performance, and team productivity to leadership.
- Enforce rigorous documentation standards for network topology, configurations, automation, and operational runbooks.
Qualifications
- Experience: A minimum of 8 years of experience in network engineering and operations, with at least 3 years in a formal leadership, supervisory, or senior team lead role. Demonstrated experience managing network infrastructure in a high-availability, 24/7, or mission-critical environment.
- Foundational Knowledge: Strong command of advanced networking concepts, including routing protocols (OSPF, EIGRP, BGP), VLANs, VPNs, and QoS. Expert-level understanding of the Cisco enterprise networking stack, including Catalyst switches, ISR routers, and wireless solutions.
- Cloud: Demonstrated experience with hybrid cloud models, particularly connecting on-premise infrastructure with Microsoft Azure.
- Automation: Proficiency with scripting for network automation
- Collaboration: Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical issues to technical staff, executive leadership, and non-technical stakeholders.
- Travel: Must possess a valid state-issued driver's license. This is a local position with some flexibility for hybrid work and may require occasional travel.
Preferred Qualifications
- Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
- Certifications: Current and valid CCNP certification is strongly preferred. Other IT certifications, such as network specialist on cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP), security certification (CISM, CISSP, Security+), or IT management (ITIL, PMP, TOGAF) are preferred.
- Wireless: Experience with Aruba wireless networking solutions.
- Automation: Hands-on experience with network automation tools (e.g., Cisco Crosswork, Terraform/Ansible, Python) and a strategic understanding of how to apply automation to improve operational efficiency.
- Finance: Proven experience managing departmental budgets (CAPEX/OPEX) and vendor contracts.
- WAN: Familiarity with SD-WAN technologies and migration strategies.
SUCCESS METRICS (KPIs)
- Service Availability: Exceeding uptime SLAs (e.g., 99.99%) for all critical network services.
- Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF): Maximizing the operational interval between service-impacting failures.
- Mean Time to Resolution (MTTR): Minimizing the time from incident declaration to complete service restoration.
- Mean Time to Detect (MTTD): Compressing the time from event occurrence to actionable alert generation.
- Change Success Rate: Achieving a near-zero rate of change-induced incidents and service degradation.
- Ticket Queue Velocity: Maintaining a low, non-aging backlog of operational tickets and service requests.
- Documentation Fidelity: Ensuring network diagrams, runbooks, and CMDB data are current and accurate.
- Fiscal Management: Adherence to and optimization of CAPEX and OPEX budgets.
- TCO Reduction: Demonstrating year-over-year reduction in Total Cost of Ownership for network services.
- Vendor SLA Enforcement: Rigorous tracking and enforcement of carrier and OEM service level agreements.
- Team Capability & Growth: Measurable improvement in the team's skill matrix, certification attainment, and retention.
- Stakeholder Alignment: High satisfaction scores (NPS) from internal business and technology partners.
TRAINING REQUIREMENTS: We value continuous development and reward employees for achieving these required certifications. Initial salary increases are tied to these certifications and approval from directors, with a minimum four-month gap between each raise to ensure fairness and foster steady career growth. The selected candidate will be excluded from annual cost-of-living adjustments until the successful completion of the following certifications.
Must maintain current CCNP Enterprise after completion.
- Schneider Electric Data Center Certified Associate (DCCA)
- ITIL v4 Foundation
- Cisco CCNA
- Cisco 350-401 ENCOR: Implementing and Operating Cisco Enterprise Network Core Technologies
- Cisco 300-410 ENARSI: Implementing Cisco Enterprise Advanced Routing and Services
- Cisco CCNP Enterprise
Cisco 300-415 ENSDWI: Implementing Cisco SD-WAN Solutions
Cisco 300-435 ENAUTO: Automating and Programming Cisco Enterprise Solutions
ITIL 4 Managing Professional
Red Hat Certified Specialist in Ansible Network Automation exam | EX457
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or status as a protected veteran.
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