Position Summary

The Lead SME Engineer provides advanced technical leadership for global Network & Security operations. Serving as the highest escalation point in a 24x7 environment, the role ensures the stability, security, and performance of enterprise systems, while mentoring engineers and driving continuous improvements in operational processes

Key Responsibilities

Operational Leadership

• Serve as top-level escalation for complex network/security incidents.
• Lead major incident resolution, RCA, and post-incident improvements.
• Ensure high availability, performance, and security of global platforms.

Network & Security Engineering

• Provide deep expertise in routing/switching, LAN/WAN, SD-WAN, wireless, data center networking, firewalls, VPNs, IDS/IPS, ISE, Zero Trust, cloud networking, load balancing, DNS, and DDoS protection.
• Support hybrid cloud/on-prem connectivity.
• Review and validate network designs, configurations, and implementation plans.

Operational Excellence

• Support 24x7 follow-the-sun operations and after-hours escalations.
• Drive monitoring optimization, automation, and reduced MTTR.
• Collaborate with SRE and platform teams on reliability initiatives.
• Ensure readiness for upgrades, maintenance, and deployments.
• Maintain runbooks, SOPs, diagrams, and documentation.
• Implement automation and IaC (Terraform, Ansible, CloudFormation).
• Support ITSM processes (change, incident, problem).

Mentorship

• Coach mid-level engineers across global shifts.
• Act as technical authority and promote best practices.

Collaboration & Governance

• Work with Architecture/Security/Engineering teams on roadmaps and tech adoption.
• Ensure compliance with security policies and audit requirements.
• Communicate effectively with leadership, vendors, and partners.

Basic Qualifications

• 8+ years in enterprise Network/Security engineering.
• Experience in 24x7 global operations.
• Strong hands-on skills in networking, firewalls, VPNs, cloud.
• Proven incident response leadership.
• Ability to make strong technical decisions under pressure.

Preferred Qualification

• Certifications (CCIE, cloud networking, etc.).
• Automation/scripting experience (Python, Ansible, Terraform).
• ITIL exposure and work in regulated environments.
• Experience with global, multi-time-zone teams.
• Technical leadership
• Incident/crisis management
• Clear communication
• Analytical problem solving
• Focus on continuous improvement