Network Operations Center (NOC) Leader

Here at Discount Tire, we celebrate the spirit of our people with extraordinary pride and enthusiasm. Our business has been growing for more than 60 years and now is the best time in our history to join us. We are opening more locations every year and we are always looking for qualified individuals to join us in our growth. We are a company that promotes from within, both in our retail and corporate operations.

Working independently, the Principal Network Engineer will lead the Network Operations Center (NOC) as a 24x7 operation, responsible for the stability, performance, and availability of the enterprise network supporting approximately 1,300 retail locations and the corporate network. The role owns day-to-day network operations and serves as the operational backbone of the organization's connectivity and uptime strategy.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead and manage a 24x7 Network Operations Center, ensuring continuous monitoring, incident response, and service restoration across retail and corporate environments.
• Own operational responsibility for the enterprise network spanning ~1,300 stores, corporate offices, data centers, cloud connectivity, and WAN services.
• Manage and develop a global team of ~15 network engineers, including both onshore and offshore resources, ensuring clear accountability, skills development, and effective shift coverage.
• Establish, track, and continuously improve core NOC metrics, including but not limited to:
  • MTTR (Mean Time to Repair)
  • Incident volume and recurrence
  • SLA/SLO adherence
  • Change success rate
  • Alert quality and noise reduction
• Design and implement repeatable operational processes, runbooks, and escalation models to improve reliability and reduce operational risk over time.
• Drive a shift from reactive to proactive operations through trend analysis, problem management, and root-cause elimination.
• Serve as the primary operational interface between:
  • Network engineering
  • Security and firewall teams
  • Cloud teams
  • Vendors, carriers, and managed service providers
• Lead vendor and service provider performance management, including SLAs, OLAs, and operational governance.
• Partner with network architecture and engineering teams to ensure new designs are operationally sound, supportable, and scalable.
• Support major initiatives such as SD-WAN, NaaS, AI-assisted operations, and network modernization, ensuring operational readiness and adoption.
• Ensure proper change management, incident management, and communication practices are followed, particularly during high-severity events.
• Provide clear, concise executive reporting on network health, risks, and improvement initiatives.

Qualifications:

• This position requires a minimum of eight years progressive network infrastructure experience
• Proven experience leading a 24x7 NOC or large-scale network operations organization.
• Strong understanding of enterprise WAN, LAN, SD-WAN, cloud connectivity, and retail network environments.
• Demonstrated ability to manage distributed teams (onshore/offshore) effectively.
• Deep familiarity with NOC metrics, ITIL/ITSM practices, and continuous improvement frameworks.
• Ability to translate technical data into operational insights and executive-level communication.
• Balanced skill set across leadership, people management, technical understanding, and process design.
• Experience working with network vendors, carriers, and managed service providers.
• What This Role Brings to the Organization (Value Add)
• Improves network stability and customer experience through disciplined operations.
• Reduces incident recurrence and operational noise.
• Enables scale by building a NOC that can support 1,300+ locations and future growth.
• Frees senior engineers to focus on architecture and modernization instead of firefighting.
• Creates a strong operational foundation for NaaS and AI-driven network operations.

Educational Requirements:

• This position requires a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, information Technology, IT Engineering or related field or equivalent work experience.
• Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) is required
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) is required

Work Days:

Normal work days are Monday through Friday. Occasional Saturdays and Sundays may be necessary.

Work Hours:

Normal work hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Additional hours may be necessary.

Discount Tire provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

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