Network Operations Lead Jobs in Chicago, IL (NOW HIRING)

If you're looking for a special place to build or grow your career, you've found it. Whether you're an experienced professional, a recent college graduate or somewhere in between, IDEX is a place where you can apply your existing skills and learn new ones in an environment where you can make an impact.

With interesting opportunities in engineering, marketing, sales, supply chain, operations, HR, finance, and more across more than 40 diverse businesses around the globe, chances are, we have something special for you.

Position Summary

The Network Lead provides technical leadership, operational oversight, and strategic direction for the Network Operations Service Portfolio. This role serves as the primary escalation point and subject matter expert for complex and large network initiatives, vendor coordination, service delivery and operational excellence. The Network Lead partners closely with Corporate IT, Business Units, and Managed Service Providers (MSPs) to ensure reliable, secure, and scalable network services while balancing complexity, cost, and speed to delivery. The role plays a critical part in roadmap development, incident leadership, and the successful execution of IT-enabled business change.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Operations

• Lead the administration, support, and continuous improvement of the Network and Operations Service Portfolio.
• Serve as the Network Subject Matter Expert for the enterprise, providing technical leadership, guidance, and decision support across the Network Service Portfolio.
• Lead the definition and adoption of network standards, best practices, and technical direction to ensure scalable, secure, and supportable enterprise solutions.
• Act as the senior technical escalation point for complex incidents, outages, and problem management efforts.
• Provide structured leadership during high-severity incidents, guiding troubleshooting, remediation, and post-incident review activities.
• Ensure operational stability and implement measures to maintain performance, and security across enterprise network environments.

Strategy, Architecture & Roadmaps

• Define, maintain, and evolve enterprise network architecture standards to ensure scalability, security, resilience, and alignment with business and technology strategies.
• Review and guide network designs and changes to ensure consistency with architectural principles, operational supportability, and longterm roadmap objectives.
• Define and contribute to the vision, strategy, and technical direction for network technologies.
• Execute business cases, methods, and metrics to support IT-enabled business change roadmaps.
• Ensure network solutions align with enterprise architecture standards, security requirements, and long-term sustainability goals.
• Partner with Business Units to translate business needs into scalable and supportable network designs.

Managed Service Provider (MSP) & Vendor Management

• Serve as the primary technical liaison for Managed Service Providers and strategic vendors to deliver higher tier support, advanced troubleshooting, and timely escalations aligned with enterprise standards.
• Act as the primary technical point of contact for vendor engagements, ensuring effective service delivery, operational process improvements, performance accountability, and alignment to operational and strategic objectives.
• Coordinate with MSPs to provide higher-tier support, escalations, and advanced troubleshooting.
• Ensure MSP services are utilized effectively to optimize operational efficiency and service quality.
• Participate in vendor relationship management, including performance reviews, service improvement initiatives, and roadmap alignment.

Project & Change Leadership

• Lead large network initiatives and projects with limited oversight using the IDEX PMO methodology.
• Manage projects from concept through execution and closeout, including:
  • Business case development and benefits identification
  • Stakeholder identification and engagement
  • Project planning, execution, and communication
  • Risk, issue, and dependency management
• Provide technical leadership and oversight for network-related change initiatives.

Service Management & Knowledge

• Contribute to service tower technology planning as a lead subject matter expert.
• Ensure accurate documentation, standards, and operational procedures are maintained.
• Lead contributions to the Knowledge Content System (KCS), including publishing and maintaining high-quality knowledge articles.
• Promote continuous improvement through knowledge sharing, automation, and operational best practices.

Mentorship & Team Enablement

• Provide technical guidance and mentorship to network engineers and analysts.
• Assist team members in developing technical skills and operational maturity.
• Support the development of future leaders through project participation and cross-functional collaboration.

Required Skills & Experience

Technical Expertise

• Advanced knowledge of enterprise network technologies, including:
  • Routing and switching
    • 5+ Cisco Platform Experience
  • Firewalls and network security platforms
    • 5+ years' experience with Palo Alto is a requirement
  • Voice, LAN, and WAN technologies
  • Cloud networking (Azure and/or AWS)
    • 5+ Express routes experience
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft technologies:
  • Active Directory
  • Azure AD
  • Azure
  • Microsoft 365
  • Exchange Online, Teams, SharePoint
  • Entra ID
• Demonstrated expertise in structured troubleshooting, incident leadership, and problem management.

Service & Leadership Skills

• Strong understanding of ITIL principles and service management practices.
• Proven ability to lead through influence across distributed teams and vendors.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to advise technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to balance operational demands with strategic planning responsibilities.

Certifications (Preferred)

• ITIL Foundation or equivalent experience
• Project management certification or demonstrated experience leading complex initiatives
• Technical certifications such as Cisco, Palo Alto, Meraki, Microsoft, and/or Cloud (Azure/AWS)

Expectations

• Maintain currency of network and security technologies across the enterprise portfolio.
• Drive consistent, high-quality service delivery through effective use of internal teams and MSP partners.
• Lead complex troubleshooting and outage response with confidence and clarity.
• Deliver network initiatives predictably using defined project and service management methodologies.
• Contribute to long-term roadmap planning and continuous service improvement.

Specification Attributes

• Demonstrates deep technical expertise and the ability to confidently support and lead most production technologies within the service portfolio.
• Capable of independently driving complex initiatives while mentoring and enabling less-experienced team members.
• Acts as a bridge between strategy and execution, ensuring alignment between architecture, operations, and business needs.
• Viewed as a trusted technical leader by peers, leadership, and business stakeholders.

Are you ready to join a different kind of company where our people, our culture, and our commitments are centered around providing trusted solutions that improve lives around the world?

Total Rewards

Benefits Package

Our comprehensive U.S. benefit offerings include: Health benefits, 401(k) retirement savings program with company match, PTO, and more. More information on our benefits and rewards can be found on our career page:https://www.idexcorp.com/careers/our-benefits-and-rewards/

IDEX is an Equal Opportunity Employer. IDEX gives consideration for employment to qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, creed, genetic information, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, age, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other consideration or protected category made unlawful by federal, state or local laws.

Attention Applicants: If you are an individual with a disability and require a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process, please let us know.Likewise, if you are limited in the ability to access or use this online application process and need an alternative method for applying, we will determine an alternate way for you to apply. Please contact our Talent Acquisition Team at lfcareers@idexcorp.com for assistance with an accommodation. These contact tools may be used only by individuals with a disability for accommodation requests. Do not inquire as to the status of an application.