Sr. Lead, Network Engineer

About Northern Trust:

Northern Trust, a Fortune 500 company, is a globally recognized, award-winning financial institution that has been in continuous operation since 1889.  

Northern Trust is proud to provide innovative financial services and guidance to the world’s most successful individuals, families, and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise, and integrity. With more than 130 years of financial experience and over 22,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.

Title: Sr Lead – Network Engineer
 

The Role:

The Sr. Lead Network Engineer is a seasoned techno-functional leader with deep expertise in Network Engineering, Office Network Services, Colocation Services, and Private Data Centers. This role demands proven experience in managing engineering functions and driving initiatives from strategic planning through to execution.

As a key contributor, the Engineer will lead the design, implementation, and support of network infrastructure and services across Northern Trust’s global private data centers, public cloud environments, and colocation facilities. This position plays a critical role in global transformation and modernization efforts and offering expert guidance to operations teams. Success in this role requires a strong product-ownership mindset and an unwavering commitment to customer service excellence.

Key responsibilities:
 

The Sr. Lead Network Engineer will be responsible for establishing and maintaining well-architected standards and solution patterns across the network infrastructure landscape. This role will drive modernization and transformation initiatives, oversee the full lifecycle of network products and services, and ensure a seamless transition to Network Operations for ongoing support and management.

• Network Architecture
  Partner with the Network Architecture Council to define and drive modernization strategies and technology roadmaps for both on-prem and cloud networking services. Lead vendor evaluations and manage third-party technology partnerships.
• Network Security
  Design and enforce comprehensive security frameworks for hybrid cloud network services, including system hardening and secure configuration management.
• Governance & Compliance Leadership
  Ensure all network solutions align with industry standards (CIS, NIST, SOC 2). Lead engagements with internal and external auditors to maintain compliance and operational integrity.
• Capacity Planning & Performance Optimization
  Collaborate with Engineering and Operations teams to monitor and scale network services, ensuring seamless connectivity for business applications and office locations.
• Global Network Deployments
  Lead and coordinate network infrastructure deployments across data centers, cloud environments, and mission-critical office sites.
• Automation & Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
  Champion network automation initiatives by identifying opportunities for efficiency and implementing IaC and GitOps practices.
• Documentation & Knowledge Management
  Maintain comprehensive documentation for network designs, solutions, and infrastructure states—past, present, and future.
• Tier 2/3 Technical Support
  Serve as the highest-level escalation point for Network Engineering and Operations, providing expert guidance and resolution.

Qualifications:

• Expertise in Networking Technologies

Demonstrated mastery in Routing, Switching, Load-Balancing, Firewalling, SD-WAN, and DNS across complex enterprise environments.

• Extensive Industry Experience

Over 10 years of hands-on experience architecting, deploying, and managing network solutions in on-premises and colocation settings. CCIE certification or multiple CCNPs strongly preferred.

• Cloud Networking Exposure

Some experience designing and operating network infrastructures in public cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud. Relevant certifications are a plus.

• Automation & Orchestration Leadership

Proven ability to implement and scale automation practices using tools like Terraform, Ansible, Python, GitHub, and GitHub Actions. Experience with additional orchestration platforms is highly preferred.

• Network Observability & Performance Optimization

Deep understanding of observability tools to extract actionable insights, drive performance improvements, and accelerate issue resolution.

• Global Collaboration & Teamwork

Excepti