Head of Network Engineering & Architecture (SD-WAN)

Location: Reading, United Kingdom or Madrid, Spain. Hybrid work with the option to work from home up to 2 days per week, depending on team needs. Occasional travel may be required.

Company

hirify.global develops technology and communication solutions for airports, airlines, borders, and the global air transport industry.

What you will do

• Lead the engineering, architecture, budgeting, planning, execution, and delivery of the network portfolio.
• Prepare the future of hirify.global networks through modern SD-WAN, WAN, network security, and software-defined networking solutions.
• Define project scope, roadmaps, standards, governance, priorities, and timelines with stakeholders.
• Coordinate cross-functional WAN, SD-WAN, and SSE engineering teams while managing risks, technical debt, quality, and solution life cycles.
• Promote Agile, DevOps, CI/CD, automation, documentation, and knowledge-transfer practices.
• Manage, mentor, and develop engineering staff, and lead infrastructure vendor and partner selection.

Requirements

• Deep hands-on SD-WAN expertise, including architecture design and trade-offs with Versa, Cisco/Viptela, or Fortinet.
• At least 10 years of experience in network and security engineering, with leadership of architecture and engineering build teams rather than operations or support.
• Experience leading network modernization involving SD-WAN, SASE, and cloud connectivity in complex environments.
• Proven program, portfolio, project, product, and people management experience.
• Strong executive-level communication, organizational, strategic, and stakeholder-management skills.
• Master’s degree or equivalent, preferably in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field.

Nice to have

• Project management or relevant technical certifications, such as PMP or Agile.
• Experience with WAN, SD-WAN, and network security providers.
• Knowledge of DevOps practices and cloud technologies such as Azure.

Culture & Benefits

• Inclusive, diverse environment operating across 200 countries and 60 languages and cultures.
• Flex Day arrangements to adapt working hours to personal plans.
• Up to 30 days per year working from any location in the world as a flex-location benefit.
• Employee Assistance Program and Champion Health wellbeing platform for employees and dependents.
• Professional development through LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft’s Enterprise Skills Initiative, Pluralsight, Harvard Business Publishing, Stanford, and other learning platforms.
• Competitive benefits aligned with the local market and employment status.