Sr. Manager, Network Engineering

clearwateranalytics; Illinois; Hybrid; USD 210,000 - 290,000; Full time

Job summary

Clearwater Analytics seeks a hands-on engineering leader to manage both Network Engineering and Systems Engineering squads. You will shape infrastructure strategy, mentor teams, and tackle advanced network engineering challenges across data centers, edge routing, and cloud integrations.

You will stay deeply involved in architecture decisions, evaluating technologies, and solving complex production incidents.

Qualifications

• Hands-on leader with deep network engineering expertise across data center and edge routing.
• Experience guiding both Network and Systems Engineering squads to align with reliability objectives.
• Ability to evaluate technologies, influence architectural decisions, and mentor high-performing teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead and scale both Network Engineering and Systems Engineering squads.
• Own data center LAN/WAN/MAN architectures and edge security implementations.
• Drive BGP/MPLS strategy for hybrid on-prem/public cloud environments.
• Oversee virtualization, Linux systems, Kubernetes strategy, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Define observability—SLIs/SLOs—and implement reliable monitoring and incident response.
• Collaborate with Security/Compliance to meet SOC 2 II and ISO 27001 requirements.

Skills

Network engineering

Data center design

Leadership

Incident response

Cloud integration

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Tools

Cisco

Arista

Palo Alto

Linux

Kubernetes

Terraform

Ansible

AWS

Job description

The Team / Who We Are

We build and operate the infrastructure backbone that powers one of the financial services industry's most demanding SaaS platforms. Our Platform Infrastructure Engineering team manages both the network engineering and systems engineering functions, sitting at the critical intersection of carrier-class networking, data center operations, cloud integration, and financial technology - ensuring that mission-critical investment accounting, portfolio analytics, and data connectivity services run with carrier-grade reliability, 24/7, for over a thousand of the largest hedge funds, asset managers, family offices, insurers and corporations.

This is a hands-on manager role where you lead through technical depth and strong network engineering expertise. You'll drive infrastructure strategy, mentor your teams, and spend significant time on the network engineering challenges that define our platform's reliability. Your domain expertise in network architecture, routing protocols, and data center operations is as critical as your leadership capabilities.

What We Need

We're looking for an experienced engineering leader who brings strong hands-on network engineering expertise to manage both Network Engineering and Systems Engineering squads. You'll be the strategic lead for our entire infrastructure platform-from edge routing and firewalls through data center LAN design, all the way up through Linux systems, virtualization, container orchestration, and cloud integration.

This is not a purely people-management role. You'll stay deeply involved in architecture decisions, technology evaluations, and hands-on problem-solving-especially in network engineering. You need to be credible technically with your teams, capable of diving into BGP routing issues, MPLS configurations, data center network design, and cross-vendor integrations with the same rigor you apply to team leadership and hiring.

You'll work with our software engineering, security, DevOps, data operations, and client connectivity teams to architect and operate a hybrid on-premises/public-cloud environment where network reliability is non-negotiable. You'll be both a technical escalation point for complex infrastructure issues and an organizational leader setting direction and mentoring high-performing teams.

Primary Responsibilities

In this role, you'll own and contribute to the following:

• Lead, mentor, and scale both the Network Engineering and Systems Engineering squads; set technical direction, hire high performers, and create a culture of operational excellence and continuous improvement.
• Own network infrastructure strategy: design and implement scalable data center LAN architectures on Cisco, edge routing on Arista, and edge security on Palo Alto; drive BGP routing strategy for external connectivity with clients, vendors, and partners.
• Drive MPLS strategy, implementation, and optimization across our hybrid on-premises/public-cloud environment; ensure MPLS-based traffic engineering and failover mechanisms meet carrier-grade reliability standards.
• Lead data center network operations: manage LAN/WAN/MAN networks, oversee connectivity provisioning, handle infrastructure technology reviews and purchasing decisions.
• Own full-stack systems engineering: Linux systems administration, hypervisor/VM operations, Kubernetes cluster strategy and operations, CI/CD pipeline architecture, and infrastructure-as-code frameworks.
• Drive observability and reliability: design monitoring, alerting, and log aggregation strategies; establish SLIs, SLOs, and SLAs aligned with financial platform requirements.
• Architect and operate the platform's hybrid cloud footprint: manage on-premises infrastructure, AWS integration, co-location facilities, and ensure seamless connectivity and failover across environments.
• Champion infrastructure automation and tooling: drive adoption of Ansible, Terraform, or equivalent IaC frameworks; evangelize configuration management and infrastructure versioning practices.
• Support financial data connectivity: ensure robust integration patterns for market data feeds, custodian integrations, FIX/SWIFT/SFTP protocols, and third-party data vendor connectivity.
• Partner with Security and Compliance to ensure infrastructure adherence to SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and applicable financial industry regulatory requirements.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and vendor solutions; make architectural recommendations grounded in operational maturity, business impact, and team capability.
• Lead incident response for platform-level outages; drive root cause analysis and permanent resolution of systemic reliability issues.

You Are a Great Fit If

You're a hands-on technical leader with deep expertise in network engineering. You can design a data center network, explain BGP configuration trade-offs with conviction, and dive into a production incident without needing context from your team. You take ownership, ship complex projects, and document what you learn