IT Network Manager

A thriving, mission-driven multimedia organization, NPR produces award-winning news, information, and music programming in partnership with hundreds of independent public radio stations across the nation. The NPR audience values information, creativity, curiosity, and social responsibility – and our employees do too. We are innovators and leaders in diverse fields, from journalism and digital media to IT and development. Every day, our employees and member stations touch the lives of millions worldwide. 

Across our organization, we’re building a workplace where collaboration is essential, diverse voices are heard, and inclusion is the key to our success. We are committed to doing the right thing in our journalism and in every role at NPR. This means that integrity, adherence to our ethical standards, and compliance with legal obligations are fundamental responsibilities for every employee at NPR.

As our IT Network Manager, you will lead a dedicated team of network and voice engineers while bridging the gap between traditional enterprise networking and cutting-edge broadcast technology. We are looking for a people-first, Cisco-certified leader to guide, mentor, and empower an engineering team overseeing the lifecycle of our network infrastructure. Beyond technical mastery, you will cultivate a high-performing team culture centered on collaboration, continuous growth, high availability, and proactive security. If you thrive in inspiring technical talent within an 'always-on' environment and have a passion for seamless media delivery, this is your next challenge.

• →Team Leadership & Talent Development: Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing team of network and voice engineers; establish clear goals, manage team performance, drive professional development, and champion a collaborative, supportive engineering culture.
• →Enterprise Architecture & Infrastructure Management: Oversee the design, implementation, and optimization of enterprise network, wireless, and Storage Area Networking (SAN) infrastructure across Cisco ACI, Catalyst/Nexus, Firepower (FTD), SD-WAN, and Meraki platforms.
• →Broadcast Network Alignment: Partner with broadcast engineering teams to guide your team in maintaining a high-availability IP broadcast network that carries low-latency, real-time audio and video traffic for NPR’s daily content production and live transmission.
• →Operational Excellence & Incident Leadership: Lead network operations, incident management, and root-cause analysis for complex issues; coach team members through high-pressure troubleshooting using monitoring tools like SolarWinds, Cisco Nexus Dashboard, and ThousandEyes.
• →Documentation & Standards: Develop and maintain network architecture documentation, standard operating procedures, and routing protocols (BGP, EIGRP), ensuring network reliability, scalability, security, and team operational best practices.
• →Cross-Functional Collaboration & Executive Stakeholder Communication: Collaborate with Security, DevOps, Systems, and Enterprise Application teams, while effectively communicating network performance, risk analyses, incident reports, and strategic initiatives to senior leadership.

• 8+ years of experience in enterprise networking.
• 3+ years directly managing and developing technical teams in a network leadership or manager role.
• Proven track record of talent development, performance management, team building, and leading engineering teams through major operational projects.
• Strong hands-on experience with at least two of the following:
  • Cisco Nexus (NX-OS)
  • Cisco Firepower (FTD)
  • Cisco Routing and Switching
  • Cisco ACI
  • Cisco SD-WAN
  • Cisco Meraki
  • Enterprise Wireless Networks
• Strong expertise in routing and switching (BGP, EIGRP).
• Experience with at least one of the following network management and observability platforms: SolarWinds, Cisco Nexus Dashboard, Cisco Intersight, or similar enterprise network monitoring and management tools .
• Strong troubleshooting, communication, team leadership, and documentation skills.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical teams through critical production outages and high-pressure incident response, ensuring fast service recovery, effective team coordination, and business continuity.
• Ability to translate complex broadcast requirements into scalable network architectures, overseeing robust business continuity planning, and fostering a team culture of technical excellence and psychological safety.

• Cisco CCNP (Enterprise or Data Center).
• lCisco CCIE certification.
• Experience with ThousandEyes.
• Experience with high-quality, real-time audio and video over IP networks, such as SMPTE ST 2110 and NDI, particularly in a IP broadcast environment.
• Working knowledge of PTP, SMPTE ST 2110, multicast, and QoS.
• Experience with large-scale or multi-site enterprise environments.
• Experience with network automation / Infrastructure as Code.
• Experience with managing on-prem and hosted Telephony and AV systems.
• Experience supporting audio/video transmission or production workflows.

• Hybrid Permitted: This is a hybrid permitted role. The employee will be required to be in the office at the Washington, D.C. location as assigned. On-site assignments are determined by a monthly rotation schedule. The employee must also reside in Washington, D.C. / Maryland / Virginia Metro Area.

• This is a full-time, exempt position.

You may read NPR’s privacy policy to learn about how NPR may handle information you submit with any application.

Want more NPR? Explore the stories behind the stories on our NPR Extra blog. Get social with NPR Extra on Facebook and Instagram. Find more career opportunities at NPR.org/careers.