Director of Network Services

Closing Date

03/13/2026

Professional Staff - Information Technology

No

Regular

No

Arkansas Research and Education Optical Network (ARE-ON)

Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas is a land grant institution, classified by the Carnegie Foundation among the nation’s top 2 percent of universities with the highest level of research activity. The University of Arkansas works to advance the state and build a better world through education, research, and outreach by providing transformational opportunities and skills, fostering a welcoming climate, and nurturing creativity, discovery, and the spread of new ideas and innovations.

The University of Arkansas campus is located in Fayetteville, a welcoming community ranked as one of the best places to live in the U.S. The growing region surrounding Fayetteville is home to numerous Fortune 500 companies and one of the nation’s strongest economies. Northwest Arkansas is also quickly gaining a national reputation for its focus on the arts and overall quality of life.

As an employer, the University of Arkansas offers a vibrant work environment and a workplace culture that promotes a healthy work-life balance. The benefits package includes university contributions to health, dental, life and disability insurance, tuition waivers for employees and their families, 12 official holidays, immediate leave accrual, and a choice of retirement programs with university contributions ranging from 5 to 10% of employee salary.

Below you will find the details for the position including any supplementary documentation and questions, you should review before applying for the opening.

If you have a disability and need assistance with the hiring process, please submit a request via the Disability Accommodations | OEOC | University of Arkansas . Request an Accommodation. Applicants are required to submit a request for each position of which they have applied.

For general application assistance or if you have questions about a job posting, please contact Human Resources at .

The Director of Network Services reports to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and provides operational leadership for ARE-ON’s backbone network, member connectivity, office/administrative IT systems, and associated services. This role owns day-to-day service reliability, NOC/Helpdesk operations, incident response, inventory and documentation, and the resilience of facilities, power systems, and outside plant (fiber). The Director assigns resources to member professional services and internal upgrades, develops operational performance metrics, and communicates maintenance and incident status to stakeholders.

This role will oversee the ARE-ON network services team of at least five network engineers and support staff. Regular, reliable, and non-disruptive attendance is an essential job duty, as is the ability to create and maintain collegial, harmonious working relationships with others.

• Bachelor’s degree in any field from an accredited institution of higher education
• At least seven years of demonstrated, functional experience in network engineering or network operations for a large-scale enterprise or a geographically distributed network
• Experience working with IP networking (routing/switching), fiber‑optic infrastructure, and network management/monitoring systems
• At least three years of proven supervisory experience managing technical staff

• Master’s degree in a technical or business‑related field from an accredited institution of higher education
• Experience with in the research and education networking community (e.g., Internet2, or another REN)
• Experience with optical transport systems (e.g., DWDM), large‑scale monitoring platforms, and configuration management tools
• Working knowledge of DC power systems used for telecommunications equipment and outside plant fiber maintenance
• Project management and execution of network‑related initiatives at a medium to large scale, ensuring timely delivery and stakeholder communication
• Proven ability to…