Lead Network Engineer

Progressive Leasing is a leading provider of in‑store and e‑commerce lease‑to‑own solutions. With more than 20 years in Fin Tech, we’ve grown from a start‑up to an industry leader by innovating, simplifying and valuing people.

We are a subsidiary of PROG Holdings (NYSE: PRG), a Fin Tech holding company with three business segments:
Progressive Leasing, Purchasing Power (a leading employee purchase program for consumer products and services using payroll deduction), and Four, a Buy Now Pay Later platform.

We’re looking for a Lead Network Engineer to own the network that powers the business across a hybrid environment of AWS cloud and on‑premise branch offices. You’ll work close to the foundations – AWS networking, Palo Alto firewalls, routing and connectivity, automation, and infrastructure as code – and set the direction for how the network is standardised, secured and operated end to end.

You’ll coordinate and prioritise a team of networking contractors while focusing on larger initiatives. The role is a work‑from‑home position and can be performed remotely from anywhere in the continental U.S.

• Own and operate the hybrid network end to end, spanning AWS cloud networking and the limited but critical on‑premise branch and data centre footprint, with a focus on standardisation, reliability and security.
• Lead the technical evaluation and deployment of ZTNA and Secure Web Gateway (SWG) capabilities alongside Enterprise Architecture and Cyber Security, driving the organisation’s transition from an always‑on VPN toward a Zero Trust access model.
• Own the AWS network platform in a multi‑account hub‑spoke landing zone, including VPCs, Transit Gateway, IPAM, Route
  53, Direct Connect, Gateway Load Balancer inspection paths, NACLs, security groups and VPC sharing via AWS RAM across network and workload accounts.
• Manage the Palo Alto environment, including VM‑Series firewalls in AWS and Panorama‑based policy management, the current Global Protect remote‑access VPN (including contractor and third‑party access groups and HIP checks) and east‑west / ingress / egress inspection design.
• Drive network infrastructure as code with Terraform as the core tool, building and evolving modular, reusable patterns so network changes are version‑controlled, peer‑reviewed and repeatable rather than one‑off manual edits.
• Build the network as a self‑service platform: create modules, guardrails, documentation and tooling that let application and operations teams provision and troubleshoot their own connectivity, making one‑off work an exception.
• Build observability, alerting and redundancy into the network by default, instrumenting telemetry, logs and SNMP into our observability stack (Dynatrace and Observe) so issues are caught early and the platform is resilient across regions and availability zones.
• Set and enforce network standards across the organisation, reduce configuration drift and partner on the programme to detect and alert on manual changes that bypass IaC.
• Support hybrid connectivity across on‑premise branch routing and switching and Direct Connect into AWS.
• Execute changes through our Service Now change‑management process, including CAB review for significant changes and participation in the support and on‑call rotation.
• Identify every one‑off build or manual fix as a signal – either a defect in the platform to be fixed or a missing feature to be added – and close that gap to make the work self‑service next time.
• Use AI‑assisted tools to accelerate troubleshooting, draft and improve runbooks and reduce repetitive operational overhead, focusing on where AI adds operational value.

• Strong, hands‑on networking fundamentals across routing, switching, DNS, load balancing, NAT and segmentation, in both cloud and on‑premise contexts.
• Proven ability to lead a ZTNA and Secure Web Gateway (SWG) evaluation and deployment (e.g., Zscaler, Netskope, Prisma Access or comparable), owning the technical direction alongside Enterprise Architecture and Cyber Security as the organisation moves to a Zero Trust access model.
• Hands‑on experience managing a Palo Alto environment (NGFW / VM‑Series, Panorama,…