Vice President, Infrastructure – Network Services

Vice President, Infrastructure – Network Services

Country: United States of America

It Starts Here:

Santander is a global leader and innovator in the financial services industry and is evolving from a high-impact brand into a technology-driven organization. Our people are at the heart of this journey and together, we are driving a customer-centric transformation that values bold thinking, innovation, and the courage to challenge what’s possible.  This is more than a strategic shift.  It’s a chance for driven professionals to grow, learn, and make a real difference.

If you are interested in exploring the possibilities We Want to Talk to You!

The Difference You Make:

The Vice President, Infrastructure – Network Services is responsible for the overall leadership, governance, operational excellence, and continuous evolution of the organization's enterprise network infrastructure. This role owns the availability, security, performance, and modernization of all network services supporting Corporate, Data Center, Private Cloud (OHE), WAN, Internet Edge, and Trading environments. The position partners closely with Information Security, Voice Services, End User Technology, Infrastructure Engineering, Application teams, and external service providers to ensure highly resilient and secure network services.

This role is responsible for providing technical leadership, governance, and operational oversight of the Network Operations function delivered by the Mexico-based Infrastructure Operations team. The VP will coordinate operational execution, review operational performance and KPIs, approve production changes presented by the Mexico Network Team, validate service quality, and ensure that all operational activities align with business priorities, regulatory requirements, and service level expectations. The position combines strategic planning with hands-on technical leadership, ensuring the network infrastructure continues to evolve while maintaining the stability required to support critical financial services and trading operations.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Network Strategy & Service Ownership

• Own the enterprise network infrastructure strategy across Campus, Data Center, Private Cloud (OHE), WAN, Internet Edge, and Trading environments.
• Define and maintain the multi-year Network Services technology roadmap.
• Drive modernization initiatives including automation, network segmentation, SD-WAN, Private Cloud (OHE) networking, and infrastructure standardization.
• Ensure network architecture supports scalability, resiliency, performance, and security.
• Own service availability, reliability, and operational excellence across the network infrastructure.
• Review technology lifecycle planning and capacity management.

2. Operational Leadership & Governance

• Provide technical leadership and operational governance for the Network Services function.
• Coordinate day-to-day operational execution with the Mexico-based Network Operations team.
• Review and validate operational KPIs, SLA compliance, incident trends, backlog, MTTR, availability, and overall service health metrics provided by the Mexico Infrastructure Operations organization.
• Review, challenge, and approve production changes submitted by the Mexico Network Operations team prior to implementation.
• Ensure all production changes follow established Change Management processes and maintain appropriate rollback and risk mitigation plans.
• Lead major incident management involving network infrastructure.
• Review Root Cause Analysis (RCA) reports and ensure corrective actions are implemented.
• Validate operational readiness for production deployments, maintenance activities, and business-critical events.

3. Engineering & Architecture

• Provide technical oversight for the design and implementation of network infrastructure projects.
• Review and approve network architecture standards and engineering best practices.
• Guide adoption of modern networking technologies and automation capabilities.
• Ensure consistency across on-premises infrastructure and Private Cloud (OHE) networking.
• Review infrastructure capacity planning and technology lifecycle initiatives.
• Partner with Infrastructure Engineering to ensure operational readiness of newly deployed solutions.

4. Security & Risk Management

• Partner with Information Security to maintain a strong network security posture.
• Ensure implementation of network segmentation, firewall policies, secure remote connectivity, and infrastructure hardening.
• Support regulatory, audit, and compliance requirements.
• Participate in cyber incident response activities impacting network infrastructure.
• Ensure network services comply with corporate security standards and governance policies.

5. Global Operations Coordination

• Act as the primary stakeholder for the Mexico-based Network Operations organization.
• Establish operational priorities and service expectations.
• Coordinate execution across Infrastructure Engineering, Network Operations, Voice Services, End User Technology, Information Security, and Infrastructure teams.
• Review operational reporting, service metrics, capacity trends, and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Ensure effective knowledge transfer between Engineering and Operations teams.
• Drive operational maturity through automation, standardization, governance, and process optimization.

6. Vendor & Financial Management

• Own strategic relationships with networking vendors and service providers.
• Manage carrier relationships supporting WAN and Internet connectivity.
• Review vendor performance against contractual obligations and service levels.
• Develop and manage the Network Services budget.
• Drive cost optimization initiatives while maintaining resiliency and service quality.

7. Leadership & Team Development

• Provide leadership and mentoring to Network Engineering resources.
• Foster collaboration across Infrastructure, Information Security, Voice Services, End User Technology, and Application teams.
• Build technical capability and succession planning within the organization.
• Promote accountability, ownership, continuous improvement, and operational excellence.
• Support recruitment and organizational planning activities.

8. Governance & Continuous Improvement

• Define operational standards, governance processes, and technical documentation requirements.
• Ensure architecture diagrams, operational runbooks, and network documentation remain current.
• Drive network automation initiatives using Infrastructure as Code where appropriate.
• Improve monitoring, observability, operational reporting, and service dashboards.
• Establish governance for network changes, technology lifecycle management, and service improvement initiatives.

What You Bring:
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree: in related field or equivalent demonstrated through a combination of work experience, training, military service, or education - Required

Qualifications:

• Bilingual in Spanish is required.
• 12+ years of experience supporting enterprise network infrastructure
• 9+ Years Experience covering enterprise datacenter server hardware administration in a large-scale infrastructure setup in a functional team member role. - Required.
• 9+ Years Experience working in large-scale datacenter/cloud/network environments and related technologies. - Required.
• 9+ Years Experience in running cloud infrastructure environments from an end-to-end perspective, ideally covering compute, network and storage at the server hardware level. - Required.
• 9+ Years Experience in global project setups and driving assigned work streams in a results-driven way. - Required.
• 5+ years leading Network Engineering and/or Infrastructure Operations teams.
• Proven experience managing enterprise-scale network environments within highly regulated industries.
• Strong experience supporting critical financial services or trading environments preferred.
• Experience managing global operations teams and offshore delivery models.
• Experience leading infrastructure modernization and transformation initiatives.
• Experience managing strategic technology vendors and carrier relationships.
• Experience managing operational budgets and technology roadmaps.
• Advanced understanding of routing and switching protocols including BGP, OSPF, MPLS, and EVPN/VXLAN.
• Strong experience with Cisco Nexus and Cisco Catalyst platforms.
• Experience with F5 Load Balancers.
• Experience supporting Private Cloud (OHE) networking.
• Strong understanding of WAN, Internet Edge, VPN, and SD-WAN technologies.
• Experience with network automation using Ansible, Terraform, Python, or similar tools.

Certifications:

• CCNA – Cisco Certified Network Associate
• CCNP Security – Cisco Certified Network Professional (Security)

It Would Be Nice For You To Have:

• Established work history or equivalent demonstrated through a combination of work experience, training, military service, or education.

Work Authorization & Sponsorship:
Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis without requiring employer sponsorship to commence employment.

What Else You Need To Know:

The base pay range for this position is posted below and represents the annualized salary range. For hourly positions (non-exempt), the annual range is based on a 40-hour work week. The exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, training, licensure and certifications and location.

Base Pay Range:

Minimum:

$165,000.00 USD$205,000.00 USD

 

We Value Your Impact:

Your contribution matters and it’s recognized.  You can expect a fair and competitive rewards package that reflects the impact you create and the value you deliver. We know rewards go beyond numbers.  Offering more than just a paycheck our benefits are designed to support you, your family and your well-being, now and into the future. Santander Benefits - 2026 Santander OnGoing/NH eGuide (foleon.com) 

Risk Culture:

We embrace a strong risk culture and all of our professionals at all levels are expected to take a proactive and responsible approach toward risk management.

 

EEO Statement:

At Santander, we value and respect differences in our workforce. We actively encourage everyone to apply. Santander is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, genetics, disability, age, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Working Conditions:

Frequent minimal physical effort such as sitting, standing and walking is required for this role. Depending on location, occasional moving and lifting light equipment and/or furniture may be required.

Employer Rights:

This job description does not list all of the job duties of the job. You may be asked by your supervisors or managers to perform other duties. You may be evaluated in part based upon your performance of the tasks listed in this job description. The employer has the right to revise this job description at any time. This job description is not a contract for employment and either you or the employer may terminate your employment at any time for any reason.

What To Do Next:

If this sounds like a role you are interested in, then please apply.

We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible application process for all candidates. If you require any assistance or accommodation due to a disability or any other reason, please contact us at TAOps@santander.us to discuss your needs.