Director of Global Network & Connectivity

Director of Global Network & Connectivity

Ashley Furniture Industries | Tampa, FL | Full-Time | Onsite

About Ashley Furniture

At Ashley, were driven by a Massively Transformative Purpose: to inspire the love of home and enrich the lives of those around us by being the most innovative and competitive furniture company on the planet. Our vision is clear-we want to be the best home furnishings company.

We achieve this through our mission: Improve Quality, Reduce Costs, Do More Business, Be Profitable, and Stay in Business. Our success is built on core values of Honesty & Integrity, Passion, Drive & Discipline, Continuous Improvement, and our Dirty Fingernail philosophy-you get what you inspect, not what you expect.

The Opportunity

Were seeking a Director of Global Network & Connectivity to lead the strategy, engineering, and operations of Ashley's global network and communications ecosystem. This critical leadership role supports our massive scale across manufacturing, distribution, retail, and corporate environments.

As the Director, you will transform our connectivity into a software-defined, automated, and SLO-driven platform, enabling a secure, resilient, and scalable infrastructure that directly supports Ashley's AI-first and digital transformation strategy. You will work boundarylessly, partnering with Infrastructure, Platform Services, DevOps, Security, and Data teams to modernize capabilities, improve reliability, and enable self-service and automation at scale.

This is a unique opportunity to demonstrate a Culture of Leadership while driving enterprise-wide modernization initiatives that will keep Ashley at the forefront of the global furniture industry.

What Youll Do

Network & Communications Strategy

• Define and execute the global strategy for networking and communications across LAN, WAN, wireless, voice, contact centers, and unified communications.
• Lead modernization initiatives including SD-WAN, cloud networking, VoIP transformation, and cloud-based contact center platforms.
• Standardize architecture across all manufacturing plants, distribution centers, retail stores, and corporate offices.
• Align network and communication capabilities to support AI, data, and platform-driven workloads.

Reliability & Service Health

• Own the availability, performance, and reliability of global network and communication services (24x7x365).
• Define and manage Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and Service Level Indicators (SLIs) across connectivity and voice services.
• Drive reduction in Mean Time to Recovery (MTTR) through improved incident response, automation, and root cause elimination.
• Lead proactive resilience initiatives including failover, redundancy, and disaster recovery testing.

Platform Automation & Self-Service

• Evolve networking and communications into self-service platforms with established guardrails.
• Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and API-driven provisioning for network and voice services.
• Automate configuration, compliance, and lifecycle management across connectivity and communication systems.
• Partner with DevOps and Platform teams to integrate network and communications into CI/CD pipelines and cloud platforms.

Observability, Monitoring & Security

• Ensure end-to-end visibility across network, voice, contact center, and user experience.
• Improve alert quality and reduce noise through event correlation and intelligent monitoring.
• Integrate telemetry into enterprise observability and ITSM platforms (e.g., ServiceNow) and enable synthetic monitoring.
• Partner with Security to implement Zero Trust architecture across network and communication platforms.
• Embed security into design, operations, and access controls across all connectivity layers to ensure compliance.

Global Operations & Financial Management

• Lead operations across data centers, cloud, retail stores, manufacturing sites, offices, and contact centers.
• Serve as the primary escalation point for major incidents impacting connectivity and communications.
• Manage the network and communications budget (CapEx and OpEx).
• Optimize carrier circuits, voice services, and platform costs through strategic sourcing and lifecycle management.
• Manage vendor relationships across telecom providers, voice platforms, and contact center solutions.

Leadership & Team Development

• Build and lead a high-performing global network and communications team.
• Develop team capabilities in automation, cloud networking, voice platforms, and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices.
• Foster a culture of standardization, accountability, and Continuous Improvement.
• Coach, mentor, and develop team members through structured performance management.

What You Bring

Education & Experience

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field - Preferred
• 12+ years of progressive IT experience, with a strong focus on enterprise networking and communications - Required
• 5+ years in a leadership role managing global network and/or telecom teams - Required
• Proven experience supporting large-scale, distributed environments (manufacturing, retail, or similar highly complex operations).
• Proven ability to lead large-scale transformation initiatives.

Technical Expertise

• Enterprise Networking: Deep expertise in LAN, WAN, Wireless, and SD-WAN.
• Voice & Communications: Strong knowledge of VoIP, SIP, contact center solutions, and unified communications platforms.
• Routing & Switching: Advanced understanding of BGP, OSPF, TCP/IP, DNS, and DHCP.
• Cloud Networking: Experience with modern cloud environments (Azure, GCP, or AWS).
• Security: Solid grasp of network/communication security and Zero Trust principles.
• Automation & Observability: Experience with APIs, scripting, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), monitoring tools, and ITSM integration.

Personal Attributes

• Continuous Improvement Mindset: Relentless focus on optimizing performance and automating processes.
• Dirty Fingernail Philosophy: Willingness to dig into the details and inspect what you expect.
• Strategic Vision: Ability to align technical infrastructure with business goals and AI-first strategies.
• Collaborative Leader: Proven ability to work cross-functionally and build strong vendor relationships.

Work Environment & Scope

Location: Tampa, FL (Office-based / Onsite role) Travel: Occasional travel to manufacturing, distribution, retail, or contact center locations as needed to support operations and strategic initiatives. Schedule: Standard business hours with responsibility for 24x7x365 global service health (serving as an escalation point for major incidents).

Why Ashley?

Join a company that lives its values every day. At Ashley, youll have the opportunity to:

• Drive Global Transformation: Lead the modernization of connectivity for the worlds largest furniture manufacturer and retailer.
• Embrace Innovation: Play a foundational role in enabling our AI-first and digital transformation strategies.
• Make an Impact: Your work directly enables the daily operations of our manufacturing plants, global supply chain, and retail stores.
• Collaborate Boundarylessly: Partner with top-tier technology and business leaders across our global footprint.

Youll be part of a Growth-Focused organization committed to dominating the furniture industry while inspiring the love of home for customers around the world.

Ready to Join Our Team?

If you are a strategic technology leader passionate about networking, automation, and continuous improvement, we want to hear from you. This is your opportunity to architect the future of connectivity at Ashley.

Apply today and help us continue our journey to be the best home furnishings company!

Ashley is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.