Lead Network Engineer

About the role

You will own the global production network strategy that underpins Halter's mission to transform grazing and farming operations worldwide. In this role, you create the operating system that allows our secure, high-reliability manufacturing networks to replicate at speed across countries and suppliers. You will define the technical direction and standards that enable customers to run the most productive and sustainable operations without being constrained by conventional practices. You will be responsible for making clear readiness calls on whether network capability, reliability, security, and support models are sufficient for production milestones. This is a role where your work is visible in how customers revolutionize their operations and change lives. You will be solving challenging problems within a talented team that out-thinks, out-works, and out-cares. We love that this mission is hard, and you will find deep satisfaction in building systems that bring magic to the farm while maintaining the highest standards of performance.

Key facts

What you'll do

Define the global production network strategy and standards that span factories, suppliers, contract manufacturers, and future sites for Halter.

Architect scalable manufacturing networks by designing segmentation, security controls, remote access, observability, redundancy, device onboarding, and naming/IP standards.

Set readiness gates and standards for network deployment, validation, monitoring, documentation, change control, and incident response to ensure production reliability.

Drive cross-functional execution for new country and site launches, capacity ramps, major supplier onboarding, high-risk ECNs, and systemic reliability improvements.

Make decisive readiness judgments on whether the network infrastructure can support production milestones safely and securely.

Create leverage by mentoring engineers, setting the technical bar, and building repeatable patterns that other teams can deploy safely and consistently.

Own the end-to-end network lifecycle for critical environments, balancing velocity, security, uptime, supportability, and cost in alignment with business needs.

Collaborate closely with Production Engineering, IT, Security, vendors, suppliers, and leadership to align on standards, trade-offs, and execution priorities.

Ensure network operations are observable, resilient, and maintainable through rigorous standards, documentation, and continuous improvement.

Champion secure practices for factory infrastructure, including production lines, test stations, Linux-based test PCs, routers, gateways, and connected fixtures.

Support supplier-operated equipment and integrate it safely into the global network without compromising reliability or security.

Act as the technical authority during high-risk engineering change notices and major reliability initiatives that impact the production network.

Requirements

You have proven technical leadership of high-reliability industrial, manufacturing, logistics, data centre, telco, utilities, or similarly mission-critical network environments.

You bring deep architecture experience across routing, switching, VLANs, IP standards, segmentation, firewalls, secure remote access, observability, redundancy, configuration management, and incident response.

You have a track record of scaling network infrastructure across multiple sites, countries, vendors, or operating environments with robust standards and documentation.

You demonstrate strong judgment when balancing velocity, security, uptime, supportability, and cost for complex production systems.

You communicate effectively and can align cross-functional stakeholders including Production Engineering, IT, Security, vendors, suppliers, and leadership.

You are prepared to travel frequently as required, approximately 20%, to be on site when you are the right person to own your changes.

You are comfortable working within environments that use Linux-based test PCs, routers, gateways, and connected fixtures as part of the production network.

You understand the importance of network readiness gates, validation, monitoring, documentation, change control, and incident response in a manufacturing context.

Nice to have

Practical experience designing networks for factory infrastructure such as production lines, test stations, Linux-based test PCs, routers, gateways, connected fixtures, and supplier-operated equipment.

Practical notes

Travel is approximately 20% and is required as part of the role.

Candidates must be able to work from the Auckland location.

Only apply if you meet the requirements listed, and be prepared to explain how your experience aligns with the responsibilities of the role.