Manager, F5 & Application Delivery Operations

As the Manager, F5 & Application Delivery Operations, you lead the team responsible for the availability, performance, and security of the enterprise F5 application delivery and web application firewall estate. You solve the challenge of delivering consistent, SLA-driven operational outcomes across a hybrid delivery model - onshore engineers and offshore managed-services partners - while modernizing a traditional F5 BIG-IP environment into automated, software-defined, and SaaS-delivered architectures. As a people leader and delivery owner, you are accountable for the engineers who design, operate, and optimize the F5 platform, developing talent, setting operational standards, and aligning F5 service delivery with enterprise business targets and IT leadership priorities.

Responsibilities
You own end-to-end delivery and operational health of the F5 estate, meeting or exceeding availability, performance, and incident-response SLAs across onshore and offshore teams
You build, develop, and retain a high-performing F5 engineering team through hiring, hands-on mentorship, career development, and clear performance management
You establish and enforce operational standards - runbooks, standard operating procedures, change governance, and escalation paths - that reduce mean time to resolution (MTTR) and recurring incidents
You serve as the primary point of accountability and senior escalation for P1/P2 incidents, coordinating internal engineers, vendor support (F5 TAC), and offshore partners to resolution You partner with IT leadership on roadmap, capacity planning, and budget for the F5 portfolio, translating business priorities into staffing, tooling, and modernization plans
You drive continuous improvement and automation adoption across the team, leveraging AI-driven insights from platforms like Dynatrace and F5 telemetry to shift the team from reactive to proactive operations

Skills
You bring advanced, hands-on expertise administering and optimizing F5 BIG-IP active-active topologies, including LTM, DNS/GTM, and WAF/ASM modules
You can develop, test, and troubleshoot custom F5 iRules (Tcl) for complex traffic steering, and tune WAF security policies that safeguard application traffic
You have critical experience automating F5 and cloud networking workflows using infrastructure-as-code and scripting tools such as Python, Ansible, and Git
You work comfortably across a multi-vendor security and traffic management stack, including F5 Distributed Cloud / SaaS WAF, AWS cloud networking, Zscaler (ZIA/ZPA), and Palo Alto firewall adjacency
You troubleshoot effectively using packet captures (tcpdump, Wireshark), SSL handshake analysis, and log aggregation platforms
You apply AI literacy to utilize machine learning recommendations for traffic optimization, threat detection, and automated troubleshooting
You bring strong collaborative leadership and communication skills to mentor junior engineers, navigate complex projects, and deliver high-satisfaction outcomes for internal business partners

Preferred Skills
Minimum Education: Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field
Minimum Experience: 8 years of experience in medium to large enterprise network/infrastructure environments, including 2+ years of direct people-management or team-lead responsibility; prior hands-on F5 BIG-IP engineering background strongly preferred
F5 BIG-IP platform fluency (LTM, DNS/GTM, WAF/ASM, SSL offload, DR/BC) at a direction-setting level
People leadership: hiring, mentoring, performance management, and team development SLA, incident, problem, and change management (ITIL-aligned); ServiceNow or equivalent
Vendor and offshore managed-services oversight (e.g. F5 TAC, IBM/partner delivery)
Supporting ecosystem awareness: AWS Cloud Networking, Zscaler (ZIA/ZPA), Palo Alto, infrastructure automation (Python, Ansible, Git)
Stakeholder management and communication with IT leadership

Preferred Certifications: F5 Certified Solution Expert (F5-CSE); ITIL Foundation; people-leadership or project/delivery credential (e.g. PMP) a plus

By applying for this position, you acknowledge and agree that Horizontal Talent may contact you regarding your application using automated technology, including phone calls, SMS/text messages, or email, which may be delivered by our virtual AI recruiter, Alex.

Please apply through this online posting or by visiting our Job Board at Applications will be accepted for 4 weeks. For those that join the team, we offer competitive compensation and benefits including medical, dental, vision, and retirement. Check out all we have to offer and how you can become part of the Horizontal Talent Team.

Please apply through this online posting or by visiting our Job Board at Applications will be accepted for 4 weeks. For those that join the team, we offer competitive compensation and benefits including medical, dental, vision, and retirement. Check out all we have to offer and how you can become part of the Horizontal Talent Team. The pay range for this role is $49 - $85 per hour based on qualifications and experience.