Hear from leaders about network engineering career paths and exciting aspects of their roles and responsibilities.

At Verizon, our Global Network Management Team is shaping the future. Take it from V Teamer Sandhya Ramani who shares just how much of an impact this team makes:

“The Global Network Management organization as a whole has a huge responsibility to provide high-quality, efficient, and reliable products with integrity and honesty. We’re responsible for being transparent and communicating critical information with our customers. If there’s an outage in the area, we want to be the first people to tell you what’s going on, and we want to be the first people to fix it before you even notice what’s happening.”

We recently sat down with three network operations and engineering leaders on the Global Network Management Center team.

What is the Network Operations Center team?

Led by Joe Russo, Senior Vice President of Operations, Verizon’s Global Network Management Team maintains our vast network. From implementation to quality assurance, network engineers, network operations managers, and planners on our team are tasked with meeting the needs of our customers.

Network Operations manager Vee Ramkalawon shares what her role on the Global Network Management team is all about.

From network operations manager roles to positions as a network engineer manager, learn how these V Teamers progressed in their network engineering career paths.

Eric Drake - Senior Manager, Network Engineering

Eric Drake’s network engineering career path took many different twists and turns before he began his current role as a network engineering manager. He began his Verizon journey on our Finance team. Knowing there were other areas of the business to explore, Eric went on to earn a degree using Verizon’s tuition assistance benefit.

“The support from my team was great. Knowing that I was on the Finance team and wanted to get into a different area of the business, my leadership was supportive,” Eric shared. “They knew that me taking these classes wouldn’t necessarily help them out in the finance organization, but they knew it was where I wanted to go in terms of career development.”

Eric enjoys the opportunity to lead the team that builds leading-edge technology, such as Enterprise Private 5G Networks. Apart from that, the diversity of the teams he works with daily also keeps him motivated and excited as he collaborates with teams across the network operations center including planning, products, and maintenance engineering.

Veedoola (Vee) Ramkalawon - Senior Manager, Network Operations

Now in her 25th year as a V Teamer, Vee Ramkalawon joined us right out of college. She was one of the pioneer network engineers for Verizon Fios and has made strides in driving innovation, leading a large-scale network reliability program.

She loves the company’s focus on the power of technology to transform communities, businesses, and individual lives. The business-critical aspect of the role also keeps her driven, as her team is accountable for working directly with our customers to resolve network troubles and provide them with the best experience.

The team’s inclusive and welcoming environment also resonated with her: “When I moved to Global Network Management, one of the best parts for me was that inclusion was a part of the culture,” Vee said. “I have direct access to my leaders — they’re on the floor with us. We have a beyond open-door policy.”

“Here, I feel like I have the space to think outside of the box to invent, create ideas, analyze, try things out, fail fast and then get back up and come up with innovative solutions.”

Sandhya Ramani - Senior Engineer Consultant, Tech Project Management

After graduating from college, Sandhya Ramani came across Verizon at a career fair. Although she has a data analytics background, Sandhya wasn’t afraid to explore network engineering jobs.

In her time on the Network Operations Center team, Sandhya has been motivated to move her career forward. After speaking with her manager and putting together her network engineering career path, she was able to take on more responsibilities and reach her current role as a senior engineer consultant and project manager.

For her, the best part of her job is making a difference. As a product owner, she helps her team understand where they want their career to go. She also knows that the work they do has a positive real-world impact.

“I would absolutely recommend this role to anyone who wants to feel a sense of accomplishment. You’re actively working on devices and technology that people depend on day-to-day. Fire departments, 911 operators, and major emergency services are dependent on our network,” Sandhya said. “We work every day to provide amazing service to our customers. In this role, you go home knowing that you fixed problems today. It makes a world of difference.”

Find network engineer job opportunities at Verizon.

Earlier this year, Verizon was awarded the best overall network performance and network reliability for the sixteenth time by RootMetrics. When asked why candidates should consider a Network Management job here, Eric’s answer said it all.

“We empower engineers to go out and build the networks that, in turn, win these awards. You want to play for the best team, and these awards show that we constantly develop the best people that build the best network.”

Eric shares three tips for anyone looking to pursue a network management role at Verizon.

Explore technology roles at Verizon.