At Academy Sports + Outdoors our vision is to be the best sports + outdoors retailer in the country — but what truly sets us apart is our people. We’re a passionate, purpose-driven team that’s as committed to each other as we are to our customers.
We’ve spent over 80 years building a culture that puts people first. We believe in creating opportunities for growth, fostering meaningful connections, and supporting every Team Member’s journey. What fuels us? Our belief in the power of fun.
Here, you won’t just help customers gear up for their next adventure — you’ll launch one of your own. Whether you're starting out or leveling up, Academy is a place where fun can’t lose!
What You Will Work On
In this role, you lead the connectivity platforms that support corporate, retail, and supply chain objectives. Your work provides a resilient, secure, and reliable foundation across enterprise network, firewall, cloud networking, wireless, SD-WAN, and voice services. By connecting platform strategy, service delivery, and operational performance, you help the business operate effectively while advancing scalable and cost-conscious technology solutions.
Working across strategy and execution, you develop and deliver the annual operating plan and technology roadmap for network, firewall, and telecom platforms. You oversee solution evaluation and design, monitor platform health, drive automation and process improvement, and lead major incident response, root cause analysis, and problem management. You also manage budgets, vendors, service levels, success metrics, project portfolios, cross-functional technical programs, compliance, stakeholder communication, and executive reporting while building and developing a high-performing technical team.
Who You Will Work With
You will partner with IT and business leadership to understand objectives and translate them into scalable, secure, supportable, and cost-effective connectivity solutions. You will work across Security, Cloud, Store Operations, and other IT teams, coordinating with business stakeholders to plan and execute projects, manage risks, and align technical priorities with operational needs.
You will lead network engineers and analysts, define team structure and resource priorities, and support recruitment, onboarding, performance evaluation, and professional development. You will also manage strategic and tactical relationships with vendors and managed service providers, establish performance expectations, negotiate contracts and statements of work, and hold partners accountable to service level agreements.
What You Bring
Bring your energy, your ideas, and your love for sports and the outdoors.
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related discipline, or equivalent work experience
- 10+ years of progressive experience in IT infrastructure, with a deep focus on enterprise network and telecom engineering
- 4+ years of proven managerial and leadership experience, with a track record of building, mentoring, and leading high-performing technical teams; experience managing other managers is strongly preferred
- Demonstrated experience developing and executing annual technology roadmaps and strategies that align with core business goals
- Proven track record of architecting, implementing, and managing innovative, highly available, and fault-tolerant network architectures
- Proven experience in leading IT operations, incident response, and problem management functions at scale
- Extensive experience in strategic and tactical vendor and Managed Service Provider management, including contract negotiation, defining statements of work, and driving partner performance to defined service level agreements
- Demonstrated experience directly linking technical operations and infrastructure investments to financial outcomes, including budget, total cost of ownership, and return on investment
- Advanced industry certifications are highly preferred, such as CCNP or CCIE, PCNSE, or cloud-specific networking certifications
- Expert-level knowledge of enterprise network architecture, including switching, routing, BGP or OSPF, VLANs, firewalls, and wide-area networking such as MPLS and SD-WAN
- Deep knowledge of modern wireless networking, including Wi-Fi 6 or 6E, mobility, and BYOD, for large-scale retail and corporate environments
- Deep understanding of cloud networking across GCP, Azure, and AWS, including hybrid-cloud connectivity, VPC design, transit gateways, and cloud-native security
- Advanced knowledge of network security principles and systems, including next-generation firewalls, network access control, Zero Trust concepts, and SASE
- Direct experience with the Fortinet platform, including FortiGate and FortiManager, is highly desired
- Expertise in modern voice platforms and a comprehensive understanding of telecom infrastructure and cost management
- Proficiency in leveraging network monitoring and observability tools, such as SolarWinds and Dynatrace, to drive operational stability and rapid root cause analysis
- Excellent communication skills, with a proven ability to report technical status, project delivery, and incidents to leadership
- Strong understanding of IT governance frameworks and experience managing environments subject to regulatory compliance, including PCI and SOX
- Strong financial acumen with experience managing large operational and capital budgets
- Methodical problem-solving skills, with the ability to lead high-stakes incident response and drive root cause analysis
- A team-first attitude; while your core duties are your priority, you're happy to step in wherever you're needed
Work Style and Physical Requirements
- Up to 5% travel required
- Regular in-office attendance is required
- Acceptable level of hearing and vision to perform job duties
- Ability to adhere to company policies and professional standards
Key Skills
Budgeting and Forecasting, Coaching and Developing Others, Negotiations Management, Process Improvement, Project and Program Management, Root Cause Analysis
Equal Employment OpportunityAcademy is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate with regard to employment opportunities or practices on the basis of race, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other category protected by law.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent work experience
- 10 or more years of progressive IT infrastructure experience focused on enterprise network and telecom engineering
- At least 4 years of managerial and leadership experience building, mentoring, and leading technical teams
- Experience developing and executing annual technology roadmaps and strategies aligned with business goals
- Experience architecting, implementing, and managing highly available and fault-tolerant network architectures
- Experience leading IT operations, incident response, and problem management at scale
- Experience managing vendors and managed service providers, including contract negotiation, statements of work, and service-level performance
- Experience linking technical operations and infrastructure investments to budgets, total cost of ownership, and return on investment
- Expert knowledge of enterprise network architecture, switching, routing, BGP or OSPF, VLANs, firewalls, MPLS, and SD-WAN
- Deep knowledge of wireless networking, including Wi-Fi 6 or 6E, mobility, and BYOD
- Deep understanding of cloud networking across GCP, Azure, and AWS, including hybrid connectivity, VPC design, transit gateways, and cloud-native security
- Advanced knowledge of network security, next-generation firewalls, network access control, Zero Trust, and SASE
- Expertise in modern voice platforms and telecom infrastructure and cost management
- Experience using network monitoring and observability tools such as SolarWinds and Dynatrace
- Excellent communication skills for reporting technical status, project delivery, and incidents to leadership
- Understanding of IT governance frameworks and regulatory compliance environments including PCI and SOX
- Experience managing large operational and capital budgets
- Ability to lead high-stakes incident response and root cause analysis
- CCNP, CCIE, PCNSE, or cloud-specific networking certifications
- Direct experience with Fortinet FortiGate and FortiManager
- Experience managing other managers
Academy Sports + Outdoors Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Academy Sports + Outdoors and has not been reviewed or approved by Academy Sports + Outdoors.
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Retirement Support — A dollar-for-dollar 401(k) match up to 6% and an employee stock purchase plan are consistently presented as core strengths. These features stand out within big-box retail and are frequently highlighted as valuable parts of total compensation.
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Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits — A 20% merchandise discount, pay-on-demand access to wages, and tuition reimbursement provide tangible everyday value. Onsite gym access in Katy corporate/DC locations and vendor discount networks further enhance lifestyle perks.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid time off, paid holidays, and defined maternity and parental leave are part of the standard package. Materials also indicate PTO availability for some part-time store roles in certain situations.
Academy Sports + Outdoors Insights
What We Do
At Academy Sports + Outdoors, we believe in the power of fun. And we believe in helping our customers have more of it. With a wide assortment of sporting and outdoors gear, Academy offers the best brands under one roof — curated to make the most of every budget. Day in and day out, our 20,000+ Team Members bring a sense of adventure, energy, and passion to work. Understanding our people and the things that matter to them has been at the core of Academy culture for over 80 years. We take pride in creating a workplace that values hard work, commitment, growth, and of course, FUN. Academy — headquartered in Katy, TX, a suburb of Houston — is one of the nation’s largest sporting goods and outdoor stores. We offer a broad assortment of quality hunting, fishing, and camping equipment and gear, as well as sports and leisure products, footwear, apparel, and much more. Originally founded in 1938 as a family business in Texas, Academy has grown to a wide network of stores across many states, with $6.8 billion in annual revenue.
