NOC Manager - National at Frogfoot Networks (Pty) Ltd

Purpose of the Role

• The NOC (Network Operations Center) Manager is responsible for the overall leadership, performance, and operational effectiveness of the NOC team. This includes overseeing 24/7 operations, ensuring high levels of network availability and service quality, managing major incidents, and driving continuous improvement in processes, systems, and team performance.
• The NOC Manager plays a key strategic role in aligning the NOC with business objectives, maintaining service excellence for clients, and ensuring the NOC operates efficiently, effectively, and proactively.

Key Responsibilities

Leadership and Team Management

• Lead and manage the NOC team, including Supervisors and Engineers, ensuring optimal performance across all
• Recruit, train, mentor, and develop staff to maintain a highly skilled, motivated, and customer-focused
• Define performance expectations, conduct regular reviews, and implement professional development plans.
• Foster a culture of accountability, ownership, and continuous learning within the NOC.
• Oversee staff scheduling, ensuring balanced workload distribution and adequate coverage for 24/7 operations.

Incident and Problem Management

• Act as the escalation point for major incidents, critical service outages, and high-priority client issues.
• Lead the coordination of incident response, ensuring clear communication, rapid resolution, and minimal business impact.
• Ensure proper root cause analysis (RCA) is conducted for recurring or high-impact incidents, and corrective/preventative measures are
• Manage post-incident reviews with stakeholders, clients, and technical teams to strengthen resilience and service
• Establish and maintain effective escalation protocols with vendors, service providers, and internal

Operational Oversight

• Oversee all NOC operations to ensure SLA
• compliance and adherence to internal policies and industry best practices.
• Monitor NOC dashboards, systems, and alerts to ensure proactive issue detection and
• Ensure accurate, consistent, and timely documentation of incidents, changes, and communications in the ticketing
• Develop and enforce standard operating procedures (SOPs) to streamline workflows and reduce error
• Maintain compliance with all regulatory, contractual, and security requirements relevant to the NOC.

Client Service and Communication

• Act as a senior point of contact for clients during major incidents, ensuring timely updates and professional communication.
• Collaborate with account managers, service delivery, and technical teams to ensure client expectations are consistently met or exceeded. 
• Champion a client-first approach within the NOC, embedding superior client service as a core principle of
• Provide regular reporting and updates to clients on service performance, incident trends, and improvement

Performance Measurement and Reporting

• Define, track, and report on key performance indicators (KPIs), including incident response times, resolution times, availability, and client satisfaction.
• Analyze incident and problem data to identify trends, risks, and areas for improvement.
• Deliver management reports summarizing NOC performance, resource utilization, and service quality.
• Implement data-driven improvements to enhance team productivity and operational efficiency.

Continuous Improvement and Strategic Input

• Drive ongoing improvements in monitoring tools, processes, and automation to increase efficiency and reduce manual intervention.
• Identify opportunities for proactive measures to prevent service disruptions and optimize network stability.
• Stay up to date with industry trends, best practices, and emerging technologies relevant to network operations.
• Provide strategic input into capacity planning, risk management, and technology investments.
• Collaborate with leadership to align NOC objectives with overall business and IT strategy.

Key Skills and Competencies

• Strong leadership and people management skills, with proven experience managing 24/7 operations teams.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal abilities, capable of managing client relationships at all levels.
• Solid technical knowledge of network infrastructure, monitoring tools, incident management, and service delivery.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a data-driven approach to decision-making.
• Ability to work under pressure in high-stakes situations, maintaining clarity and focus.
• Strategic thinking combined with operational execution capabilities.

Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Telecommunications, Computer Science, or related field (or equivalent experience) advantageous.
• Minimum of 4-6 years in a NOC or network operations environment, with at least 3 years in a supervisory or managerial role.
• Proven experience with incident and problem management frameworks (e.g., ITIL).
• Experience working with enterprise-grade monitoring systems, ticketing systems, and escalation processes.
• Familiarity with regulatory and compliance requirements related to network operations.