Senior Network Architect

Job description

What success looks like in this role: 1) Customer Network Architecture & End-to-End Design Leadership (Primary) • Own the end-to-end network architecture for large/complex customer environments (multi-site, multi-cloud, hybrid, regulated). • Lead architecture discovery: current-state analysis, application dependency mapping, traffic flows, capacity baselining, and risk assessment. • Produce high-quality architecture artifacts, including:• High-level and low-level designs (HLD/LLD) • Reference architectures and patterns • Logical/physical diagrams, segmentation models, routing & switching plans • Security and resiliency designs (fault domains, HA, DR) • Bill of materials, licensing alignment, and cost/risk trade-offs • Define and validate target-state architecture across:• Data center / campus / WAN / branch • SD-WAN, SASE, ZTNA integration • Load balancing (L4/L7), DNS/DHCP/IPAM • DDI, NAC, segmentation, micro-segmentation (where applicable) • IPv4/IPv6 strategy, BGP/OSPF/ISIS, EVPN/VXLAN (if required) • Ensure designs align to customer business outcomes (growth, M&A, compliance, cloud adoption, user experience, cost controls). Hands-on expectation: Ability to validate designs via config prototypes, lab testing, packet capture, and troubleshooting in real environments. 2) Operational Stabilization & Network Reliability Excellence (Primary) • Lead the stabilization of network operations by establishing and driving:• Operational maturity (standard operating procedures, runbooks, escalation paths) • Incident reduction program using RCA, problem management, and corrective action plans • Change governance with standardized change templates, risk scoring, and backout plans • Configuration standardization (golden configs, compliance checks, drift detection) • Resiliency improvements: elimination of SPOFs, HA consistency, redundancy validation, failover testing • Create a Network Reliability Plan with measurable targets:• Availability / downtime reduction • MTTR improvement • Change failure rate reduction • Alert noise reduction • Performance SLOs (latency/jitter/loss) aligned to app needs • Build “Day-2 Operations” readiness:• Monitoring/telemetry baselines (SNMP/streaming telemetry/syslog/NetFlow) • Event correlation and service mapping • Capacity forecasting and lifecycle management • Drive post-implementation validation: performance testing, failover testing, and operational acceptance criteria. 3) Executive / C-Level Customer Engagement & Technology Leadership (Primary) • Act as the trusted technical advisor to customer executives (CIO, CTO, CISO, VP Infrastructure/Operations). • Lead executive-level workshops and steer conversations from technical detail to business outcomes:• Risk posture, resiliency, compliance readiness • Cost optimization (CapEx/OpEx), vendor strategy, roadmap planning • Cloud/network strategy alignment • Present architectural decisions with clear trade-offs:• “Option A vs B” cost, risk, complexity, time-to-value • Explicit assumptions, constraints, and recommended path • Own the technical narrative in high-stakes settings:• QBRs/EBRs, steering committees, architecture review boards • Critical incident executive briefings (what happened, impact, mitigation, prevention) 4) Delivery Oversight & Technical Governance (Primary) • Provide architectural governance across the delivery lifecycle:• Review designs for correctness, security, scalability, and operational readiness • Ensure implementation matches the design intent • Lead technical checkpoints: design review, pre-change readiness, cutover go/no-go • Define quality bars for:• Implementation standards and validation checklists • Documentation completeness and operational handover • Testing requirements (functional, performance, failover) • Partner with PMs and Delivery Leads on:• Scope definition, sequencing, risk and dependency management • Technical change windows and cutover strategy 5) Hands-On Technical Troubleshooting & Escalation Leadership (Primary) • Serve as top-tier escalation for complex issues:• Routing instability, asymmetry, BGP/OSPF issues, STP/loop events • MTU, fragmentation, application timeouts, TLS handshake impacts • Packet loss/jitter root causes across WAN/ISP/cloud edges • Firewall policy conflicts, NAT issues, segmentation misalignment • Lead bridge calls during major incidents; coordinate across teams/vendors:• Network, security, compute, storage, application, ISP, cloud providers • Use evidence-based troubleshooting:• Packet captures, flow analytics, logs/telemetry, traceroutes, synthetic tests • Translate technical root cause into executive-ready summaries. 6) Security, Compliance & Risk Integration (Key) • Ensure security is built into architecture and operations:• Segmentation strategy, least privilege connectivity patterns • Secure management plane, MFA/AAA, TACACS/RADIUS • Logging, auditability, and compliance controls alignment • Align designs with common requirements (as applicable):• Zero Trust principles, PCI/HIPAA/SOX/FedRAMP-like control expectations • Sec