Senior Network Architect

What success looks like in this role:
1) Customer Network Architecture & End-to-End Design Leadership (Primary)

Own and lead end-to-end network architecture for large, complex customer environments, including multi-site, hybrid, multi-cloud, and regulated ecosystems.

Drive architecture discovery through comprehensive current-state assessments, application dependency mapping, traffic flow analysis, capacity baselining, and risk evaluation.

Develop high-quality architectural deliverables, including:

• High-Level and Low-Level Designs (HLD/LLD)

• Reference architectures and reusable design patterns

• Logical and physical diagrams

• Segmentation strategies and routing/switching frameworks

• Security and resiliency architectures (fault domains, high availability, disaster recovery)

• Bills of materials, licensing alignment, and cost/risk trade-off analysis

Define and validate future-state architectures across:

• Data center, campus, WAN, and branch environments

• SD-WAN, SASE, and ZTNA integrations

• Load balancing (L4/L7), DNS/DHCP/IPAM (DDI)

• NAC, segmentation, and micro‑segmentation (as applicable)

• IPv4/IPv6 strategy, BGP/OSPF/ISIS, and EVPN/VXLAN where required

Ensure all designs align with business objectives, including growth initiatives, M&A activity, regulatory compliance, cloud adoption, user experience, and cost optimization.

Maintain hands‑on credibility by validating designs through configuration prototypes, lab testing, packet captures, and live‑environment troubleshooting.

Lead initiatives to stabilize and mature network operations by implementing:

• Standard operating procedures, runbooks, and defined escalation paths

• Incident reduction programs leveraging root cause analysis (RCA) and structured problem management

• Formal change governance with standardized templates, risk scoring, and rollback strategies

• Configuration standardization (golden configurations, compliance validation, drift detection)

• Resiliency improvements through SPOF elimination, HA consistency validation, and failover testing

Develop and execute a Network Reliability Plan with measurable outcomes:

• Improved availability and reduced downtime

• Reduced MTTR

• Lower change failure rates

• Alert noise reduction

• Performance SLOs (latency, jitter, packet loss) aligned to application requirements

Establish strong Day‑2 operational readiness by implementing:

• Monitoring and telemetry baselines (SNMP, streaming telemetry, syslog, Net Flow)

• Event correlation and service mapping

• Capacity forecasting and lifecycle management

Drive post‑implementation validation through performance testing, failover validation, and formal operational acceptance criteria.

Serve as a trusted technical advisor to executive stakeholders (CIO, CTO, CISO, VP Infrastructure/Operations).

Lead executive workshops and translate technical strategy into business outcomes, including:

• Risk posture and resiliency strategy

• Compliance readiness

• Cap Ex/OpEx optimization and vendor strategy

• Cloud and network roadmap alignment

Present architectural decisions with clearly articulated trade‑offs:

• Option comparisons (cost, risk, complexity, time‑to‑value)

• Explicit assumptions and constraints

• Clear, defensible recommendations

Own the technical narrative in high‑impact forums such as QBRs, EBRs, steering committees, architecture review boards, and executive incident briefings.

Provide architectural governance throughout the delivery lifecycle.

• Review designs for accuracy, scalability, security, and operational readiness

• Ensure implementation fidelity to architectural intent

• Lead technical checkpoints (design reviews, pre‑change readiness, go/no‑go decisions)

Define and enforce quality standards for:

• Implementation best practices and validation checklists

• Documentation completeness and operational handoff

• Functional, performance, and failover testing

Partner with Program Managers and Delivery Leads on scope definition, sequencing, dependency management, risk mitigation, and cutover strategy planning.