The Principal Network Architect is the senior technical authority for network infrastructure within the Managed Services team, which provides 24x7 monitoring, operations and support to clients across financial services, life sciences, legal, manufacturing and other industries. This hands-on role owns network architecture, design assurance and technical roadmaps across a multi-site environment, with primary expertise in Cisco switching and routing and Palo Alto Networks security platforms. The role combines architecture leadership with complex incident diagnosis, recovery coordination, engineering standards, automation and lifecycle planning to improve resilience, security, performance and operational consistency. The individual mentors engineers, serves as the senior technical escalation point and translates client and business requirements into supportable network designs.
Technology Competencies
The role requires proficiency inCisco enterprise switching and routing platforms and Palo Alto Networks security platforms. The ideal candidate should demonstrate deep proficiency in Cisco Catalyst infrastructure, Palo Alto firewalls and Panorama centralized management, including architecture, configuration, troubleshooting and lifecycle management. Familiarity with Cisco SD-WAN/Viptela and network integration within VMware-based virtualized environments is desirable.
Responsibilities
Own network architecture, design assurance and technical roadmaps across the multi-site LAN, WAN and wireless environment; translate business, client, security and availability requirements into resilient, supportable designs and clearly scoped implementation plans.
Provide deep hands-on technical leadership for Cisco switching and routing, with emphasis on Catalyst 9300, Catalyst 9000 Series and Catalyst 8300 platforms, and Palo Alto Networks PA-series appliances and Panorama.
Review and assure network designs, configuration changes and implementation plans for routing, switching, segmentation, security policy, resilience, capacity and operational readiness; define acceptance criteria, test evidence and rollback requirements.
Define configuration management and change validation standards, including configuration baselines, version control, backups, peer review, pre- and post-change checks, exception handling and configuration drift remediation.
Establish and maintain documentation standards for network diagrams, asset records, addressing, configurations, design decisions, operating procedures and recovery runbooks
Define automation standards and lead repeatable automation for configuration compliance, validation, backups, inventory and routine network operations, with testing, auditability and controlled deployment.
Lead complex incident diagnosis and coordinate network recovery across engineering teams, clients, carriers and vendors. Serve as the senior technical escalation point, support root cause analysis and drive preventative improvements that reduce recurrence.
Guide hardware and software lifecycle planning, including inventory validation, support status, software selection, upgrade testing, vulnerability remediation and refresh priorities aligned to technical roadmaps.
Lead capacity and performance planning; improve monitoring coverage, thresholds, telemetry and alert quality to identify service risks and validate network health and resilience
Mentor engineers through design reviews, troubleshooting guidance, knowledge sharing and technical standards; strengthen engineering capability and the quality of escalations.
Partner with clients and cross-functional teams globally to plan and deliver network projects, communicate technical trade-offs and risks, and evaluate emerging technologies through targeted proofs of concept.
Qualifications (Knowledge, Skills, Abilities)
Bachelor’s degree in a related field or an equivalent combination of education and relevant practical experience.
At least 10 years of experience in network support, design and…