Network Solutions Architect

Position Overview

The Network Solutions Architect is responsible for the design, governance, and evolution of network solutions that support organisational objectives across enterprise, cloud, and hybrid environments. The role combines strategic architecture leadership with operational and people management responsibilities, ensuring network services are secure, resilient, scalable, and aligned to business needs.

In addition to architecture and leadership responsibilities, the postholder is expected to maintain a hands-on technical involvement in the delivery of architected solutions. This includes providing technical leadership throughout implementation, supporting complex deployments, validating designs, troubleshooting critical issues, and working alongside engineering teams to ensure solutions are delivered in accordance with architectural standards and business requirements.

The role requires a balance of strategic thinking and practical execution, with accountability for translating architectural vision into successful operational outcomes while leading and developing a high-performing network solutions team.

The successful candidate will lead architecture and design activities while managing a team of network professionals, overseeing performance, development, resource planning, and operational excellence.

You will need to support and deliver to cross functional teams within the Global business which means you will need to adapt to ways of working being flexible to their needs.

The role has the potential to include overnight and weekend working to support project delivery and act as a point of escalation for the operational support teams. International travel will be required when necessitated by project delivery.

Key Responsibilities

Solution Architecture & Design:

· Design end-to-end network solutions for business and technology initiatives.

· Defining processes and systems design.

· Produce high-level and detailed network architecture designs.

· Define network standards, patterns, and roadmaps.

· Ensure solutions align with architecture, security, and operational requirements.

· Lead network design reviews and technical governance activities.

· Provide architectural guidance for cloud, hybrid-cloud, and on-premises environments.

· Support major transformation programmes and infrastructure modernisation projects.

Technology Strategy

· Develop and maintain network technology roadmaps.

· Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends.

· Recommend improvements to network performance, security, resilience, and automation.

· Drive adoption of software-defined and cloud-based networking solutions.

Network Security & Compliance

· Ensure security principles are embedded into all network solutions.

· Collaborate with cybersecurity teams to implement secure architectures.

· Support compliance with regulatory, audit, and governance requirements.

· Design solutions supporting Zero Trust and defence-in-depth strategies.

Project & Delivery Leadership

· Lead technical design activities for complex projects.

· Act as the senior technical authority for network-related initiatives.

· Support project managers with planning, estimation, and risk management.

· Review and approve technical deliverables from internal teams and third-party suppliers.

Team Leadership

· Lead, mentor, and develop a team of network solutions engineers and specialists.

· Set individual objectives and performance expectations.

· Conduct regular one-to-one meetings and performance reviews.

· Create development plans and support professional certification goals.

· Foster a collaborative, high-performing team culture

Resource & Workforce Planning

· Manage team workload, priorities, and resource allocation.

· Identify skills gaps and develop succession plans.

· Support recruitment, onboarding, and retention activities.

· Manage contractor and supplier resources where required.

Operational Management

· Ensure network services meet agreed service levels and operational targets.

· Oversee incident, problem, and change management activities.

· Drive continuous service improvement initiatives.

· Monitor team performance against agreed metrics and OKR’s

Technical Skills & Experience

Networking

· Enterprise LAN, WAN, WLAN architecture

· SD-WAN solutions (Cisco/Palo Alto)

· Data centre networking (Cisco)

· Network segmentation

· Routing and switching on a global scale (BGP, OSPF, MPLS, VXLAN)

· Load balancing technologies (F5, open-source options)

· DNS, DHCP, IPAM

· IPv4 and IPv6

Cloud Networking

· Networking within Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and/or Google Cloud

· Hybrid and multi-cloud connectivity

· ExpressRoute, Direct Connect, VPN, and cloud transit architectures

Security

· Firewalls and network security controls (Palo Alto)

· Zero Trust architecture

· Network Access Control (NAC)

· Secure remote access solutions

· Network monitoring and threat detection

· Secure access service edge (SASE)

· CIS Controls

Automation & Observability

· LogicMonitor

· Icinga, Grafana, Prometheus

· Ansible

· Terraform

· Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

· Network automation frameworks

Recovery and High Availability:

· High Availability (HA) network design.

· Disaster Recovery (DR) planning and implementation.

· Active-active and active-passive network architectures.

· Multi-site and geographically resilient network deployments.

· Cloud resilience and multi-region networking.

· Load balancing and traffic management technologies.

· SD-WAN resilience and failover capabilities.

· Data centre redundancy and resilience design.

· Network failover and recovery testing.

· Critical infrastructure and 24x7 service environments.

Requirements

Experience in the following desired, but not essential:

· Use of Atlassian suite and Halo ITSM

· Ability to clearly explain technical issues to a non-technical audience.

· Experience working within an MSP

· Knowledge of regulatory frameworks such as GDPR, ISO 27001, NIST, PCI-DSS, or Cyber Essentials Plus.

· Experience working within large-scale enterprise environments supporting 1,000+ users across multiple locations

· Experience supporting highly available 24x7 operational environments.

Person specification:

Formal Education, Certification/Qualifications

· Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)

· Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE)

· Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE)

· AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty

· Microsoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer Associate

· ITIL Accreditation (desirable)

· Project Management accreditation (desirable)

· TOGAF (desirable)

Personal Attributes:

· Ability to cope in a technically complex and fast-changing environment, and to respond calmly and rationally to changing aspirations in a deadline-driven situation.

· Strong planning and organisation skills including the ability to manage several work streams simultaneously.

· Strong tenacity, sense of urgency and problem-solving skills.

· Able to quantify and articulate business options, risks, issues and benefits, clearly and succinctly, supporting effective decision-making and resolution.

· Demonstrate professionalism to support a culture of integrity within the team.

· Credible and persuasive at all levels within the organisation and externally

· Ability to innovate and to challenge entrenched thinking coupled with sensitivity to the current culture of teams

· Able to work at pace whilst maintaining very high standard in a busy Infrastructure delivery team

· Ability to communicate clearly internally and externally. Develop relationships with a variety of stakeholders