Title: Senior Network Architect

Location: - Bethesda, MD/REMOTE

Hire Type: Contract

JOB SUMMARY:

The Senior Network Architect, Cloud & Datacenter is responsible for designing efficient and optimal networks, including local area networks (LANs), wide area networks (WANs), the Internet, intranets, cloud computing virtual networks, software defined networks, and other data communications systems. This position specifically focuses on the design of the network in both physical deployments in PoP/co-location sites to connect to cloud networks as well as cloud-based implementation of virtual network infrastructure in public clouds like AWS and Azure with an emphasis on traffic orchestration and security to and from data centers, hotel properties, partners, and vendors.

As part of a high performing team of network technologists, the Senior Network Architect engages in technical workgroups, makes decisions on complex and high-risk issues, performs research, analysis, design, creation, and implementation of infrastructure systems to meet current and future user requirements.

This role is accountable for establishing cross team relationships and partnering with all business disciplines, other MI teams, outsourcing vendors, and external suppliers to define and implement the Datacenter PoP Network roadmap. This position will also engage to define and support service delivery and operational support standards for our datacenter and cloud networks, partner with the global technology peer teams to meet service level requirements and resolve service delivery issues across the portfolio.

Required:

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science or related technical field experience/certification
• 10+ years experience as a Network Engineer with 7 or greater years in a hands-on role that implements engineering standards, documenting engineering designs, and participating in project cutovers.
• 7 years experience in an IT infrastructure lead role that include:
• Implementation of WAN, LAN, and datacenter networks with a focus on mission-critical, highly available, customer-facing applications and services
• Technical expertise in common routing protocols (e.g., OSPF, BGP), IPv6, VPN, etc. across a global WAN backbones and distributed datacenter platforms
• Technical knowledge in ancillary network areas like DNS, NTP, and Network Tools & Management as well as advanced networking disciplines of software-defined networks (SDN), spine & leaf designs, load balancing, and security design (next-gen firewalls, intrusion detection, and prevention),.
• Expertise in setting up virtual private clouds in public cloud infrastructure such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Alibaba Cloud, or Google Cloud Platform
• Experience with designing and engineering physical network connectivity to and virtual network infrastructure within public cloud providers utilizing technologies such as AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, Google Dedicated Interconnect, or Oracle FastConnect
• Understanding of legacy networking routing protocols and the interaction with cloud interconnects
• Technical knowledge and experience with telco and ISP networks, ensuring diversity and managing availability
• Demonstrated experience in delivering written documents detailing network solutions and diagrams
• 5+ years experience with high availability planning, component redundancy design and implementation
• Ability to work non-standard hours during change implementations

Preferred:

• Advanced Degree (e.g., MS, PhD) in Computer Science or other technical discipline or MBA, preferably with a focus on technology
• 10+ years experience managing large, globally distributed network architecture, engineering, and/or operations teams and leveraging next-generation network designs and technologies to support large-scale deployments
• Proven track record of driving transformation in network technologies, tools, and processes through a data-driven continuous improvement methodology
• Demonstrated experience in improving security, stability, reliability, performance, and agility of complex enterprise networks
• Strong understanding of network infrastructure automation, instrumentation, and monitoring platforms and the emerging technologies in this area
• Proven experience leading highly effective technical teams through major technology and organizational change
• Proven experience re-engineering complex Internet-based network designs to optimize for services and applications that are sensitive to network turbulence (e.g., latency, jitter, loss)
• Proven experience driving operational performance through defining and enforcing Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
• Experience driving and/or significantly participating in vendor RFPs for network products (e.g., hardware, software, tools, telco, services)
• Experience managing or working in the services sourcing and/or ITO or LSP field
• Certification in network and/or security technologies (e.g., CCIE, CCNP, CISSP, etc.)
• Experience in researching emerging technologies and trends, standards, and products and synthesizing into clear technology roadmaps and strategies
• Strong influencing skills and an ability to overcome barriers while driving change
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills for a wide range of audiences including executives, business stakeholders, and IT teams
• Strong attention to detail with an ability to operate effectively across multiple priorities
• Client is an equal opportunity employer. We believe in hiring a diverse workforce and sustaining an inclusive, people-first culture. We are committed to non-discrimination on any protected basis, such as disability and veteran status, or any other basis covered under applicable law.