Senior Network Architect freelance hybrid, London, UK

London - UK

Monthly Salary: Not Disclosed

Experience Required: 8-10years

Posted on: 2 hours ago

Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

A major banking group operating in EMEA is undergoing a significant infrastructure transformation programme converging two separate network environments (a legacy three-tier Cisco campus network and an ACI spine-leaf fabric) alongside the integration of a European banking subsidiary. This is a hands-on senior architecture role requiring both strategic thinking and the ability to roll up sleeves and engage at detailed engineering levels.

Requirements

Must have

Deep expertise in Cisco networking: Nexus (7K 5K 2K 9K) IOS NX-OS
Strong working knowledge of Cisco ACI ability to assess hybrid/pseudo-ACI deployments and define target-state app-centric or network-centric design
Expert-level routing and switching: OSPF BGP EIGRP (including identification and remediation of misconfigurations)
Data centre network design: spine-leaf three-tier convergence strategies
Firewall architecture: Palo Alto (PA-40 series) Cisco ASA (legacy and migration)
WAN/MPLS concepts and managed service architectures (NTT or similar providers)
IP address management (IPAM) and DNS/DHCP strategies
Network security design principles
Familiarity with SD-WAN cloud networking (Azure AWS) and hybrid connectivity

Advantageous

Cisco CCIE (Routing & Switching or Data Centre) or equivalent demonstrable expertise
Experience with network automation and orchestration tooling
Knowledge of co-location and proximity hosting environments
Understanding of financial services network requirements (trading floor market data payment systems)

Soft skills

Able to operate with ambiguity comfortable in environments without fully defined organisational structure
Strong communication skills: able to articulate complex technical problems to non-technical senior stakeholders
Commercial awareness understanding of total cost of ownership vendor contracts and infrastructure spend
Collaborative and pragmatic with the confidence to challenge incumbents and advocate for sound design principles
Self-starter capable of providing direction to others with limited supervision

Required Skills:

Cisco Nexus (7K 5K 2K 9K) Cisco ACI Cisco IOS Cisco NX-OS OSPF BGP EIGRP Data Centre Network Architecture Spine-Leaf Architecture Three-Tier Network Design WAN/MPLS Palo Alto Firewalls Cisco ASA Firewalls Firewall Architecture Network Security Architecture IP Address Management (IPAM) DNS DHCP SD-WAN Cloud Networking Azure Networking AWS Networking Hybrid Connectivity Network Design Standards Network Reference Architectures Routing Protocol Remediation Vendor Management Network Automation Co-location Networking Market Data Networking Trading Floor Networking Payment Systems Networking

Required Education: