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Candescent is seeking an experienced Network Architect to lead the design, strategy, and evolution of enterprise network infrastructure supporting corporate offices, cloud environments, and financial institution operations.
You will serve as the highest level of technical authority for enterprise networking, partnering closely with Infrastructure, Security, Cloud Engineering, Application Development, and Operations teams to define technology roadmaps, establish engineering standards, and drive modernization initiatives.
Key Responsibilities:
Enterprise Network Architecture: Develop and maintain the enterprise network architecture roadmap. Design highly available, scalable, and secure LAN, WAN, WLAN, SD-WAN, cloud, and B2B networking and internet edge solutions. Create and maintain high-level and low-level network designs, standards, and reference architectures. Evaluate existing environments and recommend improvements aligned with business objectives. Establish networking standards and governance for all Candescent locations and hosted environments.
Cloud & Hybrid Networking: Design connectivity solutions for Azure, AWS, and GCP deployments. Define architectures for cloud transit networking, DNS, routing, security segmentation, and application delivery. Lead cloud networking initiatives on secure multi-cloud connectivity. Collaborate with cloud engineering teams on network automation and infrastructure-as-code initiatives.
Security Architecture & Compliance: Partner with Information Security teams to design secure network solutions. Develop architectures supporting Zero Trust, network segmentation, NAC, SASE, ZTNA, and secure remote access. Ensure designs meet regulatory and compliance requirements including FFIEC, PCI-DSS, SOX, and corporate security standards. Provide technical leadership during security assessments, audits, and risk reviews.
Strategic Leadership: Provide architectural oversight for major infrastructure projects. Lead technology evaluations, proof-of-concepts, and vendor assessments. Develop multi-year network technology roadmaps and lifecycle management strategies. Influence infrastructure direction through innovation and industry best practices. Present architectural recommendations to senior leadership and executive stakeholders.
Operational Excellence: Act as the highest escalation point for complex networking issues. Review network performance, capacity, resiliency, and availability metrics. Guide disaster recovery and business continuity planning efforts. Ensure infrastructure designs align with operational supportability requirements.
Automation & Modernization: Promote network automation and orchestration strategies. Design solutions utilizing APIs, scripting, and infrastructure-as-code platforms. Drive adoption of modern operational models and observability platforms. Partner with engineering teams to implement automated provisioning and configuration management.
Mentorship & Collaboration: Mentor Network Engineers and Senior Engineers on architecture and design principles. Participate in technical reviews, change advisory boards, and project governance. Foster technical excellence across Infrastructure Engineering teams. Build strong partnerships with business units, application owners, vendors, and managed service providers.
REQUIREMENTS:
Required:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related discipline
- 10+ years of enterprise networking experience
- 5+ years designing large-scale, mission-critical network environments
- Expert level experience with GCP Networking, Cloud and B2B Networking, Palo Alto Networks firewalls, Meraki Wireless networking technologies, and SD-WAN solutions
- Strong experience designing Fortigate Network firewalls, corporate office networks, and hybrid cloud connectivity
- Individual Financial Institution Networks experience
- Experience with network security architecture and segmentation strategies
- Proven ability to lead large-scale infrastructure transformation projects
Preferred:
- Financial services or regulated industry experience
- Experience with Cisco Wireless / Meraki, Palo Alto Networks & SCM, Azure networking, AWS networking, GCP networking, Prisma Access, network automation platforms, and infrastructure-as-code frameworks
- Experience with monitoring and observability platforms
- Strong written documentation and presentation skills
- Certifications: Palo Alto Networks PCNSA/PCNSE, Professional Cloud Network Engineer (PCNE), AWS Advanced Networking Specialty, Microsoft Azure Network Engineer Associate, or CISSP
