General Function
The Senior Datacenter, Cloud & Network Solution Architect is a client-facing
technical leader responsible for designing secure, resilient, scalable, and
financially viable infrastructure solutions. The role emphasizes enterprise
datacenter architecture, hybrid and public cloud platforms, and Cisco-based
network architecture rather than ongoing managed service operations.
Reporting directly to the Vice President of Solutions, this architect leads
discovery, creates end-to-end target architectures, develops technical and
commercial solution components, and communicates recommendations to executive
and engineering audiences. The role partners with Sales, Engineering, Delivery,
Security, Finance, Portfolio, OEMs, carriers, and strategic technology partners
to shape complex infrastructure modernization, migration, and transformation
opportunities.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES
ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP
Lead client discovery workshops to document business objectives, application
and workload requirements, current-state constraints, security requirements,
availability targets, recovery objectives, capacity needs, and growth
assumptions.
Develop current-state, transition-state, and target-state architectures for
enterprise datacenters, colocation environments, edge locations, and hybrid
or multi-cloud platforms.
Design integrated solutions across compute, virtualization, containers,
storage, backup and recovery, cloud services, network, load balancing,
security, observability, automation, and disaster recovery.
Produce high-level and low-level designs, logical and physical diagrams,
traffic flows, IP and segmentation strategies, bills of material, migration
roadmaps, implementation assumptions, and architecture decision records.
Evaluate architecture alternatives and document technical tradeoffs related
to resilience, performance, scalability, security, interoperability,
lifecycle, operational supportability, cost, and risk.
Provide technical governance through design reviews, standards alignment,
exception management, solution validation, and architecture approval
checkpoints.
DATACENTER AND CLOUD ARCHITECTURE
Architect modern datacenter platforms using technologies such as Cisco UCS,
hyperconverged infrastructure, enterprise storage, VMware or comparable
virtualization platforms, Kubernetes, backup, replication, and
disaster-recovery solutions.
Design Azure, AWS, and hybrid-cloud architectures, including landing zones,
identity integration, connectivity, segmentation, workload placement,
resiliency, data protection, governance, observability, and cost
optimization.
Lead datacenter consolidation, relocation, refresh, cloud migration, cloud
repatriation, and application modernization planning, including dependency
mapping and phased migration strategies.
Define infrastructure patterns for high availability, fault isolation,
geographic redundancy, recovery time objectives, recovery point objectives,
capacity expansion, and business continuity.
Create interoperable architecture patterns that integrate on-premises,
colocation, edge, SaaS, and public cloud environments.
NETWORK ARCHITECTURE AND CISCO TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP
Own network architecture for datacenter, campus, branch, WAN, internet edge,
cloud connectivity, and hybrid-cloud environments.
Design Cisco-based architectures using relevant platforms such as Nexus, ACI,
Catalyst, UCS, SD-WAN, Meraki, Identity Services Engine, and enterprise
routing and switching technologies.
Demonstrate expert-level command of BGP, OSPF, route redistribution,
multicast, QoS, MPLS, EVPN/VXLAN, IPv4/IPv6, high-availability protocols,
network segmentation, and resilient connectivity patterns.
Design secure connectivity to Azure and AWS using private circuits, VPN,
transit architectures, cloud-native routing, firewalls, load balancers, DNS,
IP address management, and network security controls.
Define network standards, reference architectures, address plans, routing
policies, segmentation models, firewall dependencies, wireless and WAN
patterns, and performance or availability requirements.
Lead complex technical troubleshooting and risk analysis during architecture
validation, proof-of-concept activity, migration planning, and critical
design reviews.
SOLUTION DEVELOPMENT AND CLIENT ENGAGEMENT
Translate technical requirements into differentiated solution narratives,
diagrams, proposals, executive presentations, technical responses, and
statements of work.
Lead whiteboarding sessions and present architecture recommendations to
client executives, enterprise architects, engineering teams, security
leaders, and operations stakeholders.
Develop scope boundaries, assumptions, dependencies, exclusions, acceptance
criteria, implementation phases, resource requirements, and transition plans.
Create and validate capital and operating cost inputs, hardware and software
bills of material, licensing assumptions, cloud-consumption estimates,
professional-services effort, and partner quotes.
Partner with OEMs, cloud providers, carriers, colocation providers, and
subcontractors to validate solution feasibility, pricing, product lifecycle,
lead times, and technical responsibilities.
Support RFP and RFI responses and negotiate technically accurate statements
of work while protecting solution integrity and delivery feasibility.
Maintain awareness of emerging datacenter, networking, cloud, automation, AI
infrastructure, and security technologies and convert relevant developments
into repeatable architecture patterns.
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
Active Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert Enterprise Infrastructure (CCIE
Enterprise Infrastructure) certification is required. Candidates must hold an
active CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure certification; other CCIE tracks do not
satisfy this requirement.
Bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science, engineering,
telecommunications, or a related discipline, or equivalent directly relevant
experience. A master’s degree is a plus.
Ten or more years of progressive experience in enterprise infrastructure,
including significant architecture responsibility for large datacenter,
cloud, and network environments.
Demonstrated success designing complex Cisco network solutions and hybrid
infrastructure architectures for medium to large enterprise clients.
Hands-on architectural depth across datacenter networking, compute,
virtualization, storage, cloud connectivity, network security, availability,
disaster recovery, and migration planning.
Experience developing architecture deliverables including diagrams, bills of
material, design documents, migration roadmaps, test strategies,
implementation assumptions, and technical statements of work.
Excellent written, presentation, facilitation, and executive communication
skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly.
Strong quantitative and financial skills, including solution estimation,
lifecycle cost comparison, cloud-consumption analysis, and commercial risk
identification.
High proficiency with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Visio or equivalent
architecture-diagramming tools.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
Current Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert, AWS Certified
Solutions Architect – Professional, or Google Cloud Professional Cloud
Architect certification is preferred. Google Cloud Professional Cloud Network
Engineer is also a plus for candidates with hybrid and multi-cloud network
architecture responsibilities.
Relevant HPE certifications are preferred, including HPE ASE – Edge-to-Cloud
Architect, HPE ASE – Compute Architect and Integrator, HPE ASE – Storage
Architect and Integrator, or corresponding HPE Master ASE credentials.
Additional Cisco certifications or specializations in data center, enterprise
design, ACI, SD-WAN, security, automation, or cloud connectivity are
preferred in addition to the required active CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure
certification.
Architecture or security credentials such as TOGAF, CISSP, CCSP, PCNSE,
VMware VCP or VCAP, or Kubernetes certification.
Experience with infrastructure as code and automation using Terraform,
Ansible, Python, REST APIs, Git, CI/CD pipelines, or comparable tooling.
Experience with Cisco ACI, Nexus, UCS, Catalyst Center, ISE, SD-WAN, Meraki,
EVPN/VXLAN, and cloud network architectures.
Experience designing infrastructure for regulated, highly available,
geographically distributed, or operationally sensitive environments.
Experience leading proofs of concept, technical workshops, migration
assessments, architecture reviews, and design authority boards.
CORE COMPETENCIES
Architecture leadership: Creates coherent end-to-end designs and provides
clear technical direction across infrastructure domains.
Network depth: Applies CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure expertise to routing,
switching, software-defined infrastructure, datacenter fabrics, hybrid
connectivity, segmentation, resilience, and advanced troubleshooting.
Cloud judgment: Selects appropriate cloud, on-premises, and colocation
patterns based on workload, risk, performance, security, and economic
requirements.
Commercial awareness: Balances technical excellence with cost, schedule,
scope, lifecycle, resource, and implementation constraints.
Client influence: Builds trust with technical and executive stakeholders
through structured discovery, evidence-based recommendations, and clear
communication.
Cross-functional collaboration: Aligns sales, engineering, security,
delivery, finance, OEM, carrier, and partner teams without compromising
architecture quality.
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL DEMANDS
The physical and mental demands described here are representative of those
required to perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable
accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform
the essential functions. Candidates must be able to travel occasionally to
client sites, datacenters, colocation facilities, OEM briefings, and key project
meetings.
PHYSICAL DEMANDS
While performing the duties of this position, employees are regularly required
to sit; communicate by voice and multimedia; use hands to operate standard
office equipment; and reach with hands and arms. Specific vision abilities
include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.
MENTAL DEMANDS
Employees must effectively use written and oral communication skills; interpret
technical, financial, and contractual information; analyze and solve complex
problems; apply mathematical reasoning; learn and apply new technologies; manage
detailed work across concurrent opportunities; and interact professionally with
employees, clients, OEMs, carriers, and partners. The incumbent must maintain
composure in a fast-paced, high-quality environment where individual and team
accountability are defining factors.
GENERAL OFFICE ENVIRONMENT
Work is generally performed from a home office environment with standard office
equipment available. The position may require schedule adjustments to support
international colleagues, clients, partners, architecture workshops, and planned
technical activities across time zones.
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