Network Architect

ECI•Dallas, TX

1d•$130,000 - $140,000

About The Position

The Principal Network Architect is the senior technical authority for network infrastructure within ECI’s Managed Services team, which provides 24x7 monitoring, operations, and support to clients across financial services, life sciences, legal, manufacturing, and other industries. This hands-on role owns network architecture, design assurance, and technical roadmaps across a multi-site environment, with primary expertise in Cisco switching and routing and Palo Alto Networks security platforms. The role combines architecture leadership with complex incident diagnosis, recovery coordination, engineering standards, automation, and lifecycle planning to improve resilience, security, performance, and operational consistency. The individual mentors engineers, serves as the senior technical escalation point, and translates client and business requirements into supportable network designs. The role requires proficiency in Cisco enterprise switching and routing platforms and Palo Alto Networks security platforms. Deep proficiency is expected in Cisco Catalyst infrastructure, Palo Alto firewalls, and Panorama centralized management, including architecture, configuration, troubleshooting, and lifecycle management. Familiarity with Cisco SD-WAN/Viptela and network integration within VMware-based virtualized environments is desirable. The position is a strategic investment in ECI’s continued growth and expansion within the U.S. market. The Senior Network Engineer / Network Architect will help strengthen client partnerships, drive modernization efforts, improve service delivery, and shape network architecture across a growing enterprise environment.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and relevant practical experience.
At least 10 years of experience in network support, design, and implementation, with demonstrated ownership of multi-site architecture, design assurance, and complex technical escalations.
Expert-level technical certification such as CCIE, or equivalent training and demonstrated expertise.
Deep hands-on expertise in Cisco enterprise switching and routing, including Catalyst 9300, Catalyst 9000 Series, and Catalyst 8300 platforms; strong command of routing protocols, Layer 2/Layer 3 design, segmentation, high availability, and systematic fault isolation.
Experience defining configuration baselines, change validation, test and rollback plans, version control, technical documentation, and operational handover standards.
Experience developing technical roadmaps, hardware and software lifecycle plans, capacity forecasts, and monitoring improvements, with a strong understanding of network security principles and operational risk.
Deep hands-on expertise in Palo Alto Networks PA-series appliances and Panorama, including centralized configuration management, security policy, NAT, VPN connectivity, high availability, software upgrades, and troubleshooting.
Practical experience with network automation, scripting, or API-based workflows for repeatable configuration, validation, compliance, and inventory management.
Ability to diagnose complex routing, switching, firewall, VPN (including GlobalProtect and AnyConnect), wireless, certificate, and performance issues; coordinate recovery and turn root cause findings into preventative engineering changes.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with Cisco SD-WAN/Viptela.
Familiarity with network integration within VMware-based virtualized environments.

Responsibilities

Own network architecture, design assurance, and technical roadmaps across the multi-site LAN, WAN, and wireless environment; translate business, client, security, and availability requirements into resilient, supportable designs and implementation plans.
Provide hands-on technical leadership for Cisco switching and routing, particularly Catalyst 9300, Catalyst 9000 Series, and Catalyst 8300 platforms, and for Palo Alto Networks PA-series appliances and Panorama.
Review and assure network designs, configuration changes, and implementation plans for routing, switching, segmentation, security policy, resilience, capacity, and operational readiness; define acceptance criteria, test evidence, and rollback requirements.
Define configuration management and change validation standards, including configuration baselines, version control, backups, peer review, pre- and post-change checks, exception handling, and configuration drift remediation.
Establish and maintain documentation standards for network diagrams, asset records, addressing, configurations, design decisions, operating procedures, and recovery runbooks.
Define automation standards and lead repeatable automation for configuration compliance, validation, backups, inventory, and routine network operations, with testing, auditability, and controlled deployment.
Lead complex incident diagnosis and coordinate network recovery across engineering teams, clients, carriers, and vendors; serve as the senior technical escalation point, support root cause analysis, and drive preventative improvements.
Guide hardware and software lifecycle planning, including inventory validation, support status, software selection, upgrade testing, vulnerability remediation, and refresh priorities aligned to technical roadmaps.
Lead capacity and performance planning; improve monitoring coverage, thresholds, telemetry, and alert quality to identify service risks and validate network health and resilience.
Mentor engineers through design reviews, troubleshooting guidance, knowledge sharing, and technical standards; strengthen engineering capability and escalation quality.
Partner with clients and cross-functional teams globally to plan and deliver network projects, communicate technical trade-offs and risks, and evaluate emerging technologies through targeted proofs of concept.