Principal Network Architect

Northern Trust • Naperville, IL

38d • $137,400 - $233,600

About The Position

The Network Architect will serve as the subject matter expert for architecting and implementing Northern Trust’s global network, including the applications and services that run on top of it. This role will engage with various stakeholders and application teams in a solution-design capacity to help bring conceptual designs into production. The position also requires the ability to lead and mentor team members in the design, support, and engineering of the network while working with operations teams to improve system availability and efficiency.
The Network Architect will proactively research and evaluate tools, techniques, and technologies appropriate for the network environment while developing solutions to increase performance and availability, lower total cost of ownership, and modernize and transform network and service-delivery functions. This may include not only traditional network technologies, but also hosting strategies, resiliency and recovery strategies, security strategies, and data center and colocation strategies. The individual in this role is expected to stay abreast of industry trends, vendor offerings, technology innovation, and changing customer requirements to provide effective solutions aligned to business outcomes.
The Network Architect will translate logical or conceptual designs into physical designs, accounting for requirements, target environments, processes, performance needs, existing systems and services, and non-functional requirements such as capacity, availability, and performance. These designs should align with modernization and transformation roadmaps and initiatives to move the enterprise in the right direction. The Network Architect provides technical design guidance and strategic leadership to engineering and application teams and acts as the ultimate escalation point for network issues. The Network Architect also serves as the technical escalation point of contact for infrastructure teams, application development teams, and leadership.
This role will provide trouble resolution of the global network for escalated issues and may perform on-call duties and off-hours support when needed.

Requirements

• Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Telecommunication Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, or the equivalent of a four-year accredited degree in a technical discipline.
• 15+ years of experience managing and designing solutions within an IP network with a four-year Bachelor of Science degree, or 20+ years of relevant experience with IP networks and network services such as DNS, time services, NAC, security, IPS, load balancing, hosting, and data center strategies for colocation or data center migration.
• 10+ years of experience with routing protocols, including BGP, OSPF, and EIGRP.
• Experience with SD-WAN.
• 10+ years of experience with Layer 2 protocols, including vPC, data center zones, Spanning Tree, VRF, VTP, VLANs, and physical cabling.
• 10+ years of experience with WAN/LAN and transport technologies, including vendor fabric interconnect technologies such as Ethernet, Frame Relay, MPLS, DWDM, and Equinix Fabric.
• 10+ years of working knowledge of security technologies, including IPsec, IKEv1 and IKEv2, Kerberos, SSH, RADIUS, TACACS+, VPDNs, PKI, AAA, and VPN using IPsec.
• Strong technical knowledge of network control protocols such as QoS, PoE, NTP, and DHCP; network management protocols such as CDP, FTP, TFTP, and SNMP; and security protocols such as SSH, HTTPS, AAA, IPsec, and TrustSec.
• Extensive experience with Cisco Catalyst and Nexus switching platforms, as well as Juniper MX routers, Aruba switches, and Arista switches.
• 10+ years of working knowledge of core network services such as DNS, DHCP, load balancing, NTP, NAC, authentication, and application solution design.
• In-depth implementation and troubleshooting experience with IP networks.
• Ability to think critically in high-pressure, confidential environments.
• Expert knowledge and experience in several of the following areas: NGFW platforms and management tools such as Tufin, Network Access Control in enterprise environments, Application delivery and load balancers, Public and Private cloud security, Workflow automation, Cisco Routing & Switching, WAN Optimization, DNS, IPAM and DHCP, Colocation management and fabric designs, Datacenter migration.
• Strong interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills, with the ability to work well in a collaborative environment.
• Strong relationship-building skills conducive to team development.
• Demonstrated listening and collaboration skills for uncovering technology trends and evolving disruptions.
• Experience leading and collaborating with global technical teams across many regions.
• Proven analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to quickly and accurately ascertain risks and form responses.
• Ability to engage with technical and non-technical teams across infrastructure and application areas, as well as with leadership.
• Ability to explain relevant concepts, issues, and proposals to various levels of the organization in terms appropriate to each audience, and to translate and mediate among them.
• Strive for consensus and timely decision delivery.
• Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Nice To Haves

• Knowledge and experience of the following technology platforms: Check Point, Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Tufin
• F5 and NetScaler
• Forescout, Cisco ISE
• Infoblox
• Microsoft Active Directory, CyberArk
• AWS, Azure
• Illumio

Responsibilities

• Serve as the subject matter expert for architecting and implementing Northern Trust’s global network.
• Engage with various stakeholders and application teams in a solution-design capacity to help bring conceptual designs into production.
• Lead and mentor team members in the design, support, and engineering of the network.
• Work with operations teams to improve system availability and efficiency.
• Proactively research and evaluate tools, techniques, and technologies appropriate for the network environment.
• Develop solutions to increase performance and availability, lower total cost of ownership, and modernize and transform network and service-delivery functions.
• Translate logical or conceptual designs into physical designs, accounting for requirements, target environments, processes, performance needs, existing systems and services, and non-functional requirements such as capacity, availability, and performance.
• Provide technical design guidance and strategic leadership to engineering and application teams.
• Act as the ultimate escalation point for network issues.
• Serve as the technical escalation point of contact for infrastructure teams, application development teams, and leadership.
• Provide trouble resolution of the global network for escalated issues.
• Perform on-call duties and off-hours support when needed.
• Document and propose designs and solutions.
• Generate position papers on relevant technologies, proposals, and strategies.
• Think proactively and solve problems independently.
• Actively participate in the Architecture Review Board.

Benefits

• retirement benefits (401k and pension)
• health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability)
• paid time off
• parental and caregiver leave
• life & accident insurance
• other voluntary and well-being benefits
• discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal