Senior Network Architect

First Horizon Bank•Metairie, LA

21h•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Network Architect leads the design, roadmaps, and lifecycle of enterprise network platforms that enable our associates and serve our clients. This role sets standards, designs secure and resilient architectures, and serves as an escalation point for complex issues across campus/branch, WAN/SD-WAN, and data center networks.

Requirements

8–10+ years of progressive experience designing and operating large enterprise networks; 3+ years in an architecture or principal engineering role.
Deep hands-on expertise with:
Cisco routing/switching (Enterprise): OSPF, BGP, VRF, HSRP/VRRP, QoS, multicast (nice to have).
Meraki switching/security/wireless and Dashboard administration.
Cisco ISE for NAC (802.1X/MAB, profiling, posture, guest/BYOD) and policy design.
HPE Aruba EdgeConnect (SD-WAN) design, policy, and operations.
Data center switching and L2/L3 designs (leaf-spine/Nexus or equivalent).
Strong TCP/IP fundamentals and troubleshooting skills using packet captures and flow/telemetry data.
Experience building highly available, segmented, and secure architectures in regulated environments.
Proficiency with network management and observability tools (e.g., SolarWinds/Orion, NetFlow/IPFIX, syslog) and creating actionable dashboards/alerts.
Excellent communication skills to interface with technical teams, leadership, and non-technical stakeholders; strong documentation discipline.

Nice To Haves

Relevant certifications such as Cisco: CCNP/CCIE Enterprise; Cisco Meraki Solutions Specialist; ISE-focused specialist credentials.
HPE Aruba/Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN certifications (Professional/Expert level).
ITIL Foundation.
Network automation and IaC experience (e.g., Python, Ansible, REST APIs, Git) and familiarity with source control and CI/CD practices.
Cloud networking exposure (Azure/AWS/GCP routing, VPN/SD-WAN/cloud interconnects, virtual appliances).
Experience with DNS/DHCP/IPAM, CMDB, and source-of-truth platforms.

Responsibilities

Define enterprise network reference architectures, standards, and patterns for campus/branch, data center, cloud connectivity, and remote access.
Own L2/L3 designs (BGP, OSPF, VRF, route-maps, NAT, QoS) with an emphasis on high availability, segmentation, and zero-trust principles.
Develop multi-year technology roadmaps and capacity plans; drive lifecycle management and refresh strategies.
Design and optimize underlay/overlay, path conditioning, segmentation, and business intent policies.
Establish best practices for active/active paths, performance monitoring, and failover; integrate with MPLS/Internet and cloud on-ramps.
Lead designs for campus/branch switching and routing (Catalyst/IOS-XE) and Meraki (switching, MX, wireless).
Establish segmentation strategies (VRF/VLAN, SGTs if applicable), QoS, and resiliency (HSRP/VRRP, ECMP).
Architect and operationalize 802.1X/MAB, profiling, posture, guest/BYOD, and device onboarding.
Define policies for dynamic VLANs, SGT/TrustSec (if used), and certificate/PKI integrations; ensure smooth enforcement across Cisco and Meraki.
Design and maintain data center fabrics and core switching (e.g., Cisco Nexus/leaf-spine or equivalent), L2/L3 redundancy, and EVPN/VXLAN or traditional designs as applicable.
Integrate firewalling, load balancing, and private/public cloud connectivity.
Set standards for observability (SNMP/telemetry, syslog, NetFlow/IPFIX), dashboards, and alerting.
Leverage and integrate tools such as SolarWinds/Orion, NetFlow/IPFIX collectors, packet capture/analysis (e.g., Wireshark), and configuration/asset platforms.
Define SLOs/SLIs and use data to drive capacity planning and problem management.
Embed security and regulatory best practices applicable to financial services into network designs (segmentation, encryption, access controls, logging/retention, change control).
Partner with Security, Compliance, and Audit to meet policy and regulatory expectations.
Provide L4/L5 escalation support; lead root-cause analysis and corrective action plans for major incidents.
Author high-quality documentation: HLDs/LLDs, standards, runbooks, and diagrams.
Participate in CAB/ITIL processes; plan and execute complex changes, including after-hours maintenance windows.
Mentor engineers, review designs, and raise the bar for engineering quality.
Engage with vendors, evaluate solutions, and contribute to budgeting and SOWs.
Translate business requirements into robust technical solutions and clear deliverables.