1) Customer Network Architecture & End-to-End Design Leadership (Primary)

• Own the end-to-end network architecture for large/complex customer environments (multi-site, multi-cloud, hybrid, regulated).
• Lead architecture discovery: current-state analysis, application dependency mapping, traffic flows, capacity baselining, and risk assessment.
• Produce high-quality architecture artifacts, including:
  • High-level and low-level designs (HLD/LLD)
  • Reference architectures and patterns
  • Logical/physical diagrams, segmentation models, routing & switching plans
  • Security and resiliency designs (fault domains, HA, DR)
  • Bill of materials, licensing alignment, and cost/risk trade-offs
• Define and validate target-state architecture across:
  • Data center / campus / WAN / branch
  • SD-WAN, SASE, ZTNA integration
  • Load balancing (L4/L7), DNS/DHCP/IPAM
  • DDI, NAC, segmentation, micro-segmentation (where applicable)
  • IPv4/IPv6 strategy, BGP/OSPF/ISIS, EVPN/VXLAN (if required)
• Ensure designs align to customer business outcomes (growth, M&A, compliance, cloud adoption, user experience, cost controls).

Hands-on expectation: Ability to validate designs via config prototypes, lab testing, packet capture, and troubleshooting in real environments.

2) Operational Stabilization & Network Reliability Excellence (Primary)

• Lead the stabilization of network operations by establishing and driving:
  • Operational maturity (standard operating procedures, runbooks, escalation paths)
  • Incident reduction program using RCA, problem management, and corrective action plans
  • Change governance with standardized change templates, risk scoring, and backout plans
  • Configuration standardization (golden configs, compliance checks, drift detection)
  • Resiliency improvements: elimination of SPOFs, HA consistency, redundancy validation, failover testing
• Create a Network Reliability Plan with measurable targets:
  • Availability / downtime reduction
  • MTTR improvement
  • Change failure rate reduction
  • Alert noise reduction
  • Performance SLOs (latency/jitter/loss) aligned to app needs
• Build “Day-2 Operations” readiness:
  • Monitoring/telemetry baselines (SNMP/streaming telemetry/syslog/NetFlow)
  • Event correlation and service mapping
  • Capacity forecasting and lifecycle management
• Drive post-implementation validation: performance testing, failover testing, and operational acceptance criteria.

3) Executive / C-Level Customer Engagement & Technology Leadership (Primary)

• Act as the trusted technical advisor to customer executives (CIO, CTO, CISO, VP Infrastructure/Operations).
• Lead executive-level workshops and steer conversations from technical detail to business outcomes:
  • Risk posture, resiliency, compliance readiness
  • Cost optimization (CapEx/OpEx), vendor strategy, roadmap planning
  • Cloud/network strategy alignment
• Present architectural decisions with clear trade-offs:
  • “Option A vs B” cost, risk, complexity, time-to-value
  • Explicit assumptions, constraints, and recommended path
• Own the technical narrative in high-stakes settings:
  • QBRs/EBRs, steering committees, architecture review boards
  • Critical incident executive briefings (what happened, impact, mitigation, prevention)

4) Delivery Oversight & Technical Governance (Primary)

• Provide architectural governance across the delivery lifecycle:
  • Review designs for correctness, security, scalability, and operational readiness
  • Ensure implementation matches the design intent
  • Lead technical checkpoints: design review, pre-change readiness, cutover go/no-go
• Define quality bars for:
  • Implementation standards and validation checklists
  • Documentation completeness and operational handover
  • Testing requirements (functional, performance, failover)
• Partner with PMs and Delivery Leads on:
  • Scope definition, sequencing, risk and dependency management
  • Technical change windows and cutover strategy

5) Hands-On Technical Troubleshooting & Escalation Leadership (Primary)

• Serve as top-tier escalation for complex issues:
  • Routing instability, asymmetry, BGP/OSPF issues, STP/loop events
  • MTU, fragmentation, application timeouts, TLS handshake impacts
  • Packet loss/jitter root causes across WAN/ISP/cloud edges
  • Firewall policy conflicts, NAT issues, segmentation misalignment
• Lead bridge calls during major incidents; coordinate across teams/vendors:
  • Network, security, compute, storage, application, ISP, cloud providers
• Use evidence-based troubleshooting:
  • Packet captures, flow analytics, logs/telemetry, traceroutes, synthetic tests
• Translate technical root cause into executive-ready summaries.

6) Security, Compliance & Risk Integration (Key)

• Ensure security is built into architecture and operations:
  • Segmentation strategy, least privilege connectivity patterns
  • Secure management plane, MFA/AAA, TACACS/RADIUS
  • Logging, auditability, and compliance controls alignment
• Align designs with common requirements (as applicable):
  • Zero Trust principles, PCI/HIPAA/SOX/FedRAMP-like control expectations
  • Secure remote access and third-party connectivity patterns

7) Standardization, Automation & Best Practices Enablement

• Drive adoption of network engineering best practices:
  • Architecture standards, naming conventions, IP schema, BGP communities, QoS strategy
  • Lifecycle standards: EOL/EOS tracking and refresh planning
• Enable automation and reduce manual work:
  • Infrastructure as Code where practical (Ansible/Terraform)
  • Configuration templates, compliance guardrails, repeatable build pipelines

8) Mentorship, Leadership & Cross-Functional Influence

• Mentor senior engineers and architects; elevate overall architecture quality.
• Lead communities of practice; provide technical training and design patterns.
• Set technical direction across multiple customer programs and internal initiatives.
• Influence stakeholders without direct authority; drive alignment across sales, delivery, and operations.

Required Hands-On Technical Skills (Typical Expectations)

Networking (deep)

• Routing/switching: BGP, OSPF, ISIS, VRF, MPLS basics (where relevant)
• Data center: EVPN/VXLAN (if applicable), leaf-spine designs, multicast (optional)
• WAN: SD-WAN design, QoS, traffic engineering concepts, ISP integration
• Services: DDI (DNS/DHCP/IPAM), NTP, PKI/certs impacts on network services
• Load balancing and application delivery basics

Network Security (strong)

• Firewalls (policy design, NAT, zones), segmentation models
• NAC (802.1X), remote access, SASE integration patterns
• Logging/telemetry integration for security and operations

Cloud & Hybrid (strong)

• AWS/Azure/GCP networking fundamentals: VPC/VNet, TGW/vWAN, peering, private connectivity
• Hybrid connectivity: VPN/Direct Connect/ExpressRoute, routing domains, DNS patterns

Operations / Reliability (strong)

• Monitoring/telemetry, incident/problem/change management
• Performance engineering: latency/jitter/loss and app experience
• Documentation: runbooks, SOPs, as-built diagrams, acceptance criteria

Customer-Facing / Executive Skills (critical)

• Executive storytelling and decision framing
• Workshops and architecture reviews
• Conflict resolution, negotiation, risk communication