Principal Enterprise Network Architect
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Work Model: Candidates must be based in the Los Angeles area and able to work onsite in downtown Los Angeles and travel to client sites throughout the LA region as needed.
Position Overview
We are seeking a Principal Enterprise Network Architect to serve as a senior, client-facing technical leader for complex enterprise network transformation initiatives.
This role requires a rare combination of deep Cisco architecture expertise, executive presence, consultative communication skills, and real-world delivery experience. The successful candidate must be able to establish credibility with both client executives and senior engineers, lead architecture discussions and workshops, explain technical decisions in business terms, identify risks, challenge designs, and guide clients toward scalable and supportable solutions.
This is not a back-office engineering or implementation-only role. The architect will operate as a trusted advisor and technical client executive while maintaining the hands-on credibility to review designs, troubleshoot complex routing issues, evaluate Catalyst Center workflows, and guide SD-Access, SD-WAN, security, and network modernization programs.
The ideal candidate brings strong expertise across Cisco SD-Access, Catalyst Center, Cisco ISE, TrustSec, Cisco FTD/Firepower, Cisco SD-WAN, enterprise routing, segmentation, automation, campus networking, cloud connectivity, and operational governance.
Key Responsibilities
Client-Facing Architecture Leadership
- Serve as the senior enterprise network architecture representative for client executives, IT leadership, security teams, technical stakeholders, and delivery organizations.
- Lead discovery sessions, architecture workshops, roadmap reviews, design reviews, technical governance meetings, and executive briefings.
- Translate business requirements, security objectives, operational challenges, and transformation goals into practical and scalable network architectures.
- Explain architecture tradeoffs, risks, dependencies, sequencing, and business impacts to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Build trusted-advisor relationships and influence client decisions through strong technical judgment, communication, and ownership.
- Support solution shaping, pre-sales, client expansion, and executive advisory discussions as needed.
Enterprise Network Strategy and Transformation
- Own architecture direction across campus, WAN, security, identity, segmentation, automation, cloud connectivity, and network operations.
- Develop current-state to future-state transformation roadmaps for complex, distributed, multi-site environments.
- Define scalable architecture patterns supporting resiliency, security, performance, operational simplicity, and long-term maintainability.
- Identify architecture gaps, technical debt, operational risks, and improvement opportunities.
- Lead technical governance and ensure architecture decisions are documented and aligned with client expectations and delivery commitments.
Cisco SD-Access and Catalyst Center
- Lead the architecture, design, governance, and migration strategy for large-scale Cisco SD-Access environments.
- Define fabric architecture, including control, edge, and border nodes, transit models, segmentation, and integration with WAN and data center networks.
- Define Catalyst Center strategies covering automation, templates, workflows, assurance, software image management, lifecycle management, dashboards, and operational visibility.
- Align SD-Access designs with identity, security, segmentation, wireless, migration, and operational support requirements.
- Review HLDs and LLDs and provide senior guidance during pilots, phased deployments, cutovers, issue resolution, and operational handoff.
Cisco ISE, Security, and Segmentation
- Define identity-based access and segmentation strategies using Cisco ISE, 802.1X, MAB, TrustSec, SGTs, authorization policies/profiles, posture, guest, and BYOD capabilities.
- Guide integrations between Cisco ISE, Catalyst Center, SD-Access, firewalls, wireless platforms, identity systems, and PxGrid-enabled ecosystems.
- Align network access control and segmentation with Zero Trust and enterprise security objectives.
- Provide architecture oversight for Cisco FTD/Firepower, including firewall policy, NAT, VPN, IDS/IPS, high availability, and secure edge integration.
Cisco SD-WAN and Enterprise WAN
- Lead architecture decisions for Cisco SD-WAN, WAN modernization, transport strategy, cloud connectivity, and application-aware routing.
- Define overlay and underlay architectures across MPLS, Internet, DIA, broadband, cloud on-ramp, and hybrid WAN environments.
- Design segmentation, application steering, failover, policy, and security integration strategies.
- Ensure WAN architectures address business continuity, application performance, migration risk, and operational support.
- Coordinate with network, carrier, security, cloud, data center, and application teams to ensure end-to-end integration.
Routing and Technical Governance
- Provide expert-level architecture oversight for BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, route redistribution, filtering, summarization, route policy, ECMP, resiliency, QoS, multicast, and segmentation.
- Ensure clean integration across campus, WAN, data center, cloud, and security domains.
- Review designs, migration approaches, change plans, and implementation methods for quality, risk, scalability, and alignment with architecture standards.
- Lead resolution of complex cross-domain architecture issues and high-impact technical decisions.
Delivery and Engineering Leadership
- Guide engineering teams through complex design, build, migration, troubleshooting, and operational handoff activities.
- Review HLDs, LLDs, migration plans, MOPs, test plans, rollback plans, runbooks, standards, and as-built documentation.
- Provide leadership during pilots, phased rollouts, cutovers, critical change windows, root-cause analysis, and post-implementation reviews.
- Mentor engineers on architecture principles, client communication, documentation quality, and implementation discipline.
- Develop reusable standards, reference architectures, templates, and repeatable delivery methods.
Required Qualifications
- 10+ years of enterprise networking experience, including complex, multi-site network architecture and transformation programs.
- Proven experience as a Principal Architect, Enterprise Network Architect, Lead Architect, or senior trusted advisor in a client-facing capacity.
- Strong executive presence and the ability to communicate effectively with client leadership, technical teams, vendors, and delivery organizations.
- Deep hands-on and architectural expertise with Cisco enterprise networking technologies.
- Strong Cisco SD-Access experience, including fabric design, control/edge/border nodes, transit models, segmentation, and enterprise integration.
- Strong Catalyst Center experience covering automation, assurance, templates, workflows, software lifecycle management, and operational visibility.
- Deep Cisco ISE expertise, including 802.1X, MAB, TrustSec, SGTs, authorization policies/profiles, posture, guest/BYOD, PxGrid, and scalable access policies.
- Strong Cisco FTD/Firepower experience covering firewall policy, NAT, VPN, IDS/IPS, high availability, and secure edge integration.
- Strong Cisco SD-WAN expertise, including overlay/underlay architecture, application-aware routing, segmentation, policy design, security integration, and operationalization.
- Expert-level routing knowledge covering BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, redistribution, filtering, summarization, route policy, QoS, multicast, and resiliency.
- Experience leading architecture workshops, design reviews, complex migrations, technical governance, and multi-phase transformation programs.
- Strong documentation experience with executive summaries, roadmaps, HLDs, LLDs, architecture decision records, MOPs, runbooks, and operational documentation.
- Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and guide delivery teams while maintaining client confidence.
Preferred Qualifications
- Active CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure, CCIE Security, or related Cisco certification.
- CCDE, dual CCIE, Cisco specialist certifications, or equivalent senior architecture credentials.
- Experience leading large-scale campus, WAN, security, or enterprise network modernization programs.
- Experience with pre-sales, solution development, client expansion, or executive advisory engagements.
- Experience with automation and infrastructure-as-code using Ansible, Python, Terraform, REST APIs, and Git-based workflows.
- Experience with Cisco Catalyst 9800, wireless architecture, wireless segmentation, campus mobility, and Catalyst Center Assurance.
- Experience with cloud networking and hybrid connectivity across Azure and AWS.
- Knowledge of DNS, DHCP, IPAM, data center networking, and data center interconnect.
- Experience driving operational transformation through standards, monitoring, governance, support models, runbooks, and knowledge transfer.
Ideal Candidate
The ideal candidate combines the presence and relationship skills of a technical client executive with the design depth of a principal architect and the credibility of someone who has delivered complex enterprise network transformations.
This person must be comfortable leading strategic discussions with executives while also challenging technical designs, troubleshooting complex routing issues, reviewing Catalyst Center workflows, and guiding SD-Access or SD-WAN migration strategies.
Candidates who are primarily implementation engineers without significant architecture ownership, executive-facing communication, technical governance, and enterprise transformation leadership will not be a fit.
Pay: $90.00 - $100.00 per hour
Work Location: In person
