Overview A Network Architect is responsible for designing and governing network architecture that supports business services.

This includes translating requirements into scalable, secure, and resilient designs, and making informed trade-off decisions across cost, risk, and performance.

Responsibilities

Core Responsibilities

- Architecture and Design
- Design enterprise network architecture across data center, WAN, cloud, and hybrid environments
- Define standards, patterns, and reference architectures
- Ensure scalability, resiliency, and security by design
- Trade-off and Decision Making
- Balance performance, cost, risk, and operability
- Evaluate competing approaches (e.g., overlay vs underlay, vendor vs open solutions)
- Make design decisions at the system level rather than the device level
- This is a key differentiator compared to a technical project manager or engineer
- Vendor and Technology Neutrality
- Evaluate technologies across multiple vendors (e.g., Cisco, VMware, Juniper) and open source.
- Avoid designing around a single vendor’s constraints or bias
- Select solutions based on best architectural fit
- Complex Programme Delivery
- Lead architecture across large, multi-domain programmes
- Collaborate with infrastructure, security, cloud, and application teams
- Own end-to-end design coherence rather than isolated components
- Typically involves large-scale enterprise or highly regulated environments with multi-region and high-resilience requirements
- Stakeholder Management (Conflict Handling)

- Align stakeholders across security, operations, business, and vendors
- Manage conflicting requirements such as:
- Security vs usability
- Cost vs resiliency




- Speed vs governance

- Drive decisions to closure through effective communication
- Governance and Standards
- Define and enforce network standards
- Review designs to ensure alignment with architectural principles
- Provide guidance to engineering and delivery teams

Requirements

Required Skills

- Technical (Core Expectations)
- Strong fundamentals:
- Routing and protocols: BGP (mandatory), OSPF, TCP/IP
- Data center networking and fabric design
- Network security principles (e.g., segmentation, access control)

- Modern enterprise stack:

- Software-defined networking (e.g., NSX)
- VXLAN and overlay networking
- Hybrid cloud networking
- Network automation (e.g., Python, APIs)

- Platform expertise:
- Robust Linux and networking integration
- Ability to troubleshoot network issues at the operating system level
- Y working with containers and infrastructure tooling
- Experience

- Proven delivery of complex, enterprise-scale projects
- Preferably within financial services or similarly regulated environments
- Experience with:
- High availability and disaster recovery designs
- Multi-region and data center interconnects
- Secure access models

- Soft Skills (Critical for the Role)

- Strong ability to articulate trade-offs
- Confidence in constructively challenging stakeholders
- Clear communication across both technical and non-technical audiences
- Ability to drive decisions, not just facilitate discussions

- Anti-Patterns (What This Role Is Not)

- Not a technical project manager
- Not limited to facilitating discussions
- Not focused solely on explaining architecture without making decisions

Not driven by vendor-led solutions

📌 Network Architect (Chennai)
🏢 Prodapt
📍 Chennai