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.

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

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

Strong 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

Transparent 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.

[email protected]

📌 Network Architect (Chennai)
🏢 Prodapt
📍 Chennai