Consultant Technical Lead

Role Summary

The Principal Technical Lead - Network & Security leads endtoend solution across data center networking and security, ensuring designs are secure, scalable, and operable. You will own HLDs, standards, and design governance and enable delivery teams to produce highquality LLDs and implementations that follow the "design-for-operations / you deploy, you run" model. You'll align solutions to business outcomes, define acceptance/test criteria, and ensure smooth handover to operations with measurable reliability and security posture.

Key Responsibilities

Architecture, Standards & Governance

• Own HighLevel Designs (HLDs), reference architectures, patterns, and golden configs for DC networking, security, and secure access.
• Responsible for driving technical solution for one or more global business problems
• Strategize new solutions required to solve business issues.
• Define LLD standards and review/approve LLDs prepared by delivery teams; ensure traceability to requirements and HLD.
• Identify opportunities to implement new solutions and solve challenges/with holistic view
• Work with Experts from various teams to create/review the current practices and processes in consultation with management.
• Establish nonfunctional requirements (NFRs)-resilience, performance, capacity, observability, and security controls (Zero Trust, segmentation, compliance).
• Maintain design authority across projects; run architecture reviews and waivers.

Project Lifecycle (DesignforDelivery & Operations)

• Initiation: Shape scope with PMO and business, analyze dependencies, risks, and success metrics.
• Design: Produce HLDs, traffic flows, security zoning, and billofmaterials/licensing profiles; define test/acceptance criteria, rollback and DR patterns.
• Build/Validate: Guide engineering on implementation plans, config templates; define UAT, failover, and performance test plans.
• Cutover/GoLive: Provide solution oversight for risk mitigation and change windows.
• Operate/Handover: Set SLOs/SLIs, monitoring baselines, runbook and support model requirements; ensure CMDB and diagrams are complete.

Operations & Reliability Alignment

• Partner with Service Delivery to reduce MTTR, improve change success rate, and drive problem management outcomes via architectural fixes.
• Define observability standards (logs, flows, metrics), KPI dashboards, and RCA inputs; support major incident reviews.

Security & Compliance

• create controls for firewalls, NAC (Cisco ISE/ClearPass), VPN/remote access, and microsegmentation.
• Align to regulatory/compliance frameworks (e.g., NIST, ISO 27001, SOC 2, PCIDSS) and securebydesign patterns.

SASE / Zscaler / SDWAN (Oversight)

• Provide architectural guidance for SASE; evaluate Zscaler services (ZIA/ZPA), traffic steering, identity integration, SSL inspection policy, data protection, subscription optimization.
• Define integration patterns with managed SDWAN (policybased steering, breakout, redundancy) without being the handson operator.

Stakeholder Leadership

• Translate complex technical concepts into clear business narratives: choices, tradeoffs, costs, and risk.
• Lead vendor evaluations/PoCs, license/subscription planning, and TCO/ROI analysis.
• Mentor lead engineers; uplift ways of working (automation, testing, peer reviews).

Core Technology Scope

• Data Center Networking: Leaf-Spine, EVPN/VXLAN, MPLS, BGP/OSPF, QoS; platforms: Cisco Nexus/ACI, Arista, Juniper
• Security: Palo Alto, Check Point (policy, NAT, VPN), IPS/IDS, NAC (Cisco ISE / Aruba ClearPass)
• Secure Access & SASE: Zscaler (ZIA/ZPA) solution oversight; SDWAN as managed service (integration patterns)
• Load Balancing & Edge: F5 BIGIP, Citrix ADC
• DDI: Infoblox (or equivalent)
• Observability: SolarWinds, ThousandEyes, NetFlow/IPFIX, SIEM integrations
• Automation (directional): Ansible, Git, Terraform/Python patterns and guardrails

Qualifications

• 20 years across network/security, with 5 years in enterprise architecture or solution roles.
• Proven record delivering HLDs, standards, and multisite DC/security and governing them through execution.
• Strong grasp of ITIL, change governance, risk management, and design-for-operations principles.
• Excellent communication and executive stakeholder management; able to lead crossfunctional decisions.

Preferred Certifications

• CCIE (R&S/DC/Security) or JNCIE
• Palo Alto PCNSE, Check Point CCSE/CCSM
• Aruba (ACDX/ACCP) or Cisco ISE certifications
• TOGAF / SABSA
• Cloud networking/security (AWS/Azure specialty) and Zscaler certifications (ZCP/ZIA/ZPA) preferred

Success Metrics

Adoption & Compliance: % projects conforming to standards; number of waivers; audit findings closed

• Reliability & Change Quality: Reduction in P1/P2 due to design; change success rate; MTTR improvements driven by architectural fixes
• Time-to-Value & Cost: Ontime design gates; optimized license/subscription spend (e.g., Zscaler tiers, F5 modules)
• Stakeholder Satisfaction: CSAT/NPS from delivery & business; clarity of decision papers and runbooks