Job Title: Senior Network Architect – AI-Ready Infrastructure
Location: Chicago, IL (4 Days onsite)
Duration: Full-time
Job Description:
Position Overview
We
are seeking a Senior
Network Architect to lead the design and modernization of the
firm’s enterprise network infrastructure. This role will be responsible for
developing a highly available, low-latency, secure, and scalable network
architecture capable of supporting the evolving technology requirements of an
investment banking environment, including AI-enabled applications, high-performance computing
workloads, cloud services, trading platforms, financial partner connectivity,
and data-intensive analytics.
The Senior Network Architect will establish the firm’s network architecture
roadmap and provide technical leadership across on-premises, data center,
cloud, and partner environments. The successful candidate will combine deep
enterprise networking expertise with an understanding of modern cloud,
security, automation, and AI infrastructure requirements.
This is a senior technical leadership position requiring the ability to
translate business and technology objectives into a resilient network
architecture while remaining sufficiently hands-on to validate designs and
guide implementation.
Key Responsibilities
AI-Ready Network
Architecture & Modernization
- Develop the strategic architecture and roadmap for a
secure, scalable, and highly available enterprise network capable of
supporting current and future AI workloads.
- Design high-bandwidth, low-latency network
infrastructure supporting AI applications, large datasets, analytics
platforms, trading systems, research, and other mission-critical financial
applications.
- Evaluate network capacity, latency, throughput,
redundancy, and data-flow requirements associated with AI and
data-intensive workloads.
- Architect resilient data center, campus, WAN, cloud,
and hybrid network environments.
- Develop architectures capable of supporting accelerated
computing and future GPU-based or high-performance computing environments
as business requirements evolve.
- Establish network segmentation strategies separating
users, servers, AI/data workloads, trading systems, cloud environments,
third parties, and privileged administrative systems.
- Define network architecture standards, reference
designs, and technology roadmaps.
Investment Banking &
Financial Connectivity
- Architect highly available and low-latency
infrastructure supporting investment banking and capital markets
operations.
- Design secure and redundant connectivity with financial
partners, market-data providers, clearing organizations, and other third
parties.
- Architect dedicated circuits, private connectivity,
VPNs, redundant routing, and appropriate security controls for critical
external connections.
- Establish resilient architectures that minimize single
points of failure and support business continuity and disaster recovery
requirements.
- Develop monitoring and redundancy standards for
business-critical partner connectivity.
Cloud & Hybrid
Infrastructure
- Architect secure hybrid connectivity between
on-premises infrastructure and cloud environments, including Microsoft
Azure, AWS, and/or GCP.
- Design private cloud connectivity, routing,
segmentation, private endpoints, and unified network security policies.
- Develop scalable network patterns for cloud-hosted
applications, data platforms, AI services, and SaaS environments.
- Partner with infrastructure, cloud, application,
cybersecurity, and data teams to ensure network architecture supports
enterprise technology strategy.
Zero Trust & Network
Security Architecture
- Lead development of the firm’s Zero Trust Network
Architecture.
- Design micro-segmentation, identity-aware access,
least-privilege connectivity, and continuous verification models.
- Establish architectural standards for next-generation
firewalls, secure remote access, ZTNA, SASE, VPNs, WAF, and API security.
- Standardize encryption requirements, including TLS
1.2/1.3, IPsec, and other appropriate protocols.
- Integrate network architecture with identity platforms
such as Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, or equivalent IAM solutions.
- Partner with cybersecurity teams to incorporate network
telemetry and security events into SIEM and threat-monitoring platforms.
Network Automation,
Observability & Resilience
- Define an enterprise network observability strategy
across routers, switches, firewalls, cloud networks, wireless
infrastructure, and partner connections.
- Establish standards for performance monitoring,
capacity management, alerting, logging, and network telemetry.
- Promote infrastructure-as-code and network automation
using technologies such as Python, PowerShell, Ansible, APIs, and related
automation frameworks.
- Develop architectural standards that improve network
resiliency, operational efficiency, and recoverability.
- Guide root-cause analysis for complex network and
performance issues.
Governance & Technical
Leadership
- Establish and maintain enterprise network architecture
standards, diagrams, documentation, and technology roadmaps.
- Lead technical design reviews and provide architectural
guidance to network engineers, administrators, security teams, and
technology partners.
- Evaluate emerging network, cloud, AI infrastructure,
and cybersecurity technologies.
- Develop technical requirements and participate in
vendor and technology evaluations.
- Ensure architecture aligns with applicable SEC, FINRA,
SOX, cybersecurity, audit, and internal risk requirements.
- Communicate network strategy, risks, investments, and
recommendations to both technical teams and senior management.
Required Qualifications
- 10+ years of progressive experience in enterprise
network engineering and architecture.
- Significant experience designing highly available
enterprise, data center, WAN, and hybrid-cloud networks.
- Expert knowledge of TCP/IP, BGP, OSPF, routing,
switching, VLANs, VPNs, QoS, network segmentation, and network resiliency.
- Advanced knowledge of enterprise switching, routing,
next-generation firewalls, and network security technologies.
- Strong experience designing network infrastructure for
high-bandwidth and low-latency applications.
- Experience with Azure, AWS, and/or GCP networking and
hybrid-cloud connectivity.
- Experience with Zero Trust, network segmentation,
secure remote access, and modern network security architecture.
- Experience designing resilient connectivity to
third-party or business-critical external partners.
- Strong understanding of network monitoring,
observability, capacity planning, and performance management.
- Experience creating network architecture diagrams,
standards, technical specifications, and strategic roadmaps.
- Strong communication skills with the ability to explain
complex architecture to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience within investment banking, capital markets,
trading, financial services, or another highly regulated industry.
- Experience designing infrastructure supporting AI,
machine learning, high-performance computing, GPU clusters, or other
data-intensive environments.
- Knowledge of high-speed data center networking and
emerging AI infrastructure requirements.
- CCDP, CCDE, CCNP, CCIE, PCNSE, JNCIP/JNCIE, or equivalent advanced
certification.
- Experience with SD-WAN, SASE, ZTNA, and
micro-segmentation technologies.
- Experience with network automation using Python,
PowerShell, Ansible, APIs, or infrastructure-as-code methodologies.
- Familiarity with financial-services regulatory and
cybersecurity requirements, including SEC, FINRA, SOX, and related
frameworks.
Key Competencies
- Strategic and forward-looking technology mindset.
- Strong architectural and technical decision-making
skills.
- Ability to balance innovation with security,
reliability, and operational risk.
- Strong troubleshooting and analytical capabilities.
- Ability to collaborate across infrastructure,
cybersecurity, cloud, application, data, compliance, and business teams.
- Ability to mentor engineers and establish enterprise
technical standards.
- Strong documentation and executive communication
skills.
