Overview
Network Architect - NCA - SEO at Manchester Digital
Location: Belfast; Birmingham; Bristol; Calder (Normanton); Leicester; London; Warrington. London-based role may have Stratford as contractual place of work initially; travel/time for relocation not covered by Relocation and Excess Travel Policy during interim period.
Responsibilities
* Support the architectural design and strategic oversight of all network-related systems and services across the Agency, ensuring alignment with operational, technical and business needs.
* Develop, maintain, and govern network architecture blueprints, design standards, and multi-year roadmaps that support the Agency’s digital transformation and strategic IT direction.
* Provide expert guidance and assurance on network design across technologies including LAN/WAN, cloud networking, VPN, SD-WAN and zero-trust models, ensuring suitability for a multi-GSC tier environment.
* Ensure all network solutions meet required levels of security, resilience, performance and scalability, and that they are subject to appropriate architectural governance and design assurance.
* Act as a subject matter expert on networking within major programmes, actively contributing to architecture reviews, transition planning and technical assurance activities.
* Collaborate closely with the Security Architect to embed secure networking principles, controls, and threat mitigations within design and implementation phases.
* Monitor and evaluate emerging networking technologies, industry trends, and innovation opportunities, applying them where appropriate to improve capability, agility and cost-effectiveness.
* Contribute to architectural governance forums and design authorities, ensuring that network services are aligned with wider architectural standards and Agency objectives, and that assurance checkpoints are effectively met.
Person specification and qualifications
* Experience in designing, delivering, and assuring enterprise-grade network architectures, including cloud-native, hybrid, and multi-site environments that support high-availability and secure operations.
* Technical knowledge of core networking technologies and protocols, including routing, switching, firewalls, DNS, load balancing, VPN and network segmentation, with the ability to apply them to complex, mission-critical infrastructures.
* Experience in designing and supporting tiered secure network environments, including cross-domain connectivity, segmentation between classification levels, and the design of secure network boundaries for sensitive or air-gapped systems.
* Understanding of secure and resilient network design principles, with experience applying government or regulated sector security frameworks, such as those from NCSC, ISO, or equivalent standards.
* Experience in implementing and assuring secure and controlled data transfer mechanisms between trusted and untrusted network zones, including one-way and brokered transfer patterns where required.
* Experience in network performance tuning, telemetry, monitoring and fault diagnosis across distributed environments, ensuring reliability, scalability and alignment with operational SLAs and architectural best practices.
Desirable criteria (tie-break): Have an understanding of most of the following network technologies: LAN, WAN, wifi, data-centre LAN, SD networks, telephony, mobile solutions infrastructure, unified communications, network management solutions, network-specific security and remote access technologies and approaches.
Behaviours and skills
* Leadership
* Seeing the Big Picture
Seniority and employment details
* Seniority level: Mid-Senior level
* Employment type: Temporary
* Job function: Information Technology
* Industries: Technology, Information and Internet
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