Senior Network Architect - Cisco (SC Cleared)

METHODS Consulting; West of England; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension salary exchange

Life assurance

Private medical insurance

Worldwide travel insurance

25 days annual leave

Employee assistance program

Training and development resources

Social events

Job summary

METHODS Consulting seeks a Senior Network Architect to bridge the gap programme, documenting and improving a secure defence network across two data centres. You will specialise in Cisco ACI, routing, ASA firewalls and F5 load balancers to enhance operational resilience in a government-defence environment.

The role is full-time in Bristol with no remote work, offering £70,000–£110,000 per year and UK security clearances as applicable.

Qualifications

• Strong enterprise network architecture experience with High/Low Level Designs.
• $

Responsibilities

• Review live network implementations across two data centres and identify gaps.
• Produce current-state High Level Designs and Low Level Designs with topology diagrams.
• Review ACI, routing, firewall, and load-balancing with Architecture and Network teams.
• Produce a Network Review and Recommendation Report with practical improvements.
• Assess opportunities to use Cisco ACI app-centric capabilities and policy design.
• Present a prioritised roadmap with sequencing and dependencies.
• Create a Network Disaster Recovery Capability Report for active/active connectivity.
• Explain connectivity limitations, risks, and required hardware/software/licensing.
• Lead design reviews and secure sign-off from Architecture and Network teams.
• Maintain documentation and support risk/issue reporting.

Skills

Network architecture

Cisco ACI

Cisco routing

IP addressing

Routing protocols

Segmentation

Data centre connectivity

ASA firewall configurations

NAT

F5 load balancers

Disaster recovery

Active/active design

Technical writing

Stakeholder communication

Tools

Cisco ACI

Cisco ASA

F5 BIG-IP

Cisco routers

Networking hardware

Job description

Salary: £70,000 - 110,000 per year

Requirements:

• Strong enterprise network architecture experience, including assessing existing implementations and producing accurate High Level Designs and Low Level Designs.
• Hands-on Cisco ACI experience, including fabric architecture, tenants, VRFs, bridge domains, endpoint groups and contracts, with an understanding of application-centric policy design.
• Strong Cisco routing knowledge and practical understanding of IP addressing, routing protocols, segmentation and connectivity between data centres.
• Experience reviewing Cisco ASA firewall configurations, traffic flows, access policies, NAT and high-availability arrangements.
• Experience with F5 load balancers, including traffic management, health monitoring, resilience and dependencies on surrounding network services.
• Experience assessing network disaster recovery and active/active designs, including failure scenarios, failover behaviour, routing symmetry and stateful service dependencies.
• Ability to investigate live configurations safely, identify technical constraints and recommend proportionate changes with clear implementation and operational impacts.
• Strong technical writing, diagramming and stakeholder communication skills, with experience taking designs through formal review and approval.
• Desirable: Cisco ACI deployments spanning multiple data centres and migration towards application-centric policies.
• Desirable: Network resilience testing, recovery planning and assessment of hardware, software and licensing options.
• Desirable: Experience in defence, government or other regulated environments with controlled technical data and formal configuration management.
• Desirable: Relevant Cisco, F5 or network architecture certifications, such as CCNP or CCIE.
• A minimum of UK SC clearance.

Responsibilities:

• Review the live network implementation, configurations and legacy design material across both data centres, identifying gaps between documented and actual operation.
• Produce accurate current-state High Level Designs and Low Level Designs using company templates, with topology diagrams, connectivity flows and technical dependencies.
• Review Cisco ACI, routing, firewall and load-balancing arrangements with Architecture and Network support teams to understand service connectivity and operational constraints.
• Produce a Network Review and Recommendation Report identifying practical improvements that can be made without significant redesign and with minimal risk to live services.
• Assess opportunities to make better use of Cisco ACI application-centric capabilities, including application relationships, segmentation and policy design.
• Present recommended improvements as a prioritised roadmap showing sequencing, interdependencies, implementation considerations and service impact.
• Produce a Network Disaster Recovery Capability Report assessing the changes required for true active/active connectivity between the two data centres.
• Explain current connectivity limitations, proposed implementation approaches, risks to existing services and any additional hardware, software or licensing requirements.
• Lead technical review discussions, resolve design comments and secure review and sign-off of design documentation from Architecture and Network teams.
• Maintain controlled technical documentation and supporting evidence, contribute to risk and issue reporting, and submit deliverables through agreed secure channels.

Technologies:

• Architect
• Cisco
• Fabric
• Firewall
• Hardware
• Support
• NAT
• Network

More:

We are seeking a Senior Network Architect for an initial assignment supporting our bridging the Gap programme and its Network team. The secure defence environment includes two data centres with Cisco ACI, Cisco routers, Cisco ASA firewalls and F5 load balancers. You will work alongside our Architecture and Network support teams to document and improve the existing network, with a focus on operational resilience. The role is full-time, based in Bristol with no remote working, and offers a salary of £70,000–£80,000.

• opportunities to develop your skills
• meaningful project work
• supportive leadership and a collaborative environment
• training and development resources
• a 24/7 confidential employee assistance programme
• social events
• 25 days of annual leave with the option to purchase additional leave
• a pension salary exchange scheme
• life assurance
• private medical insurance
• worldwide travel insurance

last updated 40 week of 2026