Principal Network Architect

Northern Trust Corp; Limerick; Hybrid; EUR 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Northern Trust Corp seeks a Network Architect to lead design and deployment of the company’s global IP network. You will work with application teams and stakeholders to convert concepts into production-ready solutions and mentor the team through design, support, and operations.

Strong leadership and collaboration are essential. The role emphasizes modernizing network strategies, improving availability, performance, and TCO, while addressing security, data center, and hosting considerations in

Qualifications

• Bachelor-level technical degree or equivalent in a technical discipline.
• 15+ years designing IP networks and services (DNS, time, NAC, security, IPS, load balancing, data center strategies).
• 10+ years with routing protocols (BGP/OSPF/EIGRP) and SD-WAN.
• 10+ years of WAN/LAN, data center fabric, and security tech experience.

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement Northern Trust's global network.
• Lead and mentor architecture and engineering teams.
• Engage with stakeholders to translate designs into production.
• Provide on-call support and drive availability improvements.

Skills

Network design

Technical leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Mentoring

Network troubleshooting

Education

Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering

Tools

Check Point

Cisco Routing & Switching

Job description

The Network Architect will serve as the subject matter expert for architecting and implementing Northern Trust’s global network, including the applications and services that run on top of it. This role will engage with various stakeholders and application teams in a solution-design capacity to help bring conceptual designs into production. The position also requires the ability to lead and mentor team members in the design, support, and engineering of the network while working with operations teams to improve system availability and efficiency.The Network Architect will proactively research and evaluate tools, techniques, and technologies appropriate for the network environment while developing solutions to increase performance and availability, lower total cost of ownership, and modernize and transform network and service-delivery functions. This may include not only traditional network technologies, but also hosting strategies, resiliency and recovery strategies, security strategies, and data center and colocation strategies. The individual in this role is expected to stay abreast of industry trends, vendor offerings, technology innovation, and changing customer requirements to provide effective solutions aligned to business outcomes.The Network Architect will translate logical or conceptual designs into physical designs, accounting for requirements, target environments, processes, performance needs, existing systems and services, and non-functional requirements such as capacity, availability, and performance. These designs should align with modernization and transformation roadmaps and initiatives to move the enterprise in the right direction. The Network Architect provides technical design guidance and strategic leadership to engineering and application teams and acts as the ultimate escalation point for network issues. The Network Architect also serves as the technical escalation point of contact for infrastructure teams, application development teams, and leadership.This role will provide trouble resolution of the global network for escalated issues and may perform on-call duties and off-hours support when needed.**Qualifications:*** Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Telecommunication Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, or the equivalent of a four-year accredited degree in a technical discipline.* 15+ years of experience managing and designing solutions within an IP network with a four-year Bachelor of Science degree, or 20+ years of relevant experience with IP networks and network services such as DNS, time services, NAC, security, IPS, load balancing, hosting, and data center strategies for colocation or data center migration.* 10+ years of experience with routing protocols, including BGP, OSPF, and EIGRP. Experience with SD-WAN.* 10+ years of experience with Layer 2 protocols, including vPC, data center zones, Spanning Tree, VRF, VTP, VLANs, and physical cabling.* 10+ years of experience with WAN/LAN and transport technologies, including vendor fabric interconnect technologies such as Ethernet, Frame Relay, MPLS, DWDM, and Equinix Fabric.* 10+ years of working knowledge of security technologies, including IPsec, IKEv1 and IKEv2, Kerberos, SSH, RADIUS, TACACS+, VPDNs, PKI, AAA, and VPN using IPsec. Strong technical knowledge of network control protocols such as QoS, PoE, NTP, and DHCP; network management protocols such as CDP, FTP, TFTP, and SNMP; and security protocols such as SSH, HTTPS, AAA, IPsec, and TrustSec. Extensive experience with Cisco Catalyst and Nexus switching platforms, as well as Juniper MX routers, Aruba switches, and Arista switches.* 10+ years of working knowledge of core network services such as DNS, DHCP, load balancing, NTP, NAC, authentication, and application solution design.* In-depth implementation and troubleshooting experience with IP networks and the ability to think critically in high-pressure, confidential environments. You will have expert knowledge and experience in several of the following areas:* NGFW platforms and management tools such as Tufin* Network Access Control in enterprise environments* Application delivery and load balancers* Public and Private cloud security* Workflow automation* Cisco Routing & Switching* WAN Optimization* DNS, IPAM and DHCP* Colocation management and fabric designs* Datacenter migrationIt is desirable and advantageous to also have knowledge and experience of the following technology platforms:* Check Point, Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Tufin* F5 and NetScaler* Forescout, Cisco ISE* Infoblox* Microsoft Active Directory, CyberArk* AWS, Azure* IllumioStrong interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills, with the ability to work well in a collaborative environment. Strong relationship-building skills conducive to team development. Demonstrated listening and collaboration skills for uncovering technology trends and evolving disruptions. Experience leading and collaborating with global technical teams across many regions. Proven analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to quickly and accurately ascertain risks and form responses.Ability to engage with technical and non-technical teams across infrastructure and application areas, as well as with management. Ability to explain relevant concepts, issues, and proposals to various levels of the organization in terms appropriate to each audience, and to translate and mediate among them. Strive for consensus and timely decision delivery. Actively participate in the Architecture Review Board.Written skills to document and propose designs and solutions, both upon request and through personal initiative. Generate position papers on relevant technologies, proposals, and strategies.Ability to think proactively and solve problems independently. **Work Authorization** Applicants must have the right to work in Ireland at the time of application and for the duration of employment. Please note that Northern Trust is unable to provide employment permit sponsorship for this role. This includes Critical Skills Employment Permits, General Employment Permits, Intra-Company Transfer Employment Permits, Stamp 1G permissions, and other employment permits under Irish immigration frameworks.