VP, Network Solution Architect Lead

SMBC Group; Singapore; On-site; SGD 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

SMBC Group is seeking an experienced Network Architecture Leader to drive APAC strategy and define target-state architecture aligned with enterprise direction. You will translate business goals into scalable, secure network capabilities, and act as senior design authority for complex initiatives.

You will guide multi-year roadmaps, ensure governance across domains, and lead engineers and vendors to deliver secure, resilient connectivity spanning data centres, campuses, WAN/SD-WAN, and cloud

Qualifications

• Bachelor-level degree in a technology field.
• 10–15 years in enterprise networking or architecture leadership.
• Experience designing large-scale, highly available networks across data centres, campus, WAN/SD-WAN, and cloud.
• Deep knowledge of routing/switching, VPN, DNS/DHCP/IPAM, load balancing, and security segmentation.
• Proven ability to lead architects and engineers and communicate with senior management.
• Banking/regulated environment experience is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Lead APAC network architecture, define target-state and multi-year roadmaps.
• Translate business strategy into practical network capabilities and plans.
• Act as senior design authority for complex network initiatives and governance.
• Drive design reviews, cross-domain dependency resolution, and formal approvals.
• Own network delivery throughout full project lifecycle and ensure handover.

Skills

Solution architecture

Leadership

Stakeholder management

Cloud connectivity

Security architecture

Observability

Automation

Vendor management

Networking (routing/switching)

BGP/OSPF

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or related discipline

Tools

Cisco

Palo Alto Networks

Fortinet

F5

Meraki

Zscaler

Cisco ISE

Job description

Key Responsibilities

A. Architecture Leadership & Strategy

• Lead the APAC network solution-architecture practice and define the target-state architecture, principles, standards, and multi-year technology roadmap in alignment with enterprise direction.
• Translate business and technology strategies into practical network capabilities, transition architectures, investment priorities, and implementation sequencing.
• Act as the senior design authority for complex or high-risk network initiatives and provide clear technical recommendations, decisions, and escalation paths.
• Identify opportunities to simplify and standardise the network estate, reduce technical debt, improve resilience, and enable automation and operational efficiency.

B. Solution Design & Technical Assurance

• Lead requirements discovery and develop secure, resilient, scalable, and cost-effective network solutions for projects, programmes, application onboarding, site changes, cloud adoption, and technology refresh.
• Own or assure high-level designs, low-level design principles, architecture decision records, option assessments, bills of material, migration approaches, test strategies, and implementation guardrails.
• Ensure each solution addresses availability, capacity, performance, security, segmentation, manageability, observability, disaster recovery, lifecycle, and operational support requirements.
• Conduct design reviews, challenge assumptions and exceptions, resolve cross-domain dependencies, and provide formal technical approval or remediation conditions before implementation.

C. Network Domain Architecture

• Provide architecture leadership across routing and switching, data centre networking, campus and branch networks, WAN/SD-WAN, Internet gateways, wireless, remote access, DNS/DHCP/IPAM, and network management.
• Design integrated network-security solutions covering firewalls, segmentation, VPN, secure web access, network access control, privileged administration, logging, and policy enforcement.
• Define connectivity patterns for public cloud, private cloud, SaaS, partner, market, and third-party services, including routing, security, resilience, and traffic-flow requirements.
• Guide application delivery and traffic-management architecture, including load balancing, global traffic management, proxy services, certificate dependencies, and service health monitoring.

D. Governance, Standards & Compliance

• Establish and maintain reference architectures, approved design patterns, engineering standards, configuration principles, technology standards, and reusable architecture templates.
• Embed security-by-design, least privilege, defence in depth, segregation, auditability, and regulatory requirements into solution architecture and decision-making.
• Support risk assessments, exception requests, audit responses, control evidence, and remediation planning with clear technical rationale, ownership, compensating controls, and target-state direction.
• Ensure solutions comply with enterprise architecture, information security, change management, lifecycle, data handling, and applicable regional regulatory requirements.

E. Project Delivery, Implementation & Stakeholder Leadership

• Own and drive the network workstream across the full project lifecycle, from initiation, requirements, solution design, planning, and procurement through build, testing, migration, implementation, stabilisation, handover, and project closure.
• Develop and maintain the network delivery plan, key milestones, dependencies, resource requirements, implementation sequencing, acceptance criteria, and technical deliverables in coordination with project managers and workstream leads.
• Provide hands‑on leadership during implementation, ensuring engineers and vendors execute the approved design, follow engineering standards, complete required evidence, and resolve technical issues without compromising security, resilience, or quality.
• Drive implementation readiness reviews, confirming prerequisites such as approved designs, hardware and licensing, circuit readiness, security approvals, change records, test plans, rollback procedures, support coverage, communications, and stakeholder sign‑off.
• Coordinate build, configuration, integration, testing, migration, cutover, and validation activities across Network Operations, RNOC, Security, Infrastructure, Cloud, Applications, service providers, and business stakeholders.
• Track and communicate delivery status, technical risks, issues, decisions, dependencies, scope changes, and recovery actions; elevate material concerns early and drive accountable owners to closure.
• Ensure project changes comply with change‑management requirements and that implementation outcomes are validated against design, performance, resilience, security, monitoring, and business acceptance criteria.
• Lead post‑implementation validation and stabilisation, ensure defects and residual risks are documented and remediated, and confirm complete operational handover before project closure.

F. Commercial, Vendor & Technology Management

• Lead technical evaluation of products, services, proposals, and proofs of concept, ensuring that selections align with architecture standards, support strategy, security requirements, and total cost considerations.
• Work with procurement and vendors to validate solution scope, licensing, sizing, supportability, interoperability, lifecycle, delivery assumptions, and contractual technical commitments.
• Maintain awareness of industry developments and vendor roadmaps, assessing their relevance, maturity, risks, and potential value to the APAC network strategy.
• Prevent unnecessary vendor lock‑in and solution sprawl by promoting open integration, reusable capability, standard platforms, and disciplined exception management.

G. Implementation Readiness & Operational Acceptance

• Define architecture acceptance criteria and ensure designs include monitoring, logging, capacity thresholds, backup, failover, support access, documentation, and recovery requirements.
• Assure implementation plans, migration methods, rollback strategies, test cases, failover tests, and operational handover deliverables for major or high‑risk changes.
• Partner with Network Operations, RNOC, service management, and engineering teams to confirm support readiness, ownership, runbooks, training, spares, vendor support, and escalation arrangements.
• Use lessons from incidents, problems, changes, performance trends, and operational feedback to improve architecture standards and future solution designs.

H. Team Leadership & Capability Development

• Lead, mentor, and develop network solution architects and senior engineers, setting clear technical expectations and promoting consistent architecture and documentation quality.
• Chair or contribute to architecture and design‑review forums, ensuring decisions are evidence-based, traceable, and aligned with agreed principles.
• Build reusable knowledge through design patterns, templates, decision records, lessons learned, and technical communities of practice across APAC.
• Promote a collaborative engineering culture that values simplification, automation, security, operational ownership, constructive challenge, and continuous improvement.

Qualifications & Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Telecommunications, or a related discipline.
• Minimum 10–15 years of experience in enterprise networking, including significant experience in network solution architecture, technical design authority, or architecture leadership roles.
• Demonstrable experience designing large-scale, highly available solutions across data centre, campus, branch, WAN/SD-WAN, Internet, cloud connectivity, wireless, and network security domains.
• Deep knowledge of routing and switching, BGP, OSPF, QoS, multicast, VPN, high availability, network segmentation, DNS/DHCP/IPAM, load balancing, and network access control.
• Strong experience with enterprise technologies such as Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, F5, Meraki, Zscaler, and Cisco ISE, or equivalent platforms.
• Experience integrating networks with public cloud, SaaS, identity, security, monitoring, ITSM, and automation platforms.
• Strong architecture‑method, requirements‑analysis, option‑assessment, technical‑governance, risk‑management, and design‑documentation capabilities.
• Working knowledge of automation, APIs, Infrastructure as Code, configuration management, observability, and Site Reliability Engineering principles is highly desirable.
• Proven ability to lead architects and senior engineers, influence cross‑functional stakeholders, manage technical conflict, and communicate effectively with senior management.
• Experience in banking, financial services, or another regulated environment preferred; knowledge of MAS TRM and relevant regional regulations is advantageous.
• Practical knowledge of project governance, change control, implementation readiness, financial and commercial tracking, resource planning, and delivery reporting.
• Ability to manage technical delivery across internal engineering teams, service providers, vendors, project managers, and business stakeholders, with clear ownership of risks, issues, decisions, scope, quality, and delivery outcomes.
• Proven experience leading network project delivery and implementation across multiple countries or sites, including planning, dependency management, testing, migration, cutover, stabilisation, and operational handover.
• Preferred certifications include CCNP/CCIE or equivalent architecture certification, cloud‑networking certification, vendor security certification, and ITIL.
• Excellent written and verbal English, with the ability to produce clear architecture documents, executive recommendations, technical standards, and governance decisions.