network ArchitectEastvantage Business Solutions Inc.

Job Description
About the role:
The Network Architect is responsible for providing expert services to our customers in relation to implementing, managing, operating and supporting their technologically diverse IT environments. You will be responsible for assisting with technical and engineering design, commercial modeling and solution sign off.
Main Activities:
The Solutions Architect is responsible for the following activities:
Contribute to continuous operational reliability of our Network infrastructure technologies;
Implement, evaluate and assist in the design of various network and infrastructure systems solutions for new and existing customers;
Technical delivery of solutions to the highest standard within agreed SLA timeframes;
Providing ongoing support and guidance associated with implemented customer solutions;
Providing customers with a high level of technical consultancy for project and ad-hoc work;
Work with relevant internal stakeholders (Sales and Pre-sales teams) to support customer proposals as required;
Assist with design, proposal, quoting, project scopes, project estimates and pre-sales elements of a sale;
Collaborating with project managers with scoping of projects, ensuring that they are scoped in accordance with architectural objectives and principles;
Develop as-built and handover documentation to ensure seamless transition to BAU;
Detailed design, implementation and deployment of customer projects;
Coordinate technical activities with key internal and client stakeholders;
Develop technical change requests, migration and test plans;
Ensure proposed system designs comply with both vendor and our standards;
Develop high-level and functional design documents;
Undertake problem diagnosis, analyse and design production fixes and minor enhancements;
Ensure all documentation is completed on time and meets company standard;
Coordinating and supervising changes and outages to customer environments ensuring all work is implemented subject to the our Change Management Guidelines;
Engage with key vendors to provide up to date technical advice to internal resources;
Design and architectural undertakings to improve existing products and enable the development and release of new offerings aligned to our existing product outlines; and
Provide support services to existing managed service customers as required from time to time;
Position requirements:
Highly desirable:
Operational experience with Cisco ACI, including multi-site and multi-pod architectures
Operational experience with VMware NSX-t/NSX-v
Operational experience with IPv6 deployment, transition and rollout
Operational experience with Service Provider network technologies, such as MPLS, LDP, and Segment Routing, VPNv4/VPNv6, L2VPN/VPLS environments
Strong Product skills with Cisco ASA, ASR, ISR, CSR, Catalyst, Nexus, ISE and WLC;
Expert or high-level skill and operational experience in these key technologies:
Telco/ISP WAN services such as Ethernet, Fibre, DSL, VDSL and Copper;
LAN and WiFi;
Firewall Security;
Data Centre and branch site racking, stacking and cabling; and
Protocols such as iBGP, eBGP, OSPF, EIGRP, DMVPN, IPSEC, MPLS & Spanning Tree.
Experience:
Minimum 10 years ICT experience, focused on Network engineering, Data Centre Networks or Service Provider Networks;
Proven experience or able to demonstrate interest in mentoring other junior staff members on core vendor products and technologies;
Exposure to key vendors such as Cisco, Juniper, Aruba, HP, Dell, Meraki, Fortinet and Palo Alto is highly desirable;
Prior experience in a Managed Services Provider or Carrier Service Provider environment essential;
Strong exposure to both projects and maintenance/BAU activities essential;
Sound understanding of ITIL Framework and industry best practices; and
Demonstrated solution design and Pre-sales capabilities essential.
Certificates:
Degree, Bachelor or Masters in IT related discipline is preferred;
Current Cisco certifications are desirable, specifically:
Cisco CCNP or CCIE in Routing & Switching, Voice, Data Centre or Security; and
Project Management training and certifications are highly desirable.