Network Architect

Position Summary

We are looking for an experienced Network Architect to design, optimize, and oversee our network and firewall infrastructure. This position will be responsible for ensuring our data, cloud, and security systems are scalable, reliable, and secure.

This is the deepest technical seat on the network team. It owns how the network is designed: corporate, data center, cloud, and the media networks that carry live content, and it leads the team that runs it. The lead responsibility is real but informal. There are no direct reports. This role leads through design authority, technical credibility, and follow-through. On a lean team it is also a working role: the architect writes the configs, joins the maintenance window, and handles escalation for any outages or issues, and mentors other engineers.

Depth is the point of this position. It is not a role for a generalist who reviews vendor diagrams. The successful candidate can defend a design decision under questioning, read a packet capture, and troubleshoot a problem at all hours. This role owns the architecture being right and the network staying up. This position will be the SME for all network and security infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities

Network Architecture

• Plan, design, and own the LAN,WAN,and hybrid onsite/cloud architecture. Provide a roadmap to keep architecture up to date and to encompass new technologies.
• Produce architect-grade documentation: designs with stated requirements, constraints, alternatives considered, failure modes, and a migration path. Not diagrams alone.
• Maintain IP/Vlan schemas and configuration standards.
• Set routing and switching standards — analyze traffic patterns, monitor network performance, and address any latency, network bottlenecks, or bandwidth issues.
• Design for measurable resilience: no single points of failure on network paths, and a documented, tested behavior for every failure path.
• Own capacity planning and technology lifecycle across the network; make the buy/refresh case with data.
• Evaluate platforms and vendors on technical merit and give management a defensible recommendation, including the option not to buy.
• Prepare project plans, budget estimates, and resources needed for any infrastructure deployments.
• Technical peer to partner with other teams for operational or engineering needs.

Network Security Architecture

• Own Palo Alto firewall architecture: PAN-OS platform design, Panorama management, App-ID/User-ID policy model, decryption strategy, HA design, URL filtering, AI security, and geo-location firewall rules.
• Own remote access and edge architecture — GlobalProtect, ZTNA/SASE direction, internet edge, and cloud connectivity.
• Design segmentation and east-west controls, including microsegmentation strategy for the data center.
• Ensure logging and flow visibility reach network monitoring and security tools.
• Keep abreast of new URL categories, technologies, and vulnerabilities. Make recommendations where needed for upgrades, changes, new licenses, or new technologies.

Network Operations Leadership (Soft Lead)

• Own the operational health of the network day to day: monitoring, alerting, incident queue, change quality, code upgrades, policies, and procedures.
• Set the engineering standards the team builds to; review every significant change before implementation.
• Own change planning and maintenance windows in a 24x7 environment — pre-checks, rollback, post-change validation, and coordination with on-air schedules.
• Serve as the top escalation point for network incidents and lead technical bridge calls.
• Own the postmortem and drive corrective actions to closure.
• Mentor engineers and grow the bench so the team is not single-threaded.
• Coordinate with other business-unit technologists on shared work: agree on outcomes, publish expectations, follow up until closed.
• Act as the technical delegate in vendor, carrier, and architecture review sessions.

Communication

• Write clearly. Designs, standards, change records, and incident narratives are deliverables of this role, held to the same standard as the engineering.
• Present and defend architecture to technical peers, and translate the same decision into cost, risk, and on-air impact for executives.
• Communicate during incidents on a defined cadence: what is known, what is not, what is being done, when the next update comes.
• Give management an accurate picture without prompting — what is on track, what is slipping, what needs a decision.

Ownership & Accountability

This is stated explicitly because it is the primary filter for this role. The successful candidate:

• Owns the design and its consequences. A failure caused by an architecture decision is an architecture problem, not an operations problem.
• Verifies rather than assume — redundancy is proven by testing the failover, not by reading the diagram.
• Surfaces bad news early, with a recommendation attached.
• Does not defer to a vendor SE for a decision this role should be making.
• Takes responsibility for the team's misses when leading the work, and gives credit for the wins.
• Do not let something fall because it sat outside the job description.

Required Qualifications

• 10+ years in enterprise network engineering, with 3+ years in an architect or principal-level role.
• Expert-level routing and switching: BGP, OSPF, VXLAN/EVPN, multicast, QoS, high availability. Design-level, not just configuration level.
• Deep hands-on experience with Palo Alto (PAN-OS, Panorama) and Cisco platforms (Catalyst, Nexus, ACI, Meraki switches and routers).
• Demonstrated experience designing and operating networks in a 24x7 environment where downtime is externally visible.
• Strong troubleshooting discipline: packet capture, flow analysis, and structured fault isolation under pressure.
• Track record of leading technical work through people who do not report to you.
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred

• CCIE, CCNP, Palo Alto certification, or equivalent depth demonstrated by work history.
• Familiarity with multicast including protocol implementation and configuration
• Experience with a data center or facility build, migration, or consolidation.
• Familiarity with network monitoring and network observability platforms
• SD-WAN and cloud connectivity design experience (Direct Connect / GCP Interconnect).
• Automation or scripting for network config and validation (Python or equivalent).
• AI experience to accelerate troubleshooting and problem resolution, automate repetitive tasks, and increase operational efficiency

Allen Media Group is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to these characteristics. We are dedicated to providing a workplace free from harassment and discrimination.