Purpose & Overall Relevance for the Organization:

The role designs, builds, operates and continuously improves secure connectivity and network security capabilities across enterprise, distribution centre, data centre and cloud environments. It provides specialist expertise for Cisco SASE, secure access, firewall segmentation, SD-WAN and Cisco LAN/WLAN services, enabling business and IT teams to connect users, sites and applications securely, reliably and at scale.

The role translates security architecture principles and business requirements into practical standards, designs, implementation controls and operational services, while providing technical leadership, advanced troubleshooting and vendor governance.

Key Responsibilities:

Specialist advice

• Maintains recognised expert-level knowledge of Cisco SASE, secure access, network security, firewall segmentation, SD-WAN and Cisco LAN/WLAN technologies.

• Provides definitive technical advice and acts as design authority and escalation point for secure connectivity services.
• Consolidates expertise from architects, security teams, operations, vendors and third-party specialists into coherent recommendations that support organisational objectives.
• Promotes the development, documentation and sharing of specialist knowledge, standards and reusable design patterns.

Emerging technology monitoring

• Monitors developments across SASE, SSE, zero-trust access, firewall, SD-WAN, LAN/WLAN, automation and network security technologies.

• Assesses potential impacts, risks and opportunities, and contributes to technology roadmaps, lifecycle decisions and knowledge sharing.

System design

• Designs secure connectivity components using agreed architectures, standards, patterns and methodologies.

• Leads design reviews for Cisco Secure Access, Secure Connect, Umbrella/SWG, ZTNA, private application access, secure internet breakout, firewall segmentation and SD-WAN security integration.
• Evaluates design options and trade-offs covering identity-aware access, routing security, traffic steering, policy enforcement, resilience, performance and operational supportability.
• Produces and reviews HLDs, LLDs, configuration standards, decision records, migration runbooks, rollback plans and lifecycle roadmaps.

Programming / automation

• Develops or applies scripts, APIs and automation using technologies such as Python, PowerShell or Ansible for configuration validation, reporting and operational efficiency.

• Applies agreed engineering standards and participates in reviews of automation and technical work products.

Testing, systems integration and build

• Defines acceptance criteria, test plans, traceability, rollback expectations, monitoring readiness and operational handover requirements for deployments and major changes.

• Provides technical expertise for platform configuration, integration builds and test environments across SASE, firewall, SD-WAN, LAN/WLAN, identity, monitoring, ITSM and security controls.
• Analyses and documents test results, defects, risks and remediation actions, and drives improvements to engineering processes and tools.

Availability, capacity and service level management

• Analyses service availability, reliability, maintainability, capacity and performance, and initiates actions to address risks or shortfalls.

• Ensures services and components meet agreed performance targets, service levels, resilience requirements and recovery expectations.
• Supports capacity modelling, disaster recovery planning, recovery testing and continuous service improvement.

Release, deployment and operations

• Provides SME input for release planning, deployment, early-life support, incident management, problem management and root-cause analysis.

• Drives advanced troubleshooting of complex security, access, routing, segmentation, SD-WAN, LAN/WLAN and performance issues using logs, telemetry, packet captures and vendor support.
• Ensures release, configuration, documentation and operational handover processes are maintained.

Relationship and vendor management

• Implements stakeholder engagement and communication plans with business IT, architects, information security, platform engineering, operations and regional IT teams.

• Governs vendors and implementation partners, reviews deliverables, validates implementation quality and drives corrective actions against enterprise standards.
• Communicates technical risks, options, trade-offs and recommendations clearly to technical and non-technical stakeholders.

If required: People Management / Resource Management:

• Supports recruitment and hiring decisions and allocates work based on experience, complexity, workload and organisational efficiency.

• Monitors team workload and provides team members or direct reports with clear direction and targets aligned with business and Global IT objectives.

Key Relationships:

• Global IT and Connectivity teams

• Business stakeholders and users
• Domain and solution architects
• Market IT infrastructure and regional IT teams
• Information Security, platform engineering and IT operations
• Technology vendors, service providers and implementation partners

Requisite Education and Experience / Minimum Qualifications:

• Four-year college or university degree in IT, Computer Science, Engineering or a related area, or an equivalent combination of education and practical experience.

• Proficient spoken and written command of English.
• At least 10 years of progressive network engineering experience in enterprise or multinational environments, including substantial experience in network security and secure connectivity.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of Cisco SASE technologies, including Cisco Secure Access, Cisco Secure Connect, Cisco Umbrella, SWG, CASB/DLP concepts, ZTNA and identity-aware policy enforcement.
• Strong experience with firewall segmentation, routing and switching, BGP, MPLS, VPN, QoS, DNS, DHCP, high availability, Meraki or Catalyst SD-WAN, and Cisco LAN/WLAN technologies.
• Familiarity with Check Point firewalls and/or Zscaler security services is an advantage.
• Cisco certification such as CCIE Enterprise/Security is a must, or equivalent demonstrated expertise.
• Strong analytical, communication and ownership skills, with the ability to manage technical risk, documentation quality, service stability and continuous improvement.