Senior Network Architect - freelance - hybrid, London, UK
Contract Comgent United Kingdom
Posted On 03/09/2026
Job Information
Standard Business working Hours Yes
Work Experience 8-10 years
City London
State/Province City of London
N/A
Special Considerations
Start date: Apr/ May 2026
Location: London, UK (Hybrid - minimum 2 days per week in office)
Industry: Financial Services / Banking
Job Description
A major banking group operating in EMEA is undergoing a significant infrastructure transformation programme, converging two separate network environments (a legacy three-tier Cisco campus network and an ACI spine-leaf fabric) alongside the integration of a European banking subsidiary. This is a hands on senior architecture role requiring both strategic thinking and the ability to roll up sleeves and engage at detailed engineering levels.
Requirements
Must have
- Deep expertise in Cisco networking: Nexus (7K, 5K, 2K, 9K), IOS, NX-OS
- Strong working knowledge of Cisco ACI - ability to assess hybrid/pseudo-ACI deployments and define target-state app-centric or network-centric design
- Expert level routing and switching: OSPF, BGP, EIGRP (including identification and remediation of misconfigurations)
- Data centre network design: spine leaf, three tier, convergence strategies
- Firewall architecture: Palo Alto (PA 40 series), Cisco ASA (legacy and migration)
- WAN/MPLS concepts and managed service architectures (NTT or similar providers)
- IP address management (IPAM) and DNS/DHCP strategies
- Network security design principles
- Familiarity with SD WAN, cloud networking (Azure, AWS), and hybrid connectivity
Advantageous
- Cisco CCIE (Routing & Switching or Data Centre) or equivalent demonstrable expertise
- Experience with network automation and orchestration tooling
- Knowledge of co location and proximity hosting environments
- Understanding of financial services network requirements (trading floor, market data, payment systems)
- Able to operate with ambiguity - comfortable in environments without fully defined organisational structure
- Strong communication skills: able to articulate complex technical problems to non technical senior stakeholders
- Commercial awareness - understanding of total cost of ownership, vendor contracts, and infrastructure spend
- Collaborative and pragmatic, with the confidence to challenge incumbents and advocate for sound design principles
- Self starter capable of providing direction to others with limited supervision