Network Lead Engineer/Architect

Network Lead Engineer/ArchitectJersey City, NJContract to hire - No work visa sponsorship at this timeNo third-party candidates pleaseSeeking a Senior Network Engineer to join and lead the Network Engineering/Architecture team. You will be responsible for the design, planning, implementation, troubleshooting, and maintenance of the firm's global network infrastructure and architecture. You must enjoy technical challenges, building, and enhancing environments, testing, documenting network designs and staying on the cutting edge by researching and innovating next generation designs.The individual needs to show a keen interest in technology, this role requires an individual with effective communication and interpersonal skills that can establish and maintain an excellent relationship with technology and finance teams.Technical Qualifications:10+ years of technical experience in networking, network security and leading a team.Working understanding of open-standard networking protocols and the ability to identify and implement these protocols at an enterprise level.Ability to conduct Network Operational analysis to solve issues using network flow analysis, packet captures and event correlation tools.Experience building out multi sized datacenters, campuses and branch sites using enterprise architecture principles, industry standards and best practices.Network Security experience designing and implementing firewalls, VPNs, load-balancers and NAC solutions for data and endpoint protection.Experience in multiple technical domains such as server, storage, desktop, security, and network infrastructure.Working knowledge implementing Cloud networking solutions with AWS and AzureDeep understanding of networking and firewall hardware platforms for Cisco, Arista, Palo Alto, F5 and Aruba Silver-PeakExperience designing and implementing cloud hosted SaaS solutions for end user remote and branch secure connection.Working knowledge on building and implementing a network automation design that automates networking tasks across multiple vendors and platforms.Experience designing, implementing, and supporting networks that host trading applications collocated.Vendors and Protocols:Networking: Cisco, Arista, Aruba Silver-Peak (SD-WAN)Firewall and SaaS: Palo Alto, Prisma AccessLoad-Balancers and WAFs: F5 Big-IP, Cloud-FlareDDOS: Cloud-Flare and RadwareNetwork Observability: cPacket, Viavi, Wireshark, Thousand-Eyes, Grafana and ElasticsearchClouds: AWS, AzureWireless: Cisco and MISTNetworking Protocols: BGP, MP-BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, Multicast, MLAG, VPC, MSTP, Rapid-PVST+, LACP, mutual route redistribution, VXLAN, eVPN, FTPProgramming and Automation: Python, JSON, Jinja, Itential workflow automationMicro-Segmentation: IllumioResponsibilities:Design and Deploy Networks:Collaborate with application, infrastructure, and business stakeholders to formulate and implement a network architecture built on resiliency and scalability.Develop standardization and deployment documents with team members that drives the install and configuration of networking hardware.Evaluate pre-production designs and standards in a development environment using success criteria for product and platform selection.Develop standardization for day-2 network infrastructure deployments, configurations, monitoring and automation.Research and evaluate products doing proof-of-concept analysis across multiple vendors which also includes functionality and cost.Develop strategies to conduct bi-annual resiliency and network infrastructure failover testing.Drive cost optimization by identifying areas within the network infrastructure that can be consolidated or are underutilized.Network and Automation Innovation:Develop framework for networking solutions with innovation and emerging technologies across multiple vendors.Apply innovative thinking to help drive new business and technology initiatives that keeps the firm on the cutting edge.Understand full-stack architectures inclusive of Enterprise-driven workflows, Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and CI/CD deployment models, Enterprise Network Orchestration & Automation, Source of Truth, ChatOps, ITSM (ServiceNow) and knowing how open source can lead or compliment a given architecture.Apply innovative thinking to help drive observability using streaming telemetry with real time alerting and AI integrations.Create networking architecture roadmaps based on business technology initiatives, vendor enhancements, improvements, and end-of-life.Conduct cross team collaboration efforts to drive networking support for the firm's technology.Network Performance Monitoring:Enhance and maintain network monitoring/observability infrastructure to support business stability and continuity.Develop framework to monitor and test network performance within a spine/leaf architecture and private wan network.Develop framework to monitor stability and network connectivity to servers, workstations and telephony appliances connected to the network.Drive the innovation to integrate multiple solutions into a single pane of glass for monitoring and altering visibility.Team-Lead:Delegate projects and track milestones for team members.Assess technical bottlenecks and process problems that team members may encounter and provide direction.Conduct daily and or weekly meetings to track progress on major project deliverables or issues.Drive direction and create roadmaps that help meet business and technical objectives.Provide mentorship to team members and conduct technical and performance goals.