Network Security Architect

Senior Network Security Architect Specialist

Location: Edinburgh or Sheffield or Birmingham

Role overview

This role is for a senior Network Security Architect Specialist who operates as a recognised authority across network and infrastructure security in large, complex and regulated environments.

You will take ownership of end-to-end network security architecture, defining how platforms are segmented, protected, governed and evolved. The role combines deep technical expertise with architectural governance, senior stakeholder influence and strategic design leadership across both transformation and live operational environments.

This is not a delivery engineering role. It is a senior architecture position focused on design authority, assurance, and setting direction.

Key responsibilities

Architecture and design leadership

Own the end-to-end security architecture for network and infrastructure solutions, ensuring alignment with enterprise strategy, architectural principles and reference models

Produce and govern high-level designs, architecture patterns, decision records, deviations and technical risk assessments

Define and evolve network security patterns covering Firewalls, WAF, segmentation, Proxy services and network access controls

Provide architectural oversight and assurance to engineering and delivery teams during implementation

Support large-scale re-platforming and modernisation initiatives, balancing security, resilience, cost and delivery pragmatism

Governance and stakeholder engagement

Represent network and infrastructure security at technical and security design authorities

Present architectural decisions clearly and credibly to senior leadership, enterprise architects and delivery stakeholders

Ensure all architecture artefacts follow agreed governance, assurance and peer-review processes

Influence business and technology leaders to align initiatives with standardised, secure and scalable security architectures

Risk, resilience and control

Identify, articulate and manage technical risks, control gaps and architectural dependencies

Define remediation strategies and clearly articulate residual risk to both technical and non-technical audiences

Design for high availability, resilience, redundancy and disaster recovery across network platforms

Ensure clear separation between technical design authority, assurance and delivery execution

Leadership and collaboration

Act as a senior technical leader within the network security architecture community

Build strong working relationships across enterprise architecture, engineering, operations and transformation teams

Mentor and guide architects and engineers, promoting high standards and architectural discipline

Contribute to a collaborative, outcome-focused security culture

Technical expertise

Significant depth and experience across network and infrastructure security, including:

Enterprise Firewalls, WAF, IDS/IPS, NAC, proxies and software-defined network segmentation

Segmentation and micro-segmentation strategies that reduce attack surface while maintaining secure connectivity

Secure communication protocols including TLS/SSL, IPsec and SSH

Network traffic analysis, monitoring and anomaly detection

Network security policy design, enforcement and governance

Secure baselining, resilience engineering and disaster recovery planning

You will have a broad technology background and be able to engage confidently with non-security technical SMEs while maintaining architectural authority within your domain.

Platforms and tooling

Experience working with enterprise Firewall technologies such as Check Point, Illumio, Fortinet or equivalent platforms

Architecture modelling using tools such as BizzDesign, Archi or UML-based frameworks

Strong working proficiency with Jira for delivery oversight and Confluence for architectural documentation

Experience and background

Extensive experience operating as a senior network or infrastructure security architect within large-scale, regulated environments

Proven experience working across both operational security and transformation-led programmes

Strong understanding of the interaction between enterprise architecture and solution architecture

Demonstrated ability to operate effectively at design authority and executive stakeholder level

Qualifications

Degree in cybersecurity, computer science, software engineering or a related discipline preferred

Industry certifications such as CISSP or CISM preferred

SABSA and or TOGAF certification preferred

Why this role

This is a senior specialist role for architects who want to shape how network security is designed, governed and delivered at enterprise scale. You will have real influence over strategy, standards and architectural decisions in a highly complex environment, with visibility at senior leadership level and the opportunity to leave a lasting architectural Legacy.