Network Design Manager

Network Solution Architect / Network Design ManagerLocation: MadridHybrid 2 days per week in officePosition OverviewThe Network Solutions Architect is responsible for the design, governance, and evolution of network solutions that support organisational objectives across enterprise, cloud, and hybrid environments. The role combines strategic architecture leadership with operational and people management responsibilities, ensuring network services are secure, resilient, scalable, and aligned to business needs.In addition to architecture and leadership responsibilities, the postholder is expected to maintain a hands-on technical involvement in the delivery of architected solutions. This includes providing technical leadership throughout implementation, supporting complex deployments, validating designs, troubleshooting critical issues, and working alongside engineering teams to ensure solutions are delivered in accordance with architectural standards and business requirements.The role requires a balance of strategic thinking and practical execution, with accountability for translating architectural vision into successful operational outcomes while leading and developing a high-performing network solutions team.The successful candidate will lead architecture and design activities while managing a team of network professionals, overseeing performance, development, resource planning, and operational excellence.You will need to support and deliver to cross functional teams within the Global business which means you will need to adapt to ways of working being flexible to their needs.The role has the potential to include overnight and weekend working to support project delivery and act as a point of escalation for the operational support teams. International travel will be required when necessitated by project delivery.Key ResponsibilitiesSolution Architecture &Design: Design end-to-end network solutions for business and technology iniprocesses and systems design.Produce high-level and detailed network architecturedesigns.Define network standards, patterns, androadmaps.Ensure solutions align with architecture, security, and operational requirements.Lead network design reviews and technical governance activities.Provide architectural guidance for cloud, hybrid-cloud, and on-premises environments.Support major transformation programmes and infrastructure modernisationprojects.Technology StrategyDevelop and maintain network technologyroadmaps.Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends.Recommend improvements to network performance, security, resilience, and aadoption of software-defined and cloud-based networkingsolutions.Network Security &ComplianceEnsure security principles are embedded into all networksolutions.Collaborate with cybersecurity teams to implement secure architectures.Support compliance with regulatory, audit, and governance requirements.Design solutions supporting Zero Trust and defence-in-depthstrategies.Project & Delivery LeadershipLead technical design activities for complex projects.Act as the senior technical authority for network-relatedproject managers with planning, estimation, and riskmanagement.Review and approve technical deliverables from internal teams and third-party suppliers.Team LeadershipLead, mentor, and develop a team of network solutions engineers andspecialists.Set individual objectives and performanceregular one-to-one meetings and performance reviews.Create development plans and support professional certification goals.Foster a collaborative, high-performingteam cultureResource & Workforce PlanningManage team workload, priorities, and resource skills gaps and develop succession plans.Support recruitment, onboarding, and retention activities.Manage contractor and supplier resources where required.Operational ManagementEnsure network services meet agreed service levels and operational targets.Oversee incident, problem, and change management activities.Drive continuous service improvement team performance against agreed metrics and OKR'sTechnical Skills& Experience NetworkingEnterprise LAN, WAN,WLAN architectureSD-WAN solutions(Cisco/Palo Alto)Data centre networking (Cisco)Network segmentationRouting and switching on a global scale (BGP, OSPF, MPLS, VXLAN)Load balancing technologies (F5, open-source options)DNS, DHCP,IPAMIPv4 and IPv6 Cloud NetworkingNetworking within Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and/or Google CloudHybrid and multi-cloud connectivityExpressRoute, Direct Connect, VPN, and cloud transit architectures SecurityFirewalls and network security controls (Palo Alto)ZeroTrust architectureNetwork Access Control (NAC)Secure remote access solutionsNetwork monitoring and threat detectionSecure accessservice edge(SASE)CIS ControlsRecovery andHigh Availability: High Availability(HA) network design.Disaster Recovery (DR) planning and and active-passive network architectures.Multi-site and geographically resilientnetwork deployments.Cloud resilience and multi-region networking.Load balancing and traffic management technologies.SD-WAN resilience and failover capabilities.Data centre redundancy and resilience design.Network failoverand recovery testing.Critical infrastructure and 24x7service environments.Formal Education, Certification/Qualifications Cisco CertifiedNetwork Associate (CCNA)Cisco Certified Design Expert (CCDE)Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE)AWS Certified Advanced Networking - SpecialtyMicrosoft Certified: Azure Network Engineer AssociateITIL Accreditation (desirable)Project Management accreditation (desirable)TOGAF (desirable)

High Availability: High Availability (HA) network design.Disaster Recovery (DR) plannin g and and active-passive n etwork architectures.Multi-site and geographically resilient network deployments.Cloud resilience and mul ti-region networking.Load balancing and traffic man agement technologies.SD-WAN resilience and f ailover capabilities.Data centre redundancy a nd resilience design.Network failover and recovery testing.Critical infrastructure and 24x7 service environments. Formal Education, Certif ication/Qualifications Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA)Cisco Certif ied Design Expert (CCDE)Cisco Certified In ternetwork Expert (CCIE)AWS Certified Advance d Networking - SpecialtyMicrosoft Certified: Azure Ne twork Engineer AssociateITIL A ccreditation (desirable)Project Management a ccreditation (des irable)TOGAF (desirable)