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.