Senior Network Architect

Senior Network Platform Architect - Enterprise & Industrial Wi-Fi - Portugal

Location: Portugal

Contract Duration: 6 months

Rate: €350 - €400 per day

Summary

The Senior Network Platform Architect will own the architecture, engineering, and lifecycle management of secure, resilient, and reusable Wi-Fi platform capabilities across enterprise and industrial manufacturing environments. This role requires a broad skill set combining expert RF and WLAN knowledge with deep routing, switching, security, automation, and operationalisation expertise. The postholder will be accountable from requirements gathering and design through validation, initial implementation, productisation, and handover.

This is not a wireless-only role the successful candidate must be an accomplished routing and switching engineer capable of designing and troubleshooting the entire network path from wireless endpoints or gateways through LAN, WAN, security, and cloud or edge platforms.

Key responsibilities include designing and troubleshooting LAN, WAN, and industrial Ethernet architectures across campus, branch, cloud, and industrial-edge environments. The role demands deep knowledge of TCP/IP, IPv4/IPv6, Ethernet, VLANs, spanning tree, link aggregation, QoS, multicast, and network segmentation. Strong routing expertise in BGP and OSPF is essential, with working knowledge of IS-IS and route-policy design where relevant.

The architect will lead Wi-Fi architecture across 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands, including Wi-Fi 6, 6E, and 7 technologies, focusing on propagation, capacity, interference, and regulatory constraints. They will provide RF requirements capture, predictive design, survey reviews, post-deployment validation, and remediation in challenging environments such as manufacturing and warehouses.

The role also involves infrastructure-as-code and repeatable configuration management using tools like Python, Ansible, and Terraform, supported by version control, peer review, test automation, and CI/CD practices. Integration with enterprise tooling and operational workflows via APIs and orchestration is required.

Security responsibilities include 802.1X, AAA, certificate-based authentication, firewall policy, identity-based access, and secure management-plane design. Experience in NIST and ISO 27001-aligned environments and awareness of IEC 62443 for industrial systems is expected. The candidate must understand PLC, SCADA, industrial switches, gateways, sensors, and edge platforms to ensure safe integration while maintaining physical and logical boundaries.

Strong stakeholder engagement skills are essential, working across programme teams, enterprise architecture, cyber security, supply chain technology, digital teams, operations, managed service providers, and equipment vendors. The ability to communicate design choices, risks, and trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences is critical.

Required Skills

• Expert design and troubleshooting of LAN, WAN, and industrial Ethernet architectures
• Deep TCP/IP, IPv4/IPv6, VLANs, spanning tree, link aggregation, QoS, multicast, and network segmentation knowledge
• Strong routing expertise in BGP and OSPF working knowledge of IS-IS and route-policy design
• High-availability switching and routing design, failure-domain analysis, and deterministic troubleshooting
• Experience with SD-WAN, network virtualisation, SASE, perimeter connectivity, and hybrid-cloud networking
• Wi‑Fi architecture expertise across 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands including Wi‑Fi 6/6E/7, OFDMA, MU‑MIMO, channel‑planning, roaming, and multi‑link operation
• Infrastructure‑as‑code and configuration management using Python, Ansible, Terraform, with CI/CD practices
• Security design including 802.1X, AAA, certificate‑based authentication, firewall policy, and identity‑based access
• Knowledge of NIST, ISO 27001, and IEC 62443 security standards for industrial environments
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills

Software/Tools

• Python
• Ansible
• Terraform
• Network packet capture and protocol analysis tools
• Version control systems (e.g., Git)
• Network orchestration and API integration platforms

Certifications & Standards

• Relevant network certifications (e.g., CCNP, CCIE) advantageous
• Familiarity with NIST Cybersecurity Framework and ISO 27001
• Awareness of IEC 62443 for industrial control systems security