Lead Architect - Network & Security

The Lead Architect – Network & Security at Jazz Enterprise Solutions is the principal design authority responsible for all network and network-security initiatives within the systems integration team. This role leads a team of engineers delivering solutions across enterprise, financial services, and public sector clients. The position involves designing and overseeing data centre fabrics, enterprise WAN and SD-WAN, next-generation firewalls, network access control, and secure edge services. Based in Karachi with nationwide delivery responsibilities, the Lead Architect reports to the Head of Delivery – SI, Cybersecurity & Managed Services, ensuring the highest standards in design and implementation.

Key Responsibilities

- Serve as the design authority for all network and security delivery across systems integration projects, managing and leading network and security engineers.
- Own and maintain reference architectures, design standards, and technical patterns, updating them in line with OEM roadmaps.
- Produce, review, and approve High-Level and Low-Level Designs, methods of procedure, migration and rollback plans, and as-built documentation.
- Ensure all designs comply with customer security, audit, and regulatory requirements, including specific mandates such as those from the State Bank of Pakistan.
- Lead complex implementations and migrations including data centre fabric builds, WAN and SD-WAN rollouts, firewall migrations, NAC deployments, and secure edge services.
- Plan and execute changes in live production environments with defined fallback and validation criteria.
- Act as the Tier 3/4 engineering escalation point for network and security issues, leading root-cause analysis on complex incidents.
- Facilitate smooth handover to managed services teams with comprehensive runbooks, documentation, and knowledge transfer.
- Manage the network and security engineering team by allocating work, managing capacity, developing skills, and enforcing standards.
- Drive team development including onboarding, mentoring, certification planning, and skills matrix maintenance.
- Support bid processes by validating solution feasibility, effort estimation, resource availability, and delivery risks.
- Review bills of quantity and materials for technical accuracy and deliverability.
- Provide technical input during delivery gates and document assumptions for all qualified bids.
- Maintain strong technical relationships with OEMs and vendors such as Cisco, Fortinet, Huawei, Palo Alto, and F5, managing escalations and vendor engagements.
- Evaluate new technologies for portfolio inclusion, assessing fit and supportability.

Required Qualifications

- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or a related field.
- Over 12 years of hands-on experience in enterprise network and network-security engineering, including at least 3 years in a leadership role.
- Proven track record delivering complex multi-vendor network and security programs, particularly for enterprise or financial services clients.
- Experience managing migrations and technology refreshes in live production environments with structured fallback plans.
- Exposure to pre-sales activities such as solution validation, effort estimation, bill of materials review, and customer presentations.
- Demonstrated ability to mentor and develop engineers, including certification planning and raising team standards.
- Expertise in data centre technologies (Cisco ACI, Nexus, VXLAN/EVPN), WAN and SD-WAN (Cisco SD-WAN, Meraki, Fortinet, Huawei), and security platforms (Cisco FTD/FMC/ASA, FortiGate, Palo Alto, Huawei USG).
- Strong knowledge of access control and identity solutions such as Cisco ISE, multi-factor authentication, and directory integration.
- Familiarity with application delivery and load balancing technologies (F5, Kemp), campus switching, and enterprise wireless.
- Relevant certifications such as CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure or Security are highly preferred; CCNP, PCNSE, Fortinet NSE, Huawei HCIP/HCIE, or CISSP will also be considered.
- Excellent documentation skills for producing HLDs, LLDs, MOPs, migration plans, and as-built records.

Preferred Qualifications and Benefits

- Experience working with Pakistani financial services clients, understanding their unique change control, audit, and regulatory requirements.
- Knowledge of primary and disaster recovery site architectures, segmented environments, and regulated network zones.
- Familiarity with the local OEM, distributor, and partner ecosystem.
- Strong interpersonal skills to collaborate effectively across Solutions Engineering, Technical Support, Delivery Excellence, and Supply Chain teams.
- Ability to communicate technical risks and design trade-offs clearly to non-engineering stakeholders.
- Sound judgment in project effort estimation and sequencing, with a proactive approach to problem escalation.
- Willingness to travel nationwide and work during customer change windows, often outside regular office hours.

Jazz is recognized as a Top Employer, committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse work environment where employees can thrive. The organization values customer obsession, innovation, collaboration, and entrepreneurial spirit, driving meaningful work that impacts millions across Pakistan. Joining Jazz means contributing to a national-scale digital transformation, expanding access, and building a connected future.