SD WAN Architect, International Pharma Company, 215k plus bonus, Parsippany
US CITIZEN OR GREEN CARD HOLDER
NO CORP TO CORP, NO C2C
ON SITE 3 DAYS A WEEK, MUST LIVE LOCAL
NO RELOCATION
MUST HAVE STRONG FORTINET BACKGROUND
- Lead day‑to‑day operations of Americas network environment, including SD‑WAN architecture, LAN/WAN, Wi‑Fi, remote access, Zscaler ZIA/ZPA, and AWS cloud network connectivity (VPCs, Transit Gateway, routing, and segmentation).
- Ensure high availability, reliability, and performance of critical network services supporting research, manufacturing, labs, corporate offices, commercial operations, and cloud workloads.
- Oversee incident, problem, and request management for all network‑related issues, ensuring rapid remediation and adherence to SLA expectations.
- Implement proactive monitoring, telemetry, and performance optimization using tools such as ThousandEyes, SolarWinds, Zscaler analytics, and CloudWatch.
- Maintain standardized network configurations, ensuring adherence to global network architecture, Zero Trust, segmentation, and firewall policies.
- Lead annual and multi‑year regional network budget planning, ensuring forecasting accuracy and financial alignment to strategic priorities.
Manage ongoing operational spend, licensing, carrier contracts, and cloud networking costs to ensure financial stewardship across the Americas region
- Manage strategic vendor relationships, including network carriers, SD‑WAN providers, Zscaler, firewall partners, monitoring vendors, and managed network services partners.
- Oversee SLA adherence, change management, and operational performance across all third‑party network support agreements.
- Conduct and lead quarterly business reviews (QBRs) with all strategic vendors
- Collaborate with procurement and U.S. regional teams for contract renewals, licensing, bandwidth provisioning, and new network service onboarding.
Evaluate technology upgrades, roadmap alignment, and cost optimization
- Bachelor’s degree in IT, Computer Science, or related discipline.
- The candidate must have a minimum of 10+ years of experience leading network engineering and operations teams in a complex, multi‑site enterprise environment
- Deep expertise in SD‑WAN, LAN/WAN, Wi‑Fi, firewalls, DNS/DHCP/IPAM, cloud networking, and hybrid network design.
- Requires deep, practical experience with cloud networking in AWS and Azure, including VPC/VNet design, routing, security controls, and hybrid connectivity models.
- Experience with Zscaler ZIA/ZPA, Zero Trust access models, and secure internet egress architectures.
- Strong understanding of network security, segmentation, identity‑based access controls, and cybersecurity integration.
- Proven ability to lead technical teams and manage vendor partnerships.
- Strong troubleshooting, stakeholder communication, and operational leadership skills.
- Familiarity with regulated environments and audit requirements.
