Executes the vision, future direction, and initiative roadmap for strategic infrastructure technology programs, with a focus on data center networking architectures, including Cisco ACI–based fabrics. Defines reference and implementation architectures that support scalable, resilient, and secure on‑prem and hybrid data center environments.

**This hybrid role (in office Tues-Wed-Thurs) can be based in Charlotte, NC, Dallas, TX, Wayne, PA, or Scottsdale AZ**

Responsibilities:

• Provides the architectural leadership in shaping strategic, infrastructure technology programs and planning
• Leverages knowledge capital available through subscription research services and critical resources for related knowledge capital, inclusive of blogs, podcasts, webinar, etc.
• Produces technology roadmaps, defines reference and implementation architectures, and develops proof-of-concept prototypes and initial implementation models.
• Ensures implementation solutions support architecture objectives (availability, scalability, performance, security, etc.), as appropriate, and monitors implementation activities to ensure architecture and design principles are upheld.
• Utilizes partnership skills especially in the areas of persuasion, influence, conceptualizing solutions and problem solving.
• Communicates complicated technical concepts effectively to a broad group of stakeholders.
• Establishes relationships with IT leaders, architects, and technical specialists for the purpose of advancing proposed architectural solutions, and ensuring availability of infrastructure technologies and support.
• Possesses deep understanding of the competitive landscape and corporate and business unit strategies to provide context for architectural decision making.
• Identifies and mitigates risks of introducing architecture technology enhancements, ensures that IT project teams comply with IT Governance policies and procedures.
• Participates in special projects and performs other duties as assigned.
• Leads the architecture and design of data center network fabrics, including leaf‑spine architectures and software‑defined networking (SDN) solutions.
• Defines and governs Cisco ACI fabric designs, including tenants, VRFs, bridge domains, contracts, policies, and integration with external L2/L3 networks.
• Ensures data center network architectures support high availability, fault isolation, east‑west traffic optimization, and automation.
• Partners with server, storage, virtualization, and security teams to ensure consistent, end‑to‑end infrastructure design across compute and network domains.
• Evaluates data center networking technologies and vendors based on scalability, operational complexity, TCO, and lifecycle alignment.

Education & Experience:

• Minimum of eight years related work experience, with at least three years of technology architect experience.
• Deep expertise in data center networking concepts, including BGP, EVPN, VXLAN, and leaf‑spine topologies.
• Hands‑on architectural experience with Cisco ACI fabrics, policy models, and multi‑site designs.
• Strong understanding of integrating ACI with virtualization platforms and hybrid cloud connectivity.