Solutions Architect (Network Security)

Location: Bellshill, Scotland, United Kingdom; Workplace: Hybrid

Company

Sword provides business technology solutions and specialist services for the energy, public, and finance sectors.

What you will do

• Provide technical leadership and solution architecture from customer discovery through solution design, proposal, and transition into delivery.
• Lead customer workshops, clarify business, technical, and operational requirements, and translate them into solution architectures.
• Design secure, resilient, and scalable network and security solutions focused on Cisco and Palo Alto technologies.
• Develop solutions covering enterprise networking, SD-WAN, SDA, SASE/SSE, LAN, wireless, network access control, and cybersecurity.
• Support hybrid cloud opportunities across Azure, AWS, hyperconverged infrastructure, compute, storage, backup, networking, and security.
• Produce and review high-level designs, statements of work, bills of materials, technical proposals, assumptions, risks, bids, tenders, and customer presentations.

Requirements

• Strong enterprise networking architecture and design experience, ideally across the Cisco portfolio.
• Strong knowledge of Cisco Catalyst Switching/Wireless, SD-WAN, SDA, ISE, and related management platforms.
• Strong Palo Alto Networks knowledge, including next-generation firewalls and ideally Prisma Access or SASE technologies.
• Understanding of SASE/SSE, Zero Trust, segmentation, identity-based access, remote access, firewalling, and secure network architecture.
• Broad infrastructure knowledge across hyperconverged infrastructure, virtualisation, compute, enterprise storage, backup, Microsoft Azure, and AWS.
• Experience creating HLDs, technical proposals, bills of materials, and statements of work, with strong customer-facing consulting and communication skills.

Nice to have

• Relevant Cisco and/or Palo Alto certifications.
• Understanding of AI technologies and their emerging applications in enterprise IT, networking, security, and operations.

Culture & Benefits

• Personalised career development plans and learning opportunities.
• Flexible working arrangements to support work-life balance.
• Generous annual leave and enhanced family-friendly benefits.
• Pension scheme and access to private health, wellbeing, and insurance schemes.
• Inclusive workplace with support for accessibility adjustments during the hiring process.