Senior Enterprise Network Architect - Financial Services

Job Title: Senior Network Architect/Admin

Location: Chicago IL 60605 /New York City, NY -- 4 days onsite, 1 day remote

Perm/FTE Role

US citizens and Green Card Holders and those authorized to work in the US are encouraged to apply. We are unable to sponsor H1b candidates at this time

Job Summary:

The Senior Network Architect & Administrator ensures the network is fast, resilient, secure, and audit ready —a foundational requirement for trading operations, client trust, and regulatory compliance. This role is instrumental in advancing the firm’s Zero Trust strategy, cloud modernization, and long-term technology roadmap.

Job Details:

Senior Network Architect & Administrator

Position Overview

• The Senior Network Architect & Administrator is a critical technical leader responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining a highly available, low latency, and secure enterprise network infrastructure.

• This role blends strategic architecture with hands on engineering, ensuring the network can support the demanding needs of trading systems, financial partner connectivity, cloud expansion, and regulatory compliance.
• The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in enterprise networking, hybrid cloud architecture, Zero Trust principles, and financial sector connectivity requirements.
  This position is essential to building a resilient, scalable, and secure network foundation that enables the firm’s growth and protects mission critical operations.

Key Responsibilities

Enterprise Network Architecture & Modernization

• Architect and maintain a multi-tier, highly available enterprise network supporting trading, clearing, research, and client facing platforms.
• Design and enforce advanced network segmentation for users, servers, trading systems, cloud workloads, and privileged administrative zones.
• Lead the development of a Zero Trust Network Architecture (ZTNA), including micro segmentation, identity aware routing, and continuous verification.
• Engineer secure, redundant partner connections (DTCC, BNYM, Bloomberg, MarketAxess, ArrowStreet) using dedicated circuits, VPNs, private connectivity, and strict ACLs.
• Integrate cloud networking (AWS, Azure, GCP) with secure routing, private endpoints, and unified policy enforcement across hybrid environments.

Perimeter, Cloud, and Application Security Hardening

• Architect and administer next generation firewalls (NGFW) with IPS, TLS inspection, sandboxing, and threat intelligence integrations.
• Deploy and maintain Web Application Firewalls (WAF) and API gateways supporting trading platforms and client portals.
• Strengthening cloud security posture using CSPM, CNAPP, and cloud native controls (Security Groups, NACLs, PrivateLink, IAM boundaries).
• Implement secure remote access solutions using ZTNA, MFA, device posture checks, and continuous session monitoring.
• Standardize encryption protocols (TLS 1.2/1.3, IPsec, MACsec) across internal, external, and partner connections.

Network Monitoring, Performance, and Threat Visibility

• Build and maintain a unified network monitoring and logging architecture across firewalls, routers, switches, cloud networks, and partner circuits.
• Collaborate with security teams to integrate network telemetry into SIEM platforms (Splunk, Sentinel, QRadar, Elastic).
• Develop detection logic for anomalous trading activity, insider threats, credential abuse, and partner circuit deviations.
• Participate in threat hunting activities and support automated response workflows through SOAR integrations.

Identity, Access, and Privileged Access Controls

• Integrate network infrastructure with centralized IAM platforms (Azure AD/Entra, Okta, Ping) for SSO, MFA, and conditional access.
• Implement and maintain Privileged Access Management (PAM) for network administrators and service accounts.
• Define and enforce RBAC and least privilege models across network, cloud, and application layers.
• Ensure IAM and network logs feed into SIEM for real time detection of credential misuse.

Governance, Compliance & Partner Connectivity Assurance

• Develop and maintain network security standards and policies for segmentation, encryption, firewall rules, cloud access, and partner circuits.
• Conduct risk assessments for all P2P and financial partner connections.
• Define onboarding/offboarding processes for new business partners, including security validation and continuous monitoring.
• Ensure compliance with FFIEC, SEC, FINRA, SOX, and internal audit requirements.
• Create and maintain runbooks and playbooks for network incidents, partner link outages, and trading system disruptions.

Qualifications
Required

• 8+ years of experience in enterprise network engineering, architecture, or administration.
• Expert level knowledge of routing, switching, firewalls, VPNs, SD WAN, and network segmentation.
• Hands on experience with NGFW platforms (Palo Alto, Fortinet, Check Point, Cisco Firepower).
• Strong understanding of cloud networking (AWS, Azure, GCP) and hybrid connectivity.
• Experience supporting trading systems or financial sector connectivity.
• Familiarity with regulatory frameworks (FFIEC, SEC, FINRA, SOX).

Preferred

• Certifications such as CCNP/CCIE, PCNSE, NSE7+, JNCIP/JNCIE, or equivalent.
• Experience with Zero Trust, SASE, CASB, and modern remote access technologies.
• Proficiency in automation and scripting (Python, PowerShell, Ansible).
• Experience designing network architectures for high availability, low latency environments.

A reasonable, good faith estimate of the minimum and maximum base salary for this position is $160 K to $190 K per year with Bonus. Employee benefits will also be available, and details are available like Pension/401K/ Paid Vacation/ Life, Medical & Dental insurance etc.

* The pay range listed above reflects the expected starting salary /Pay rate for this role. This range may be adjusted based on market conditions, location, and other relevant factors. The Company will determine the final starting salary/Pay rate in consultation with the selected candidate(s), in full compliance with applicable laws