Cisco SD-WAN Solution Architect

Cisco SD-WAN Solution Architect

Los Angeles, CA, Bristol CT, Miami FL or Orlando, FL - hybrid role, onsite 3 days per week.

Key skills and experience:

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN (Viptela/Catalyst) - hands-on experience.

Name the client/project and the number of sites and state your specific personal role (design vs. deployment), the controllers you used, the edge platforms, and how you used configuration groups / feature profiles to standardize across different site types.

Client is seeking a Cisco SD-WAN Solution Architect with deep expertise in enterprise SD-WAN architecture, design assurance, and large-scale deployment.

The role will focus on independently reviewing SD-WAN architecture and implementation approaches, providing technical guidance, identifying design and scalability risks, and ensuring alignment with industry and implementation best practices.

The architect will work closely with customer engineering teams, technology partners, and delivery teams through design, validation, deployment, and production readiness.

Key Responsibilities:

SD-WAN Architecture and Design:

Independently review and validate Cisco SD-WAN architecture and detailed designs against industry and implementation best practices.

Assess topology, hub/mesh architecture, routing, segmentation, resiliency, multicast, and configuration strategies.

Review Feature Profile - Configuration Group - Site Persona - Device Variable models for scalability, consistency, and operational efficiency.

Identify architectural gaps, technical risks, configuration sprawl, and scalability concerns.

Recommend standardization, automation, and orchestration improvements.

Ensure architecture is designed for repeatable deployment across diverse site types and network environments.

Cisco SD-WAN Technical Expertise:

Provide deep technical guidance on Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN / Viptela architecture and implementation.

Review and validate configurations, templates, policies, and deployment models.

Evaluate Cisco technical recommendations and provide independent architectural assessment.

Troubleshoot complex SD-WAN design and implementation issues.

Provide guidance on routing, segmentation, IPsec overlays, multicast, QoS, application-aware routing, and resiliency.

Deployment and Production Readiness:

Review lab and test results against production design intent.

Support build, integration, testing, and production deployment activities.

Participate in deployment readiness, cutover, rollback, and go-live planning.

Provide architecture support during implementation and resolve complex technical issues.

Capture lessons learned and incorporate improvements into subsequent deployment waves.

Develop repeatable deployment standards and playbooks.

Architecture Governance:

Lead or participate in technical design reviews and architecture governance sessions.

Maintain technical risks, issues, decisions, and action items.

Drive closure of cross-functional technical issues and dependencies.

Identify deviations from approved architecture and recommend remediation.

Communicate complex technical issues and recommendations clearly to senior technical and business stakeholders.

Required Technical Skills:

20 plus years of experience in enterprise networking, network architecture, or network engineering.

5 plus years of strong hands-on Cisco SD-WAN / Viptela experience.

Deep expertise in Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN architecture and deployment.

Strong experience with Cisco Catalyst 8500 and 8300 platforms.

Experience designing SD-WAN for large, distributed enterprise environments.

Strong understanding of configuration standardization and scalable deployment models.

Ability to review and troubleshoot SD-WAN configurations at both architecture and implementation levels.

Strong knowledge of:

Cisco SD-WAN Manager / vManage

Feature Profiles and Configuration Groups

Device and site templates

Routing and segmentation

BGP, OSPF and static routing

IPsec and overlay architecture

Multicast over SD-WAN

Hub-and-spoke and hub-mesh architectures

High availability and resiliency

QoS and application-aware routing

MPLS, Internet and hybrid underlay integration

Preferred Skills and Experience:

Experience with large-scale global SD-WAN transformation programs.

Experience designing and deploying SD-WAN across hundreds of sites.

Experience working directly with Cisco technical and architecture teams.

Experience migrating legacy WAN/MPLS environments to SD-WAN.

Experience supporting multiple site personas and complex enterprise network environments.

Knowledge of SD-WAN automation, APIs, scripting, and orchestration.

Experience developing reusable configuration templates, standards, and deployment playbooks.

Experience supporting production cutovers and network transformation programs.

CCIE or equivalent-level Cisco networking expertise preferred.

Leadership and Behavioral Competencies:

Strong architectural judgment and independent decision-making.

Ability to constructively challenge technical recommendations and drive the right architectural outcome.

Strong customer and stakeholder management skills.

Excellent verbal and written communication.

Ability to work effectively across customer, vendor, architecture, and delivery teams.

Strong ownership and accountability for technical outcomes.

Ability to translate complex technical discussions into clear decisions and actions.

Strong documentation and governance discipline.

Comfortable operating in complex, fast-paced transformation environments.

Key Deliverables:

SD-WAN Architecture and Design Review

Technical Gap Analysis and Remediation Recommendations

Architecture Standards and Configuration Guidelines

Technical Risk, Issue and Decision Tracking

Deployment and Cutover Readiness Assessment

SD-WAN Deployment Playbook

Lessons Learned and Best Practice Recommendations

Ideal Candidate Profile:

The ideal candidate is a Cisco SD-WAN architect with proven experience designing and delivering large-scale Viptela/Catalyst SD-WAN environments, rather than someone focused primarily on NOC or operational support.

The candidate should be capable of independently assessing complex designs, identifying architectural and implementation risks, working with Cisco and customer engineering teams, challenging assumptions where required, and driving the solution toward a scalable, production-ready architecture.

Pre-screen - if you're not comfortable answering these then this may not be a fit.

Independently steering a customer - Cisco SD-WAN design. - Describe a specific engagement where you sat between a customer and Cisco on an SD-WAN network design as the neutral technical authority - not merely executing someone else's plan?

Name the project and your specific role and give one concrete example where you challenged a Cisco recommendation or a customer assumption, what you recommended instead and why, and how you drove it to a decision?