Vice President, Network Architect

About CLS:

CLS is the trusted party at the centre of the global FX ecosystem. Utilized by thousands of counterparties, CLS makes FX safer, smoother and more cost effective. Trillions of dollars’ worth of currency flows through our systems each day.

Created by the market for the market, our unrivalled global settlement infrastructure reduces systemic risk and provides standardization for participants in many of the world’s most actively traded currencies. We deliver huge efficiencies and savings for our clients: in fact, our approach to multilateral netting shrinks funding requirements by over 96% on average, so clients can put their capital and resources to better use.

CLS products are designed to enable clients to manage risk most effectively across the full FX lifecycle – whether through more efficient processing tools or market intelligence derived from the largest single source of FX executed data available to the market.

Our ambition to make a positive difference starts with our people. Our values underpin everything that we do at CLS and define our working environment:

• Pivotal purpose
• Trusted guardian
• Targeted innovation
• Facilitate connections
• Delivering excellence
• Inclusive culture

Job information:

• Functional title – Network Architect
• Department – Technology
• Corporate level – Vice President
• Reports to – Infrastructure Architecture Lead
• Location – London

Job Purpose:

The Network Architect plays a key role in CLS’s architecture / technology division. The role involves producing designs and overseeing the implementation of solutions encompassing hardware, software, and security to ensure performance, scalability, and reliability, bridging business needs with solutions for LANs, WANs, cloud and hybrid environments.

This role involves collaborating with cross-functional teams to understand business requirements, providing technical leadership, and ensuring designs meet CLS architectural principles and security standards. The architect should be a strong technologist that is very aware of current developments in the technology spectrum.

Key Responsibilities:

• Author High Level Solution Design, Solutions Overviews and Conceptual Architectures.
• Design and architect solutions based on technical and business requirements.
• Develop and document architecture blueprints and best practices.
• Provide technical leadership on network architecture including integration and management to ensure best practices are supported and implemented effectively.
• Act as a lead Architect on projects.
• Contribute to the development and management of the Network Strategy.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of Architecture within CLS.
• Contribute to product roadmaps and reference architectures.

Required Skills and Experience:

• Proficient in enterprise, data centre and cloud network architecture with a strong track record of successful projects and in-depth knowledge of industry best practices.
• Experience developing and delivering solutions leveraging on-premises and cloud components.
• Good knowledge of cloud networking (AWS and Azure) components, including VPC design and hybrid connectivity.
• Familiarity with SaaS-based security and SASE architecture, Zero Trust principles.
• Familiarity with monitoring tools like SolarWinds and Dynatrace.
• Ability to communicate solutions to other stakeholders.
• Ability to assess and recommend third-party tools and services to complement existing offerings.
• Stakeholder management.
• Knowledge of security design.
• Good knowledge of Risk management
• Work closely with other architecture disciplines including Enterprise, Infrastructure and Security, as well Engineering and Operations
• Provide technical guidance to team members and stakeholders.
• Identify and recommend opportunities for efficiency.
• Stay updated on new features and capabilities and best practices.
• Ability to deal with ambiguity and manage diversity.
• Share knowledge with the team and contribute to the organization's learning culture.

Specialized Skills and Knowledge:

• Enterprise Infrastructure – Routing and Switching, including routing protocols, PBR, MPLS, VPN, SD-WAN, STP, ACL, L2/L3 switching technologies and QoS.
• Data Centre Infrastructure – Spine and leaf architecture, VxLAN fabric, Cisco NX-OS, RSA and NetScaler.
• Wi-Fi – Centralised and cloud-based WLAN solutions (Meraki preferred).
• Cloud Integration – Connectivity into cloud providers e.g. AWS Direct Connect, DX Gateway, NAT Gateway, Transit Gateway and VPN, management using security groups.
• Security and Firewall Management – Multi-vendor knowledge ( Firepower, ASA and Checkpoint), network segmentation using multi-context / multi-zone environment, IPS, encryption (IPSEC, MACsec), VPN, NAC (Cisco ISE), and RSA
• Monitoring – SolarWinds and Dynatrace

Education and Certification:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (or equivalent work experience).

• Industry recognized certifications such as TOGAF, Cisco CCNA/CCNP/CCIE, AWS Advanced Networking, Fortinet NSE, Checkpoint CCSA/CCSE.

Our commitment to employees:

At CLS, we celebrate inclusion and consider this to be one of our strongest assets. We are committed to fostering an environment in which everyone feels comfortable to be who they are, and inclusion is valued. All employees have access to our inclusive benefits, including:

• Holiday - UK/Asia: 25 holiday days and 3 ‘life days’ (in addition to bank holidays). US: 23 holiday days.
• 2 paid volunteer days so that you can actively support causes within your community that are important to you.
• Generous parental leave policies to ensure you can enjoy valuable time with your family.
• Parental transition coaching programmes and support services.
• Wellbeing and mental health support resources to ensure you are looking after yourself, and able to support others.
• Employee Networks (including our Women’s Forum, Black Employee Network and Pride Network) in support of our organisational commitment to embrace and always be learning more about inclusivity.
• Hybrid working to promote a healthy work/life balance, enabling employees to work collaboratively in the office when needed and work from home when they don’t.
• Active support of flexible working for all employees where possible.
• Monthly ‘Heads Down Days’ with no meetings across the whole company.
• Generous non-contributory pension provision for UK/Asia employees, and 401K match from CLS for US employees.
• Private medical insurance and dental coverage.
• Social events that give you opportunities to meet new people and broaden your network across the organisation.
• Annual flu vaccinations.
• Discounts and savings and cashback across a wide range of categories including health and retail for UK employees.
• Discounted Gym membership – Complete Body Gym Discount/Sweat equity program for US employees.
• All employees have access to Discover – our comprehensive learning platform with 1000+ courses from LinkedIn Learning.
• Access to frequent development sessions on a number of topics to help you be successful and develop your career at CLS.