Principal Network Architect

As the Principal Network Architect, you will shape Hertz's global network direction, collaborate with technology and business leaders, guide complex architecture decisions, evaluate emerging technologies, influence strategic partners, and help engineering and operations teams translate target-state designs into secure, resilient, scalable, and cost-effective network capabilities.

What You’ll Do:
 

• Own the enterprise network strategy, target-state architecture, standards, reference patterns, governance framework, and multi-year roadmap, aligning business objectives, security requirements, resiliency goals, operational needs, and technology investments.
• Define and govern enterprise architecture across LAN, WAN, WLAN, SD-WAN, cloud networking, internet edge, network security, segmentation, DNS/DHCP/IPAM, and secure remote access technologies, including VPN, ZTNA, SASE, and SSE.
• Establish hybrid and multi-cloud connectivity architectures covering landing zones, transit networks, private connectivity, routing, segmentation, secure ingress/egress, and integration across cloud, branch, data center, partner, and enterprise environments.
• Lead the architecture and evolution of network platforms and security services, including Fortinet technologies, SD-WAN, firewalls, centralized policy management, telemetry, observability, automation, and lifecycle management.
• Define automation-first architecture principles and reusable engineering patterns, leveraging Infrastructure as Code, Policy as Code, automated provisioning, compliance validation, observability, and platform integration to improve scalability and operational efficiency.
• Provide senior architecture leadership for strategic initiatives, major transformations, mergers, integrations, and critical technology decisions, conducting architecture assessments that balance business value, security, resiliency, scalability, technical debt, cost, and operational sustainability.
• Establish enterprise resiliency, performance, and continuity strategies, including capacity planning, traffic engineering, disaster recovery, provider diversity, failure-domain isolation, recovery objectives, and long-term reliability improvements.
• Drive technology modernization, innovation, and portfolio optimization by evaluating emerging technologies, reducing complexity and technical debt, improving standardization and automation, and influencing strategic vendor and service-provider partnerships.
• Develop executive-level strategies, business cases, roadmaps, architecture metrics, and investment recommendations, while collaborating across Enterprise Architecture domains and mentoring architects and senior engineers to ensure consistent architectural practices and successful adoption.

Required:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field (or equivalent experience) 
• 10+ years of progressive experience in enterprise networking, infrastructure architecture, or related technology disciplines within large, distributed environments.
• Proven experience defining enterprise architecture, technology strategies, standards, reference architectures, governance models, and multi-year modernization roadmaps.
• Deep expertise in enterprise networking and security architectures, including routing, switching, wireless, SD-WAN, internet edge, VPN, ZTNA, SASE/SSE, segmentation, resiliency, observability, high availability, and large-scale distributed connectivity.
• Strong cloud and hybrid networking experience across Azure, AWS, or comparable platforms, including virtual networking, transit architectures, private connectivity, cloud security controls, cloud firewalls, and hybrid connectivity patterns.
• Experience driving automation-first architecture strategies using infrastructure-as-code, policy-as-code, APIs, source control, CI/CD, and technologies such as Python, Terraform, Ansible, Git, and REST APIs.
• Strong knowledge of network security platforms and operations, with experience in Fortinet technologies, including FortiGate, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, and Fortinet SD-WAN, highly preferred.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate technologies, vendors, telecommunications services, managed services, and cloud capabilities, while developing business cases and recommendations that balance risk, resiliency, lifecycle, operational impact, and total cost of ownership.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, and influencing skills, with the ability to build consensus, communicate complex architectural decisions to technical and executive audiences, and drive strategic outcomes without direct authority.
• Broad understanding of enterprise technology ecosystems, including compute, virtualization, containers, databases, APIs, distributed applications, and their interaction with network services across data center, cloud, and hybrid environments. Relevant industry certifications are beneficial but not required.

The starting salary for this position is $170,000 - $190,000

• Up to 40% off the base rate of any standard Hertz Rental   
• Paid Time Off
• Medical, Dental & Vision plan options
• Retirement programs, including 401(k) employer matching
• Paid Parental Leave & Adoption Assistance
• Employee Assistance Program for employees & family
• Educational Reimbursement & Discounts
• Voluntary Insurance Programs - Pet, Legal/Identity Theft, Critical Illness
• Perks & Discounts –Theme Park Tickets, Gym Discounts & more