Principal Network Architect
Northern Trust· enterprise· Financial Services· Sep 1, 2026 · 2mo ago
Naperville, IL
In office
Full-time
Principal
$137K–$234K
15+ years exp
Job description
About Northern Trust
As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.
Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.
With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.
The Network Architect will serve as the subject matter expert for architecting and implementing Northern Trust’s global network, including the applications and services that run on top of it. This role will engage with various stakeholders and application teams in a solution-design capacity to help bring conceptual designs into production. The position also requires the ability to lead and mentor team members in the design, support, and engineering of the network while working with operations teams to improve system availability and efficiency.
The Network Architect will proactively research and evaluate tools, techniques, and technologies appropriate for the network environment while developing solutions to increase performance and availability, lower total cost of ownership, and modernize and transform network and service-delivery functions. This may include not only traditional network technologies, but also hosting strategies, resiliency and recovery strategies, security strategies, and data center and colocation strategies. The individual in this role is expected to stay abreast of industry trends, vendor offerings, technology innovation, and changing customer requirements to provide effective solutions aligned to business outcomes.
The Network Architect will translate logical or conceptual designs into physical designs, accounting for requirements, target environments, processes, performance needs, existing systems and services, and non-functional requirements such as capacity, availability, and performance. These designs should align with modernization and transformation roadmaps and initiatives to move the enterprise in the right direction. The Network Architect provides technical design guidance and strategic leadership to engineering and application teams and acts as the ultimate escalation point for network issues. The Network Architect also serves as the technical escalation point of contact for infrastructure teams, application development teams, and leadership.
This role will provide trouble resolution of the global network for escalated issues and may perform on-call duties and off-hours support when needed.
Qualifications:
Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, Telecommunication Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, or the equivalent of a four-year accredited degree in a technical discipline.
15 years of experience managing and designing solutions within an IP network with a four-year Bachelor of Science degree, or 20 years of relevant experience with IP networks and network services such as DNS, time services, NAC, security, IPS, load balancing, hosting, and data center strategies for colocation or data center migration.
10 years of experience with routing protocols, including BGP, OSPF, and EIGRP. Experience with SD-WAN.
10 years of experience with Layer 2 protocols, including vPC, data center zones, Spanning Tree, VRF, VTP, VLANs, and physical cabling.
10 years of experience with WAN/LAN and transport technologies, including vendor fabric interconnect technologies such as Ethernet, Frame Relay, MPLS, DWDM, and Equinix Fabric.
10 years of working knowledge of security technologies, including IPsec, IKEv1 and IKEv2, Kerberos, SSH, RADIUS, TACACS , VPDNs, PKI, AAA, and VPN using IPsec. Strong technical knowledge of network control protocols such as QoS, PoE, NTP, and DHCP; network management protocols such as CDP, FTP, TFTP, and SNMP; and security protocols such as SSH, HTTPS, AAA, IPsec, and TrustSec. Extensive experience with Cisco Catalyst and Nexus switching platforms, as well as Juniper MX routers, Aruba switches, and Arista switches.
10 years of working knowledge of core network services such as DNS, DHCP, load balancing, NTP, NAC, authentication, and application solution design.
In-depth implementation and troubleshooting experience with IP networks and the ability to think critically in high-pressure, confidential environments.
You will have expert knowledge and experience in several of the following areas:
NGFW platforms and management tools such as Tufin
Network Access Control in enterprise environments
Application delivery and load balancers
Public and Private cloud security
Workflow automation
Cisco Routing & Switching
WAN Optimization
DNS, IPAM and DHCP
Colocation management and fabric designs
Datacenter migration
It is desirable and advantageous to also have knowledge and experience of the following technology platforms:
Check Point, Palo Alto, Fortinet, and Tufin
F5 and NetScaler
Forescout, Cisco ISE
Infoblox
Microsoft Active Directory, CyberArk
AWS, Azure
Illumio
Strong interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills, with the ability to work well in a collaborative environment. Strong relationship-building skills conducive to team development. Demonstrated listening and collaboration skills for uncovering technology trends and evolving disruptions. Experience leading and collaborating with global technical teams across many regions. Proven analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to quickly and accurately ascertain risks and form responses.
Ability to engage with technical and non-technical teams across infrastructure and application areas, as well as with management. Ability to explain relevant concepts, issues, and proposals to various levels of the organization in terms appropriate to each audience, and to translate and mediate among them. Strive for consensus and timely decision delivery. Actively participate in the Architecture Review Board.
Written skills to document and propose designs and solutions, both upon request and through personal initiative. Generate position papers on relevant technologies, proposals, and strategies.
Ability to think proactively and solve problems independently.
Salary Range:
$137,400 - 233,600 USD
Salary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.
Work Authorization
Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa).
Working with Us
As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.
Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust’s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.
Reasonable Accommodation
Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at MyHRHelp ntrs.com , or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.
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Benefits
Benefits detected in the listing.
Dental
Vision
401k
Paid Time Off