Senior Network Architect

About Ropes & Gray

Ropes & Gray is a preeminent global law firm. The firm has been ranked in the top three on The American Lawyer's prestigious A-List for eight consecutive years and #1 on Law.com's UK A-List twice in the past three years—rankings that honor the "best of the best" law firms.

The firm has approximately 2,500 lawyers and professionals serving clients in major centers of business, finance, technology, and government in Boston, Chicago, Dublin, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles, Milan, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Silicon Valley, Singapore, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.

The firm has consistently been recognized for its leading practices in many areas, including asset management, private equity, M&A, finance, real estate, tax, antitrust, life sciences, health care, intellectual property, litigation & enforcement, privacy & cybersecurity, and business restructuring.

Ropes & Gray is an equal opportunity employer.

Overview

This position in the IT Department is responsible for the strategic design and architecture of the firm's data, wireless, video, and VOIP networks.  Responsibilities include ensuring the stability, integrity and performance of these network services. This is achieved by planning, designing, and developing local area networks (LANs), metropolitan area networks (MANs), wide area networks (WANs), wireless networks and security infrastructure across the organization. This individual will assist in the analysis and resolution of network, VOIP, and video hardware and software problems in a timely and accurate fashion.  In addition, the Senior Network Architect will provide technical leadership across the organization, from strategic decision making down to the project planning level.

Responsibilities

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Oversee the strategic design and architecture of the firm's data network environment.
• Oversee design, deployment, and maintenance of various network systems and components including: routers, switches, internet services, wide area network services, wireless networks, VPNs, firewalls, video networks and related infrastructure, VoIP network and related infrastructure, Security, and performance management and monitoring systems.
• Participate in physical build planning and design for new spaces.  Scope, recommend, design, plan, oversee and test inter-rack and station cabling for office, MDF, IDF and datacenter builds and refreshes.
• Configure networks to ensure their smooth and reliable operation for fulfilling business objectives and processes.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend purchase, development, or enhancement of network hardware and software.
• Establish performance standards, processes, policies, and procedures.
• Provide senior level technical support for network elements and systems.
• Design and provide for the monitoring of network performance and troubleshoot problem areas as needed.
• Collaborate with executive management and department leaders to assess near- and long-term network capacity needs.
• Create and maintain documentation as it relates to network architecture and network configuration.
• Assures knowledge transfer for new systems.
• Coordinate with other members of the firm for business continuance program.

OTHER RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Performs other work-related duties as assigned.

Qualifications

EDUCATION, EXPERIENCE AND SKILLS REQUIRED:     

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent experience
• 10+ years experience in network field
• Proven experience and success with planning, installing and managing networks including LAN, MAN, WAN, Optical Networking, DWDM, Wi-Fi, Silverpeak SDWAN or Riverbed WAN Optimizers, F5 Load Balancers, F5 GTM Global Traffic Manager, Cisco Catalyst Center, and security (firewalls, VPN, DMZ, IDS/IPS, WebProxy, content filter, FireEye, NAC and Cisco TrustSec) infrastructure.
• Proven experience with network capacity planning, network security principles, and general network management best practices.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of LAN/WAN protocols and technologies including  Carrier Ethernet, T1, DS3, optical, DWDM, NTP, Spanning Tree, VLAN’s, 802.1q, VFR, LFA, SMTP, SNMP v1-v3, OSPF, BGP, MPLS, VPLS, Ethernet, TCP/IP, SSL, SSH, SIP, H.323, QoS, Multicast, Anycast, 802.1x, Radius, NAC,  DHCP, DNS, F5 Wide-IP, VRRP, HSRP, GLBP, PBR, VPC, LACP, SGT, SGACL, SXP, VxLAN, OTP, LISP, SPAN, WCCP, PfR, IPSLA, iWAN, VPN, IPSec, Wi-Fi 6, 6E, 7.
• Strong working knowledge of Cisco routers and switches (Nexus 9K, 7K, 5K, 2K, 1K;  C9410, C9300, 3850, 4500, ISR-4451, 8300, FPR-1010, and Microsoft certificate servers.
• Experience with Infoblox/BloxONE DNS and DHCP, Ciena DWDM, 10 Gig optics, DNS Traffic Control, F5 iRules, Cisco ACI, SDN, network segmentation, Checkpoint firewall rule creation and administration, Cisco ISE, Cisco CLI, ACL management, SNMP MIB’s, Cisco or Aruba wireless controllers and AP’s, SDWAN and SSL certificate creation and management. 
• Network monitoring systems: Gigamon, APCON, Tufin, Netscout sniffers and UC Performance Management tools; Infoblox NetMRI, Cacti, MRTG, Solarwinds, SmokePing, NetFlow, Splunk and syslog.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of  DNS record management: A, CNAME, TXT, SRV, NS, PTR, SPF, DMARC, and DKIM.  
• Data Center, server room and IDF design; station cabling layout design and implementation; UPS management and monitoring.
• Preferred certifications, not required: CCNA/CCNP, CCDA, CCSP
• Strong verbal and interpersonal skills
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills
• Strong customer service skills
• Strong team skills
• Strong leadership skills
• Strong project management skills
• Experience working in a multi-office environment

ESSENTIAL CAPABILITIES:

• Must demonstrate the ability to maintain strict confidentiality of the firm's internal and personnel affairs.
• Ability to influence at all levels of the organization.
• Must be a self-starter who understands the details within a much larger content.
• Ability to work effectively in a culturally and educationally diverse environment.
• Ability to work in a teamwork/collaborative style and environment.
• Must be creative and flexible in order to respond quickly and positively to shifting demands and opportunities; ability to work under tight deadlines and handle multiple, detailed tasks.
• Must be a team-oriented person who can share information, goals, opportunities, successes and failures with the appropriate parties.
• Ability to organize, plan and carry out multiple related activities.
• Must pay attention to details and have the ability to follow up and follow through.
• Ability to work effectively in a multi-office environment.

Compensation and Total Rewards Package

Ropes & Gray is proud to offer a comprehensive Total Rewards package to our business support team members. The firm also offers comprehensive health and well-being benefits, personal and professional development, career growth opportunities and a collegial and supportive culture. The anticipated pay range for this role is listed below and represents our good faith and reasonable estimate of the starting salary range at the time of posting. In addition, this role is eligible for a discretionary bonus based on performance. The actual offered rate for this position will be determined based on job-related, non-discriminatory factors, including qualifications and experience, geographic location, education, external market data and consideration of internal equity.

• Boston: $150,100 - $240,150

Working Conditions

This position requires hybrid on-site presence as an essential function of the role. Consistent and predictable on-site presence is required for ongoing business continuity, professional development and effective collaboration with colleagues and management.

Normal office environment.  Incumbent is expected to work the hours necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of the position.

The above is intended to describe the general content of and requirements for the performance of this job.  It is not to be construed as an exhaustive statement of essential functions, responsibilities, or requirements. Travel to firm sites and vendor conferences.