Network Infrastructure Chief Architect

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, who manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Network Infrastructure Chief Architect based in the United States. The Network Infrastructure Chief Architect will serve as a senior technical authority for complex, high-value network infrastructure opportunities across the U.S. You will lead strategic pursuits from initial customer engagement through close and transition into delivery. The role combines deep expertise in networking, solution architecture, commercial strategy, and executive-level customer engagement. You will shape offerings, pricing, reference architectures, and technical standards across routing, switching, wireless, SD-WAN, and related technologies. The position also provides significant influence over vendor relationships, sales enablement, delivery readiness, and practice growth. You will work closely with sales leaders, engineering and delivery teams, technology partners, and customer executives in a highly collaborative environment. This is a high-impact opportunity for an experienced architect who wants to influence both technical direction and profitable business growth. Lead the technical strategy for the largest, most complex, and most strategic network infrastructure pursuits, serving as the executive technical lead from initial customer meetings through contract close. Deliver customer presentations, executive briefings, demonstrations, and technical discussions both virtually and on-site. Provide architecture-level oversight of complex opportunities, validating design quality, integration requirements, feasibility, and delivery readiness before commitments are made. Manage critical, at-risk, and must-win opportunities by resolving technical objections, coordinating stakeholders, and helping drive deals to successful closure. Support commercial discussions involving pricing, discounting, margins, and strategic deal escalations. Ensure technical continuity from presales through project initiation, enabling smooth handoffs to delivery teams and strong customer outcomes. Continuously evolve technology offerings based on market requirements, vendor roadmaps, customer needs, and delivery capabilities. Own solution pricing and packaging across different customer segments, geographies, and verticals, while defining the practice's technical vision and roadmap. Develop and maintain strategic relationships with networking OEMs and technology vendors, including roadmap alignment, partner programs, and escalation channels. Identify and manage subcontractors when additional delivery capabilities are required. Develop presales enablement materials, solution models, demonstrations, reference architectures, and standards for the broader sales organization. Act as a technical escalation point for regional sales teams and provide guidance on complex technical and commercial questions. Manage applicable procurement vehicles and help sales teams understand how and when to leverage them. Incorporate AI into solution scoping, architecture, estimating, and proposal workflows to improve efficiency and reduce sales-cycle time. Track practice performance, delivery capabilities, staffing and skills gaps, tooling needs, and OEM certification requirements. Provide regular performance updates covering business wins, sales performance, adoption, and collaboration with customer-success and delivery teams. Requirements: Bachelor's degree in a relevant field or equivalent professional experience. 10+ years of hands-on experience in networking or a closely related technology discipline. 5+ years of experience in presales engineering, solution architecture, or an equivalent customer-facing technical role. Expert-level knowledge of routing and switching across campus, WAN, and data center environments, with strong command of OSI, Ethernet, and TCP/IP concepts. Strong expertise in Layer 2 switching, Layer 3 routing, VPN technologies, optical transport, and