Network & Infrastructure Tooling​/Automation Specialist​/Architect - freelance - hybrid

Senior technologist with deep expertise in designing, building, and governing network and infrastructure tooling platforms that enable scalable, reliable, and compliant enterprise environments. Proven experience defining automation strategy, control frameworks, and operating models that abstract complex network and infrastructure estates into consumable, repeatable services. Strong background in financial-services environments, with a focus on resilience, auditability, and operational excellence. The ideal candidate is proactive, able to be detailed orientated when required, and comfortable operating in regulated environments.

• Define tooling strategy and reference architectures aligned with platform engineering and Dev Ops principles.
• Design modular, API-driven tooling layers that decouple intent, policy, and execution across network and infrastructure domains.
• Establish standards for tool selection, integration, versioning, and lifecycle management.
• Align tooling strategy with regulatory, risk, and operational resilience requirements.

• Design and build automation using Python, Ansible, and declarative models to enable repeatable, low-risk change.
• Translate high-level design and policy into validated templates, pipelines, and reusable automation components.
• Implement guardrails including pre-change validation, compliance checks, drift detection, and automated rollback.
• Enable self-service infrastructure consumption models while maintaining strong governance and control.

• Design tooling and automation for Cisco ACI fabrics, tenants, policies, and multisite or multi-pod environments.
• Integrate Cisco ACI with IPAM, CMDB, CI/CD pipelines, and security platforms.
• Automate APIC operations, configuration lifecycle management, and consistency validation across environments.
• Use ACI policy models as part of a broader infrastructure abstraction strategy.

• Automate deployment and optimisation of BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, and hybrid WAN designs.
• Build tooling to support large-scale migration activities with minimal operational risk.
• Integrate SD-WAN, MPLS, and cloud connectivity into unified operational and observability platforms.
• Enable traffic engineering, QoS, and policy enforcement through code-driven workflows.

• Develop automation for fault detection, root cause analysis, and remediation.
• Integrate telemetry, logs, and metrics into observability platforms.
• Support SRE-style practices including error budgets, reliability metrics, and continuous feedback loops.
• Improve MTTR and operational consistency through standardised tooling and workflows.

• Embed security, segmentation, and compliance controls into automation pipelines.
• Ensure tooling supports audit trails, approval workflows, and evidence collection.
• Design tooling for highly regulated environments, particularly financial services.
• Collaborate with risk, security, and compliance teams to align tooling with enterprise policy.

• Define roadmaps and investment cases for infrastructure tooling platforms.
• Produce clear documentation covering architecture, automation standards, and operating models.
• Mentor engineers and establish best practices for automation-first networking.
• Communicate effectively with stakeholders across engineering, security, and management.

• Architectural Rigor: Ensures all designs follow structured governance, secure patterns, and best practice frameworks.
• Cross-Team Influence :
  Communicates technical concepts clearly to cybersecurity,…