Cisco SD-WAN Solution Architect

Akkodis is seeking a Cisco SD-WAN Solution Architect with deep expertise in enterprise SD-WAN architecture, design assurance, and large-scale deployment.

The role will focus on independently reviewing SD-WAN architecture and implementation approaches, providing technical guidance, identifying design and scalability risks, and ensuring alignment with industry and implementation best practices. The architect will work closely with customer engineering teams, technology partners, and delivery teams through design, validation, deployment, and production readiness.

The ideal candidate is a Cisco SD-WAN architect with proven experience designing and delivering large-scale Viptela/Catalyst SD-WAN environments, rather than someone focused primarily on NOC or operational support.

The candidate should be capable of independently assessing complex designs, identifying architectural and implementation risks, working with Cisco and customer engineering teams, challenging assumptions where required, and driving the solution toward a scalable, production-ready architecture.

Independently review and validate Cisco SD-WAN architecture and detailed designs against industry and implementation best practices.

Assess topology, hub/mesh architecture, routing, segmentation, resiliency, multicast, and configuration strategies.

Review Feature Profile ? Configuration Group ? Site Persona ? Device Variable models for scalability, consistency, and operational efficiency.

Identify architectural gaps, technical risks, configuration sprawl, and scalability concerns.

Recommend standardization, automation, and orchestration improvements.

Ensure architecture is designed for repeatable deployment across diverse site types and network environments.

Provide deep technical guidance on Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN / Viptela architecture and implementation.

Review and validate configurations, templates, policies, and deployment models.

Evaluate Cisco technical recommendations and provide independent architectural assessment.

Troubleshoot complex SD-WAN design and implementation issues.

Provide guidance on routing, segmentation, IPsec overlays, multicast, QoS, application-aware routing, and resiliency.

Review lab and test results against production design intent.

Support build, integration, testing, and production deployment activities.

Participate in deployment readiness, cutover, rollback, and go-live planning.

Provide architecture support during implementation and resolve complex technical issues.

Capture lessons learned and incorporate improvements into subsequent deployment waves.

Develop repeatable deployment standards and playbooks.

Lead or participate in technical design reviews and architecture governance sessions.

Maintain technical risks, issues, decisions, and action items.

Drive closure of cross-functional technical issues and dependencies.

Identify deviations from approved architecture and recommend remediation.

Communicate complex technical issues and recommendations clearly to senior technical and business stakeholders.

20+ years of experience in enterprise networking, network architecture, or network engineering.

5+ years of strong hands‑on Cisco SD‑WAN / Viptela experience.

Deep expertise in Cisco Catalyst SD‑WAN architecture and deployment.

Strong experience with Cisco Catalyst 8500 and 8300 platforms.

Cisco SD-WAN Manager / vManage

Feature Profiles and Configuration Groups

Device and site templates

Routing and segmentation

BGP, OSPF and static routing

IPsec and overlay architecture

Hub‑and‑spoke and hub‑mesh architectures

High availability and resiliency

QoS and application‑aware routing

MPLS, Internet and hybrid underlay integration

Strong understanding of configuration standardization and scalable deployment models.

Ability to review and troubleshoot SD‑WAN configurations at both architecture and implementation levels.

Experience with large‑scale global SD‑WAN transformation programs.

Experience designing and deploying SD‑WAN across hundreds of sites.

Experience working…