Solution Architect - Networking & Security

Employment: Full-time Solution Architect – Networking & Security Shoreham-by-Sea Flexible hybrid Up to £80,000 (Internal Job Level Reference: Senior Specialist) Focus Group is a £300m-revenue, 1,400-person technology services company backed by Hg Capital. Following our $1bn valuation in 2024, we're scaling rapidly and investing in AI to transform how we operate and how we serve our 30,000 SME customers. As we continue to expand our portfolio through acquisition and organic growth, we're committed to setting new industry standards in managed service excellence. About the role Our Networking and Security team is looking for a Solution Architect to own the technical design of complex customer projects across our SD-WAN (Software-Defined Wide Area Network), SASE (Secure Access Service Edge), firewall and routing/switching portfolio – and to stay hands-on all the way through delivery. This isn't a role where you hand off a design and move on. You'll translate customer requirements into High-Level and Low-Level Designs, act as design authority on your own projects, and then work alongside our delivery engineers to build, migrate and commission the solutions you've designed – both remotely and on customer sites. It's a genuine blend of architecture and hands-on delivery, with UK site travel and some planned out-of-hours work for change windows. What you'll be doing Owning the end-to-end technical design of multi-site networking and security projects, from pre-sales and solution design right through to customer hand-over Staying hands-on through delivery: personally carrying out configuration, build, migration and commissioning of Cisco, Fortinet and adjacent platforms alongside the delivery team Travelling to customer sites across the UK to lead design workshops, attend kick-offs, run surveys, and complete installation, cabling and commissioning work where needed Producing High-Level and Low-Level Designs, build documents, configuration templates, runbooks and as-built hand-over packs to a customer-facing standard Turning customer requirements and commercial outcomes into deliverable architectures, refining designs as real-world project realities emerge Reviewing engineer-produced configurations, change records and build documents to own the technical quality of everything that reaches the customer Leading and mentoring delivery engineers on projects, supporting their certification paths and development Acting as the senior technical escalation point during build, migration and cut-over phases Explaining design decisions, progress, risks and trade-offs to customers in clear, plain language – no unnecessary jargon Leading pre-sales solution design, using your Cisco and Fortinet expertise to shape and pressure-test proposed approaches Helping set and improve the design and build standards the wider team works to What you'll bring CCNP (Cisco Certified Network Professional) as a minimum Hands-on experience designing, configuring and deploying Fortinet platforms (FortiGate, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer and the wider Security Fabric) in production environments – NSE 4 or higher preferred Practical experience delivering SSE or SASE technology (for example Cisco Secure Access, Cisco Plus Secure Connect, FortiSASE, Zscaler, Netskope or Cato) Strong design and delivery experience on at least one major SD-WAN platform (Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN/Viptela, Meraki SD-WAN, Fortinet Secure SD-WAN or comparable) Solid working knowledge across networking fundamentals: routing and switching, VLANs, BGP, OSPF, IPsec, QoS, DNS, DHCP and wireless A track record of delivering multi-site network and security projects end to end, from design through to hand-over Hands-on, on-site implementation experience, including UK travel and physical installation work Confident written and verbal communication – able to explain technical decisions and trade-offs to customers and non-technical stakeholders alike A calm, methodical approach under pressure, particularly during cut-overs and migrations A full UK driving licence, as the role involves regular travel to customer sites Nice to have Fortinet NSE 6 or NSE 7 Wider Cisco specialisations (Meraki, Umbrella, Duo, ISE or ThousandEyes) Experience with HP/Aruba or SonicWall Public cloud networking experience (Azure and/or AWS) Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) design experience Experience defining technical standards or reference architectures for a delivery team Ambition to grow into a Lead or Principal Solution Architect role over time Why Focus Group You'll be joining a business that provides essential technology and support so our customers can focus on growing theirs – and we take the same approach with our people. This is a role with real ownership: you design it, you help build it, and you see it through to a customer standing on a solution that works. You'll work alongside experienced engineers and architects, with support for further certifications and a clear path to progress your career. We offer a competitive salary of up to £80,000, depending on experience, along with flexible hybrid working based out of our Shoreham-by-Sea office. If you're a networking and security specialist who wants to stay close to the tools as well as the whiteboard, we'd love to hear from you.