Technical Design Authority Job at Synergy Business Consulting, Inc. in Houston

, supporting a large-scale digital transformation and divestiture program for a high-profile client. This is an exciting opportunity for a technical generalist with expertise in datacentre operations, cloud architectures, Cisco networking, and enterprise architecture frameworks (such as TOGAF) to drive the technical vision and ensure alignment with strategic business objectives.

As the Technical Design Authority, you will play a critical role in designing, validating, and governing the technical solutions needed to transition the client from their current corporate environment to a newly established independent business. This will involve collaboration with technical teams, stakeholders, and leadership to ensure the new environment is robust, scalable, secure, and aligned with best practices.

A broad technical understanding is required, with the expectation that you will be an experienced generalist, over a specific technology subject matter expert. Experience in Cisco LAN/WAN, Digital Network Architecture (DNA) Security (Identity Service Engine - ISE), Firewalling (Palo Alto - Panorama, Cisco), LAN/WAN (Cisco, Juniper), HP Aruba Wireless / Central, as well as datacentre technologies is essential, with a commitment to staying updated on advancements to enhance client engagement.

As a self-starter with a positive attitude, you will engage in technical discussions, make sound decisions, and guide the delivery of appropriate solutions. You’ll balance technical and business needs, offering tactical or strategic direction to achieve optimal outcomes.

Key Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership:

• Act as the primary authority for technical decisions across the transformation program.
• Provide end-to-end ownership of the technical design and architecture to support divestiture and business independence.

Design & Governance:

• Define and maintain the target architecture for the new organisation, focusing on datacentre migration, cloud adoption, and network transformation.
• Ensure alignment of solutions with TOGAF principles and frameworks.
• Review and approve technical designs to ensure they meet business, security, and operational requirements.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement:

• Collaborate with business leaders, technical teams, and external vendors to ensure a unified approach.
• Provide technical input during strategic planning sessions to influence direction and scope.

Transformation Oversight:

• Guide teams through the migration of workloads from legacy datacentres to next generation environments.
• Oversee the re-architecting of Cisco-based networks to support an efficient migration.
• Ensure that all technical aspects of the divestiture comply with industry standards and organisational goals, such as NIST.

Risk Management:

• Identify potential risks in the proposed technical solutions and recommend mitigation strategies.
• Maintain compliance with regulatory and security standards throughout the program lifecycle.

Required Skills and Experience:

Technical Expertise:

• Proven experience in datacentre technologies, including migrations, optimisations, and decommissioning.
• In-depth knowledge of datacentre/cloud platforms (e.g., VMware, Azure), including hybrid cloud architectures that include edge workload deployments.
• Strong understanding of Cisco networking, including routing, switching, firewalls, and SD-WAN.
• Cisco Unified Communications & Voice experience is desirable.

Enterprise Architecture:

• Experience in designing solutions aligned with TOGAF or similar frameworks.
• Ability to develop high-level technical designs that support business objectives.

Generalist Skills:

• Broad technical knowledge spanning infrastructure, network, application migration, integration, and data.
• Ability to work across multiple technical domains and coordinate with specialized teams.

Communication & Leadership:

• Strong ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders.
• Leadership skills to drive consensus and influence decision-making across diverse teams.
• Lead workshops with key stakeholders and multi-vendor technologies

Project & Program Involvement:

• Demonstrated success in large-scale transformation or divestiture programs.
• Experience working in multi-vendor environments and managing competing priorities.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Certification in TOGAF or equivalent enterprise architecture framework.
• Professional certifications in cloud platforms (VMware, Azure) and Cisco technologies (e.g., CCNA & CCNP).
• Experience with ITIL practices and service management.
• Awareness of Prince 2 Project Management practices.