Network and Firewall Architecture Lead

About the role

The Network & Firewall Architecture Lead is a senior role within the GETS team responsible for the global architecture standards, governance, and strategic direction of Yum’s network and firewall environment.

Responsibilities

• Own global network and firewall architecture standards, governance processes, reference architectures, and design patterns.
• Define and maintain architectural guardrails for network connectivity, firewall policy design, segmentation, perimeter controls, cloud connectivity, remote access, and related network security capabilities.
• Establish architecture review practices that ensure designs are aligned to enterprise standards, cybersecurity expectations, operational requirements, and business objectives.
• Ensure architecture decisions are documented, traceable, risk-informed, and reusable across regions and major programs.
• Ensure architectural consistency across the global environment by identifying divergence from approved standards and driving corrective actions.
• Prevent technical drift by maintaining clear design principles, standard patterns, technology lifecycle expectations, and exception management processes.
• Partner with operations, engineering, regional teams, and vendors to ensure implemented solutions remain aligned to approved architecture.
• Create visibility into architecture exceptions, legacy patterns, unsupported technologies, configuration inconsistencies, and design risks.
• Provide architectural leadership and technical guidance for major network, firewall, infrastructure, security, cloud, and transformation initiatives.
• Shape solution designs for complex programs by evaluating options, tradeoffs, dependencies, risk, scalability, resiliency, and operational readiness.
• Influence program direction by translating enterprise strategy into architecture requirements, design principles, and implementation guardrails.
• Represent network and firewall architecture in strategic planning, design reviews, risk forums, vendor discussions, and executive-level technical decision-making.
• Reduce technical debt through architecture modernization, lifecycle planning, rationalization, and strategic roadmap execution.
• Develop and maintain a network and firewall architecture roadmap that improves resiliency, scalability, security posture, operational efficiency, and cost effectiveness.
• Identify legacy platforms, fragmented designs, unsupported capabilities, and high-risk patterns that require remediation or modernization.
• Prioritize modernization initiatives based on business impact, cybersecurity risk, operational complexity, dependency management, and enterprise value.
• Serve as the final technical authority for high-risk network and firewall changes, significant architecture decisions, and critical design exceptions.
• Review and approve complex designs, high-risk changes, major firewall rule architecture changes, segmentation changes, and material network transformations.
• Provide clear technical direction when designs involve competing priorities, ambiguous requirements, unresolved risks, or cross-functional impact.
• Ensure high-risk changes include appropriate architecture validation, operational readiness, rollback planning, risk review, and post-implementation learning.
• Act as a trusted advisor to GETS, Cybersecurity, Infrastructure, regional technology teams, and leadership on network and firewall architecture matters.
• Mentor architects, engineers, and operational teams on architecture standards, design quality, risk-based decision-making, and modernization priorities.
• Consult with strategic vendors and service providers to evaluate architecture options, roadmaps, capabilities, and alignment to Yum standards.
• Communicate complex technical matters in a clear, business-oriented way to senior leaders, program teams, and technical stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Expert-level knowledge of enterprise network and firewall architecture in complex, multi-region environments.
• Deep understanding of routing, switching, firewalls, network segmentation, VPN, SD-WAN, wireless, DNS, load balancing, remote access, cloud networking, and network security control patterns.
• Strong ability to define architecture standards, reference designs, guardrails, governance processes, and technical exception models.
• Experience leading architecture for major network, firewall, infrastructure, cloud, security, or transformation initiatives.
• Experience assessing technical debt, prioritizing modernization work, and developing strategic roadmaps that improve resiliency, scalability, security, and operational efficiency.
• Strong risk-based decision-making skills, including the ability to evaluate design tradeoffs across security, performance, availability, cost, user experience, and operational complexity.
• Experience reviewing and approving high-risk technical changes, significant design decisions, and complex architecture exceptions.
• Ability to influence senior leaders, technical teams, vendors, and regional stakeholders without relying solely on direct authority.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex architecture decisions to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience with architecture governance, change governance, audit remediation, vulnerability remediation, compliance requirements, and control validation as they relate to network and firewall environments.