Senior Network Architect

Position Description

The Senior Network Architect is Fervo's technical authority for network strategy and architecture across corporate IT, hybrid cloud, and operating sites. This role owns the long-term direction, standards, governance, and lifecycle strategy for the network domain, with accountability for ensuring that Fervo's enterprise and operational environments remain secure, resilient, scalable, and supportable as the company grows.

This is a senior individual contributor role that combines enterprise-level strategy with selective hands-on technical leadership. The Senior Network Architect will set direction, make and govern high-impact architectural decisions, and advise technical and executive stakeholders.

Requirements

• Network Architecture & Technical Direction

• Own the enterprise-wide network strategy and target-state architecture across corporate, cloud, WAN and SD-WAN, wireless, and operating-site environments, balancing reliability, security, maintainability, scalability, and cost
• Establish architectural standards, governance, and lifecycle strategy for the Fortinet Security Fabric, including high availability, capacity, firmware, licensing, technical debt, and multiyear platform roadmaps
• Securely integrate patterns and decision frameworks between Fortinet-based IT networks and Cisco-based OT environments, including routing, segmentation, access control, resilient interconnects, and clear ownership boundaries
• Serve as the final technical authority for significant network design decisions, clearly communicating recommendations, tradeoffs, investment needs, and risk to engineers, business leaders, and executives
• Own the network capability roadmap and maturity model, translating business outcomes into sequenced architecture decisions, investments, dependencies, and measurable delivery standards
• Establish strategic platform decisions across SASE, SD-WAN, ZTNA, and centralized management, including evaluation of Cato and Fortinet options and the migration paths, risks, and commercial tradeoffs associated with each

• Delivery, Reliability & Operations

• Provide hands-on technical leadership during critical deployments, commissioning, major upgrades, architecture transitions, and complex troubleshooting across Fortinet and Cisco infrastructure
• Set the architecture and delivery model for new site builds, plant commissioning, expansions, acquisitions, and major infrastructure refreshes
• Own the network architecture for Cape Station expansion and future geothermal sites, including ORCs, well pads, PDCs, administrative facilities, grid-sync, commissioning, and scalable IT/OT boundary design
• Direct the modernization of regional offices onto Fervo's standard network architecture, coordinating near-term connectivity, Fortinet hardware refreshes, centralized policy, and repeatable site-cutover patterns
• Define the network observability, performance, capacity, and operational-readiness strategy using FortiAnalyzer and related platforms
• Shape vendor and managed-service strategy, evaluate platform investments, and hold Fortinet, Cisco, and service partners accountable for technical quality, risk reduction, and outcomes
• Define the architecture, access model, runbooks, escalation paths, and control requirements for a managed 24/7 network operations capability, ensuring third-party support strengthens coverage without weakening security or change governance

• Security, Governance & Team

• Establish and govern firewall policy, network access control, segmentation, secure remote access, and logging architecture in partnership with cybersecurity
• Maintain secure IT/OT and BES boundaries, including no-direct-ingress and DMZ store-and-forward patterns, and ensure new network segments, remote access, and vendor connectivity are evaluated for NERC CIP and SOX ITGC impact
• Guide material network initiatives through Fervo's Technology Assurance Process, ensuring architecture, risk, stakeholders, delivery readiness, and lifecycle ownership are addressed before implementation
• Provide senior technical leadership for incident response, enterprise risk assessments, audits, and remediation, translating network risk into clear business decisions and priorities
• Chair architecture and design reviews for material network changes; mentor engineers, architects, and contractors; and raise the organization's ability to make sound, scalable technical decisions
• Establish governance that keeps runbooks, standards, lifecycle records, and operational ownership current, reducing technical debt and dependence on individual knowledge

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, information systems, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience
• 10+ years of progressive experience in network engineering and architecture, including ownership of enterprise network strategy, standards, roadmaps, and complex design decisions across distributed environments
• Deep expertise across the Fortinet Security Fabric, particularly FortiGate, FortiSwitch, FortiAP, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer, FortiNAC, and Fortinet Secure SD-WAN, with experience setting standards across a complex enterprise environment
• Advanced Cisco routing and switching knowledge and demonstrated success designing secure integration between enterprise IT and OT or industrial environments
• Advanced knowledge of BGP, OSPF, VLANs and VRFs, IPsec and SSL VPN, QoS, high availability, and network segmentation
• Experience owning hybrid cloud network architecture in Azure or AWS, including connectivity, segmentation, resiliency, security, and operating models
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise SASE or SD-WAN platform strategy, regional network modernization, centralized configuration and observability, and managed network-service transitions
• Experience architecting networks for industrial sites, major construction or expansion programs, and commissioning activities involving complex IT/OT dependencies
• Experience establishing network automation and CI/CD strategy using scripting, APIs, and infrastructure-as-code tools such as Python, Ansible, or Terraform
• Demonstrated technical judgment and troubleshooting leadership in complex, uptime-critical environments where safety, operational continuity, and risk must be balanced
• Advanced Fortinet certification such as FCSS in Secure Networking or Network Security; FCX preferred
• Advanced Cisco certification such as CCNP or CCIE
• Experience supporting industrial control systems, operational technology networks, or site commissioning, particularly in regulated infrastructure, plus familiarity with NIST, ISO 27001, IEC 62443, or NERC CIP

Location

Fervo Energy has offices in Houston, TX, Golden, CO, Reno, NV, Oakland, CA, and Salt Lake City, UT. This position will be eligible for some hybrid work flexibility, but regular in-office presence at our Houston office will be required.