Infrastructure & Network Security Architect

At Gowling WLG, our commitment to excellence begins with our people. As an international law firm with offices in Canada, the U.K., Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, we’re proud to recruit and retain top talent who bring energy, insight, and a singular focus on delivering exceptional experiences – for our clients and each other.

We’re intentional about building a workplace that’s both high-performing and supportive, ensuring that everyone is empowered to do their best work and reach their full potential. Our culture is grounded in our shared values: Raise the Bar, Embrace Differences, and Thrive Together. These values shape how we collaborate, lead, and succeed – across teams, time zones, and career paths.

Whether you’re pursuing a role in law or business services, explore what’s possible and make your mark with Gowling WLG.

PROFILE

We are seeking a strategic Infrastructure & Network Security Architect to lead the security architecture for our enterprise infrastructure, networking, and cloud platforms. This role defines the security standards that protect the organization's connectivity, hosting platforms, and internet-facing services, and works in close partnership with the Microsoft Security Architect to deliver one cohesive enterprise security architecture. You will operate at the intersection of infrastructure engineering, cloud platform teams, and security operations — translating business and risk requirements into concrete architectural standards, reference designs, and roadmaps that scale with the organization.

This is an experienced individual-contributor architecture role with significant technical influence. You will be expected to lead by expertise and relationships rather than direct authority, guiding infrastructure and cloud engineering teams toward secure-by-design outcomes while balancing operational realities, cost, and business enablement.

While the role is primarily focused on architecture and design, the successful candidate will also be expected to guide implementation by translating architectural intent into practical patterns, decisions, and delivery advice. They should be comfortable working alongside engineering and security teams through implementation to help resolve design questions, manage trade-offs, and ensure solutions are delivered in line with the approved architecture.

Works closely with Cybersecurity and SecOps teams. Translates Cybersecurity team’s policies, standards, guidelines and risk requirements into technical architecture and provides SecOps team with implementation guidance.

This position can be based in any of our Canadian offices.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Network & Perimeter Security Architecture using Cisco Technologies

• Develop enterprise network and infrastructure security standards, reference architectures, and multi-year roadmaps.
• Own the architecture for secure connectivity, the internet edge, remote access, and perimeter defense, including SD-WAN, SASE, and ZTNA strategies.
• Design and govern firewalls, IDS/IPS, and WAF architectures across on-premises and cloud environments.
• Define segmentation, micro-segmentation, and Zero Trust network access patterns across the enterprise.
• Own Azure networking and cloud platform security architecture, including Azure Firewall, Front Door, Application Gateway, Private Link, and DDoS Protection.
• Lead security architecture for containers, virtualization, and hybrid infrastructure, including Infrastructure as Code security patterns.
• Establish secure landing zone and network topology standards for new cloud workloads and hosting platforms.
• Guide Active Directory and PKI architecture decisions that intersect with infrastructure and network security.
• Provide governance for enterprise security technologies (CrowdStrike, Proofpoint, Tenable, Carbon Black) and secure hosting platforms.
• Partner with Security Operations on vulnerability management, SIEM integration, incident response readiness, and infrastructure resilience.
• Review and approve architecture designs from infrastructure and cloud engineering teams to ensure alignment with security standards.
• Maintain a current risk register for infrastructure and network security, with clear remediation and mitigation plans.
• Provide technical leadership and architectural direction across infrastructure and cloud engineering teams.
• Influence enterprise architecture decisions, infrastructure security standards, and technology roadmaps.
• Defines security architecture standards for managed services, cloud providers, hosting providers, and third-party connectivity solutions.
• Mentor engineers and architects on secure infrastructure design, Zero Trust principles, and cloud-native security practices.
• Present strategic security recommendations, risk assessments, and roa