Technical Lead Architect  ·  Glasgow, Scotland

StevenJohnston

Network and security design for enterprise and public sector organisations.

Working across energy, utilities, education and the public sector.

What I cover

I'm a technical lead from a network and security background. I design and deliver infrastructure for private and public sector clients, and lead a team of consultants.

I try to keep designs simple and easy for the client to support once the project is done, and to automate the repetitive parts.

Networking

  • BGP
  • OSPF
  • EIGRP
  • SD-WAN
  • Campus LAN/WAN
  • Traffic engineering
  • Live cutovers

Security

  • Palo Alto
  • Cisco FTD
  • Fortinet
  • Zero trust
  • SASE
  • Segmentation
  • Rule-base rationalisation

Identity & access

  • Cisco ISE
  • TACACS+
  • RADIUS
  • Entra ID / SAML
  • Duo MFA
  • PKI & certificates
  • 802.1X

Cloud & hybrid

  • Azure networking
  • Virtual WAN
  • ExpressRoute
  • Transit hubs
  • NVA firewalls
  • Terraform
  • Bicep

Datacentre

  • Nexus & vPC
  • StackWise Virtual
  • Nutanix
  • PowerScale
  • Cohesity
  • Cisco UCS
  • Colocation builds

OT & industrial

  • IT/OT separation
  • Zero trust segmentation
  • Data-exchange gateways
  • IoT & CCTV zoning
  • Offshore-supporting estates

Collaboration

  • Cisco CUCM
  • Webex Calling
  • Teams Direct Routing
  • CUBE
  • SIP & SRTP
  • Dial plan design

Automation & AI

  • Agentic workflows
  • LLM APIs
  • MCP
  • Python
  • Infrastructure as code
  • Human-in-the-loop design

Leadership

  • Team of 7
  • Design authority
  • Technical standards
  • Mentoring
  • Programme delivery
  • Stakeholder communication

Career

  • 2024 — present

    Technical Lead

    Sword Group (formerly Ping Network Solutions)

    • Zero trust network and security architecture in Azure for a critical national infrastructure client
    • Design authority for an oil and gas merger: a parallel dual-datacentre network onboarding 18 offshore platforms and 3 onshore facilities with zero operational downtime, under a 10-minute well-shutdown limit
    • Cloud-hosted identity platform for device administration across a national gas network
    • Design authority and technical standards across concurrent programmes; manage and mentor 7 consultants

  • 2019 — 2024

    Consultant Engineer

    Ping Network Solutions

    • Core, perimeter and identity refreshes; cross-vendor firewall migrations; SD-WAN migrations
    • Cloud calling and Microsoft Teams migrations with on-premises coexistence
    • Secure multi-tenant monitoring and privileged access platform for a critical national infrastructure operator
    • 650-site Cisco Meraki refresh, deployed by an automation platform I built: 60 networks in 10 minutes against an hour each by hand
    • Dual-region Azure monitoring, management and telephony platform for a critical national infrastructure customer, deployed as infrastructure as code
    • Authored the low-level design and migration runbook on every engagement

  • 2015 — 2019

    Principal Engineer

    Virgin Media Business

    • Technical leadership for large public sector accounts
    • Network and datacentre redesign for a national justice sector organisation
    • Secure video conferencing for a custodial environment, connecting inmates, solicitors, police and courts

  • 2003 — 2015

    Network Engineer, then Senior Network Engineer

    Jabil

    • Led a European-wide LAN, WAN and telephony refresh across 112 manufacturing sites
    • Delivered two $3M datacentre builds, in London and Budapest
    • Technical lead for the network integration of an acquired competitor facility in the Netherlands

Tools I have built

Security

Gladius
Checks network devices against security benchmarks and writes up the results.
Vigil
Managed services platform where AI agents help with network, security and ticketing work.

Networking

Parity
Builds a copy of a live network and suggests fixes for an engineer to approve.
Archie
Turns a customer brief into a draft network design and lab topology.
Crucible
Generates switch configs for LAN refreshes and checks them for security.

Engineer tooling

ShellMate
SSH and serial terminal with an AI assistant that suggests commands for you to approve.
CloudForge
Designs and deploys Azure infrastructure from a chat.
Webex Migrate
Moves phone systems from Cisco CUCM to Webex Calling, with a dry run first.

See all of them at tools.clydeford.net

Credentials

SC Cleared UK Government, current CCNP Enterprise through 2027 CCNP Collaboration through 2027 CCNA + 8 Cisco specialisms

Contact

Email me LinkedIn Download CV