Cisco Secure Network Analytics Consultant
Cambridge (Hybrid) | £400-£440 per day | Inside IR35 | 12-Month Contract
We are seeking an experienced Cisco Secure Network Analytics (SNA) Consultant to support a major network visibility and security analytics improvement programme for a leading global technology organisation.
This is an exciting opportunity for a specialist with strong Cisco SNA, NetFlow and network security analytics experience to lead the redesign, implementation and optimisation of a global monitoring environment.
You will play a key role in improving network traffic visibility, strengthening security analytics and developing a scalable, resilient architecture across a complex global network.
The Role
You will take ownership of assessing and enhancing the existing Cisco Secure Network Analytics environment, delivering a replacement platform and developing a strategy to expand NetFlow and syslog coverage across the global network.
A particular focus will be improving east-west traffic visibility across campus, data centre and cloud environments.
Key Responsibilities
- Cisco SNA Architecture & Implementation
- Assess the existing Cisco SNA architecture, configurations, integrations and telemetry collection.
- Design and deploy a replacement Cisco SNA infrastructure using procured hardware and software.
- Configure and optimise Flow Managers, Flow Collectors and UDP Directors.
- Migrate existing configurations and data sources, ensuring platform functionality and resilience.
- Evaluate load-balancing and high-availability solutions, including HAProxy and alternative technologies.
Network Visibility & Telemetry
- Review existing global NetFlow and syslog coverage, identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement.
- Develop strategies to improve network traffic visibility, particularly east-west traffic flows.
- Design scalable collection, forwarding and distribution architectures.
- Assess telemetry coverage across campus, data centre and hybrid cloud environments.
- Identify opportunities to automate NetFlow and syslog deployment.
Security Analytics & Optimisation
- Tune Cisco SNA security policies, behavioural analytics, alarms and detection thresholds.
- Establish traffic baselines, host groups and network classifications.
- Reduce false positives and alert fatigue while improving threat detection.
- Optimise telemetry ingestion, data retention and overall platform performance.
- Collaborate with Network Reliability Engineering and Security teams to develop meaningful monitoring use cases.
Documentation & Knowledge Transfer
- Produce architecture diagrams, technical documentation and operational procedures.
- Deliver knowledge transfer and operational handover to internal engineering teams.
Essential Skills & Experience
- Proven experience designing, deploying and optimising Cisco Secure Network Analytics (SNA) environments.
- Strong technical knowledge of NetFlow, syslog, Flow Managers, Flow Collectors and UDP Directors.
- Experience with network traffic analytics, security monitoring and behavioural detection.
- Strong Cisco enterprise networking and network security expertise.
- Experience improving telemetry collection, network visibility and monitoring architectures.
- Ability to design scalable, resilient and highly available network analytics platforms.
Desirable Experience
- Network automation using Python, Ansible, Terraform or REST APIs.
- Automation of NetFlow and syslog configuration and deployment.
- Experience with Git and CI/CD workflows.
- HAProxy, load balancing and high-availability architectures.
- UDP traffic distribution and Flow Collector scalability.
- Hybrid cloud networking and east-west traffic monitoring.
Project Deliverables
You will be expected to deliver:
A comprehensive assessment of the existing Cisco SNA environment.
A redesigned and fully operational Cisco SNA platform.
Optimised security analytics, monitoring policies and alerting.
Improved global NetFlow and syslog coverage.
A strategy and roadmap for enhanced east-west traffic visibility.
Recommendations for Flow Collector load balancing and high availability.
Complete technical documentation and knowledge transfer.
Contract Details
- Location: Cambridge - Hybrid working
- Rate: £400-£440 per day
- IR35 Status: Inside IR35
- Contract Length: 12 months
Interested? If you have hands-on Cisco Secure Network Analytics experience and a strong background in network visibility and security analytics, we'd be keen to hear from you.