Junior Solutions Architect

About Reflex

Reflex Solutions, founded in 2000 in South Africa, is a leader in providing seamless Information and Communication Technology (ICT) solutions. With a focus on building and managing the technological backbone that powers businesses, Reflex Solutions offers high-value, end-to-end ICT solutions that are critical for the development and growth of companies. The company boasts vast in-house experience in networking and IP telephony and controls its service levels and pricing by owning its core fibre network and Tier III data centre.

About the role 

The Junior Solutions Architect – Carrier Solutions supports the design, documentation, and implementation of telecommunications and carrier-grade network solutions across core, access, transport, data centre, and managed service environments.

This role works closely with Senior Solution Architects, Engineering, Project Management, Operations, and customer stakeholders to translate business and technical requirements into fit-for-purpose carrier solutions.

The Junior Solutions Architect is responsible for assisting with solution development across technologies such as MPLS, VXLAN, DWDM, XGSPON, CGNAT, BNG, IP Core, Data Centre fabrics, and optical transport.

The role focuses on producing high-quality technical documentation, validating solution designs, supporting migrations, and ensuring alignment to engineering standards and customer requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

Requirements Gathering & Technical Discovery

Participate in customer and internal discovery workshops.

Gather business, commercial, operational, and technical requirements.

Assist in translating customer use cases into technical solution components.

Identify assumptions, constraints, dependencies, and risks early in the design lifecycle.

Support the clarification of functional and non-functional requirements.

Solution Design Support

Assist in producing High-Level Designs (HLDs), Low-Level Designs (LLDs), migration plans, and implementation standards.

Support the design of carrier-grade services including:

MPLS and VXLAN overlays

DWDM and optical backhaul

Broadband aggregation (BNG / CGNAT)

XGSPON / GPON (OLT / ONT)

Data Centre spine-leaf architectures

Managed WAN and SD-WAN solutions

Develop logical, physical, and service topology diagrams.

Ensure solutions align to scalability, resilience, redundancy, and performance standards.

Documentation & Standards

Produce and maintain:

HLDs

LLDs

Scope of Work documents

Acceptance Test Plans (ATP)

Migration Runbooks

Monitoring requirements

Operational handover packs

Ensure documentation complies with architecture and engineering governance standards.

Maintain version control within Git, NetBox, and document repositories.

Implementation & Migration Support

Support project delivery teams during implementation windows and migrations.

Validate configurations against approved design standards.

Assist with pre- and post-implementation testing.

Participate in Go/No-Go technical reviews.

Support rollback strategy validation and implementation readiness reviews.

Assist in customer and operational handover sessions.

Vendor & Technology Validation

Support technical evaluations of vendor solutions including Huawei, Nokia, Juniper, Cisco, and third-party platforms.

Participate in proof-of-concept activities and interoperability testing.

Review software, hardware, and firmware compatibility requirements.

Assist with technical recommendations for lifecycle upgrades and technology refresh initiatives.

Operational Architecture Alignment

Ensure designs are supportable by Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 operational teams.

Assist in defining monitoring thresholds, KPIs, telemetry requirements, and alerting logic.

Work with NOC and Service Management teams to ensure operational readiness.

Incorporate fault handling and resilience requirements into all solution designs.

Required Skills & Qualifications:

Technical Competencies

Foundational understanding of carrier and enterprise networking technologies:

MPLS

VXLAN

EVPN

DWDM

GPON / XGSPON

BNG / CGNAT

Routing and Switching

Data Centre networking

Understanding of resilience concepts:

ECMP

MLAG

Redundancy

failover

load balancing

Exposure to HLD/LLD development and technical diagramming.

Familiarity with monitoring platforms such as IRIS, SNMP telemetry, syslog, and performance dashboards.

Working knowledge of vendor ecosystems such as Huawei, Nokia, Juniper, and Cisco.

Analytical & Problem-Solving

Strong troubleshooting mindset.

Ability to break down complex carrier services into modular design components.

Good understanding of dependencies, risks, and failure domains.

Strong documentation accuracy and attention to detail.

Communication & Stakeholder Management

Strong written and verbal communication skills.

Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to engineers, project managers, and customers.

Comfortable participating in customer technical workshops and design reviews.

Strong collaboration skills across architecture, engineering, operations, and project teams.

Experience & Education

Bachelor’s degree, Diploma, or equivalent in:

Telecommunications

Computer Science

Electronic Engineering

Network Engineering

2–4 years of experience in:

carrier engineering

network design

solution support

technical architecture

telecom project delivery

Exposure to service provider or FNO environments is highly advantageous.

Preferred Certifications

CCNA / CCNP Service Provider

HCIA / HCIP Routing & Switching or Service Provider

JNCIA / JNCIS

Nokia NRS / XGSPON certifications

TOGAF Foundation (desirable)

ITIL Foundation

Key Success Metrics

Accuracy and quality of HLD/LLD documentation

Successful support of project migrations and implementations

Reduction in design defects identified during delivery

Architecture compliance to standards

Customer acceptance of technical solutions

Operational handover quality

Reuse and standardization of design patterns

Contribution to solution innovation and optimization