Senior Network Specialist (West Midlands)

Job title: Network Technical SME

Will the role be 100% remote, hybrid or 100% office? Hybrid – 3 days/week

If the role is hybrid/ office based specify location: West Midlands, UK

Duration of assignment: 6 months contract InsideIR35

Key responsibilities:

• An individual with network maturity who understands and have good hold on all the network technologies including routing, switching, wireless, DNS, Firewalls, load-balancer, SDWAN, Cloud, etc.
• Who is CCIE certified or CCNP (in both Routing & Switching and in the path to complete CCIE) in network technology with additional certification for other network domains.
• Who quickly learn and has an understanding of end-to-end customer network environment, global architecture, network elements and services available in the network and application to ensure they are able to lead troubleshooting calls and sessions.
• Who understands ITIL framework and a certified ITIL v3/ITIL v4.
• who can effectively drive P1/P2 and other technical calls with respect to networks domain or dependency on network for application/service to function.
• Who is keen on learning new network technologies and focus on their implementation in the customer environment.
• Who has thorough understanding of BAU SLA/KPIs and contractual obligations in respect to Incident management.
• Who own and drive Problem Management corresponding to P1/P2s to ensure all the open actions are timely closed and avoid repeat issues.
• Who can have complete details on Network related vendors to ensure their support is arranged as soon as it is required.
• Who can create a virtual WAR room Database including Architecture, SOP Documents, Contacts etc. which is readily available to rule out the issue.
• Who can make effective use of available networks tools to ensure proactive practice is followed to get best benefits during P1/P2s.
• Who can contribute in creating service Improvement and Innovations to ensure there is reduction in P1/P2 with respect to networks domain.
• Who can work hand in hand with Networks BAU and Projects team to gather any information related to the role/responsibility.
• Who can create and update Diagrams and detailed Architecture for network domain.
• Who can create end to end Traffic flow for the applications.
• Who ensure to mitigate possible risks which are exposed due to P1/P2 or other issues, also a detailed risk mitigation plan needs to be submitted to management for review.
• Who can be SPOC and face to customer and service management team for any P1/P2 or other critical issues.
• With good communication skills and effective interpersonal skills.
• With clear focus on service improvement with positive energy and energetic attitude.
• Who is a complete team player who can work with network and other Technical streams hand in hand.
• Who has customer first mindset and always ready to extend support till the service for customer is up.
• Act as the primary technical authority for network infrastructure.
• Work 5 days from the office, ready to travel across different customer sites and support as and when required.
• Take ownership, join and drive Major incidents to resolution.
• Design, implement, and maintain network infrastructure, including routers, switches, firewalls, and wireless systems for any new requirements and for any fixes needed in the existing environment.
• Excellent Knowledge of network sniffer for capturing logs (Wireshark/ Ethereal/ Solar-wind or any other equivalent) to get to the end details of the network traffic.
• Hands on all the above technologies and not a consultant without any hands-on.
• Having network security knowledge and experience on firewalls, VPNs, and access control policies.
• Monitor network performance proactively and troubleshoot issues to minimize downtime.
• Collaborate with other IT teams
• Oversee network upgrades, migrations, and capacity planning.
• Maintain documentation of network configurations, policies, and procedures.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to junior network engineers.
• Ensure compliance with industry standards and best practices
• Conduct risk assessments and ensure compliance with industry standards.
• Ensuring quality of delivery by following all the processes and new initiatives. Initiate and lead new initiatives to keep improving the quality in all possible ways.
• Initiate new Service Improvement (SIP), drive SIP and lead actions for the overall network delivery.

Key skills/knowledge/experience:

• Minimum 10 to 12 years of Networking Hands on experience
• CCIE certified preferred (R&S or DC), CCNP must with L3 expertise
• Expertise in routing and switching (Cisco, Fortinet).
• Expertise in network security solutions (firewalls, IDS/IPS).
• Knowledge of Load Balancers (F5)
• Knowledge of DNS/DHCP/HPOV NNMi, Catalyst Center Infrastructure
• Troubleshoot complex network issues and ensure high availability.
• Excellent communication skills to lead solutions in troubleshooting calls
• ITIL, Service Industry, Skilled to troubleshoot complex application/architecture issues.