IT Network Operations Support Engineer x2/Cisco ACI/London

Our client, a globally recognised financial services organisation, is looking for two experienced Network Operations Support Engineers to join their Technology Services team on an initial 6-month contract. This is a fast-paced, 24/7 operational environment supporting enterprise and data centre networks within a highly regulated banking environment.

You'll bring deep L2-L7 troubleshooting skills, hands-on Cisco ACI experience, and strong exposure to Palo Alto and Fortinet Firewall platforms, working closely with engineering, security and business stakeholders to keep critical network services stable, secure and performing.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide operational support for enterprise and data centre networks, ensuring high service availability
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex L2-L7 issues across routing, switching, Firewalls (Palo Alto, Fortinet) and Cisco ACI environments
• Lead incident response, root cause analysis and permanent remediation
• Monitor network health, capacity and performance via operational tooling, telemetry and alerting
• Identify and resolve performance bottlenecks, routing issues and Firewall policy inconsistencies
• Support capacity planning and resilience/optimisation activity across WAN, LAN and data centre fabrics
• Implement network and Firewall changes per defined change control, risk assessment and rollback processes
• Support deployment, maintenance and policy governance of Palo Alto (Pan-OS) and Fortinet (FortiOS) platforms
• Support Cisco ACI fabric deployment, segmentation policies and APIC operations
• Maintain network baselines, configuration standards and SOPs
• Collaborate with architecture, engineering and cybersecurity teams on new designs, migrations and rollouts
• Liaise with telcos, service providers and network vendors on fault resolution, escalations and SLA tracking
• Maintain network diagrams, SOPs, incident reports and runbooks, and ensure compliance with regulatory/audit standards

Essential Skills & Experience

• 8-12+ years supporting large-scale enterprise/data centre networks with increasing operational responsibility
• Strong L2-L7 troubleshooting, including BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, QoS and WAN routing behaviours
• Hands-on Cisco ACI operational experience (tenants, policies, APIC administration, fault analysis)
• Hands-on operational experience with Palo Alto Firewalls (security policies, NAT, App-ID, User-ID, Panorama) and Fortinet FortiGate (policy configuration, VPNs, SD-WAN, FortiManager/FortiAnalyzer)
• Practical automation experience using Python (log parsing, API-driven configuration validation, health checks, workflow automation) and familiarity with Ansible
• Experience with MPLS, SD-WAN, hybrid WAN, ExpressRoute/Direct Connect and Firewall-based connectivity
• Familiarity with security practices: segmentation, Zero Trust, access control, encryption and audit compliance
• Knowledge of cloud networking constructs in AWS/Azure and hybrid environment support
• Experience working in regulated industries (financial services or similar), with strong familiarity with compliance, audit evidence and change governance
• Strong communication, documentation and cross-team stakeholder management skills

Please note: out-of-hours support arrangements are still to be confirmed with the end client and will be shared with shortlisted candidates once finalised.

Contract Length: 6 months initial term (strong likelihood of extension)

Location: City of London - on-site (3 days per week, shift pattern - shifts TBC)
Rate: £500/£600 dependent on exp
IR35 Status: Inside IR35
Start Date: ASAP