Network Team Lead

Ilkari; Málaga; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Ilkari in Málaga is seeking a Network Team Lead to design, build and operate its network estate across data centre, cloud, and customer environments. You will lead a multisite team, drive NRE adoption, and embed automation, observability, and resilience into operations.

The role combines hands-on engineering with people leadership, overseeing recruitment, onboarding, and development, while collaborating with Architecture, Security, Platform, and Support to deliver secure, scalable network

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Network Engineering, Telecommunications, Information Technology, or related field.
• CCNP Enterprise required; CCIE or cloud networking certifications would be advantageous.
• 7+ years of enterprise networking experience with leadership responsibilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a multisite Network Engineering team with clear priorities and accountable delivery.
• Design, implement, operate, and improve enterprise, cloud, and datacentre network services for high availability and security.
• Drive Network Reliability Engineering (NRE) adoption through automation, testing, observability, and IaC practices.
• Promote infrastructure-as-code and network automation using Ansible, Python, and GitOps principles to reduce manual work and risk.
• Ensure robust monitoring, capacity planning, and readiness processes before production changes and onboarding.

Skills

Network leadership

Cloud networking

Automation scripting

Incident management

Security best practices

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IT

CCNP Enterprise

CCIE or cloud cert (advantage)

Tools

Ansible

Python

Git

OpenStack

Kubernetes

Proxmox

Job description

Who we are

Ilkari is a privately-held start-up based in Dublin, Ireland. We deliver hyper-private scale innovation and technology to safeguard and secure data, enabling true data sovereignty even as the pace of change accelerates. Our best-in-breed sovereign technology delivers privacy and control over where companies' data resides, where it flows, and how it's accessed.

We're here to rewrite the story of data sovereignty - empowering innovators, pioneers and visionaries to make their mark. We believe the sky is not the limit. We strive for the perfect balance of simplicity and excellence in everything we do, and we're looking for people who are ready to join our journey and rewrite the story of data sovereignty.

Role overview

The Network Team Lead is a hybrid role based at our office in the tech park, Málaga. We're looking for a hands-on to lead the development and operation of Ilkari's network engineering capability across datacentre, cloud, customer, and corporate environments.

This role combines strong technical leadership with emerging people management responsibilities, supporting the recruitment, onboarding, and development of a new network engineering team while remaining actively involved in the design, implementation, automation, and operation of the network estate.

Working closely with Architecture, Infrastructure, Platform, Security, Support, Service Delivery, and the Delivery Manager, the Network Team Lead will help evolve our Network Reliability Engineering (NRE) capability by embedding automation, observability, testing, and operational resilience into everything we build and operate.

What you'll do

• Lead and support a multisite Network Engineering team, providing technical direction, clear priorities, and day-to-day leadership while supporting recruitment, onboarding, and capability development.
• Design, implement, operate, and continuously improve enterprise, cloud, datacentre, and customer network services, ensuring high availability, scalability, security, and operational resilience.
• Drive the adoption of Network Reliability Engineering (NRE) principles by improving automation, network testing, monitoring, observability, configuration management, and operational standards.
• Promote infrastructure-as-code and network automation using technologies such as Ansible, Python, and GitOps principles to improve consistency, reduce manual effort, and minimise operational risk.
• Strengthen operational readiness by ensuring robust monitoring, synthetic testing, capacity management, and validation processes are in place before production changes and customer onboarding.
• Support product delivery squad models by ensuring network engineering capacity and expertise are effectively assigned across products, enabling reliable delivery and consistent technical standards.
• Partner with Support, Infrastructure, Platform, Security, and Change teams to improve incident response, reduce recurring issues through structured problem management, and continuously improve network reliability.
• Support customer onboarding and new cloud deployments by ensuring network services are operationally ready, documented, tested, and supportable before go-live.
• Work with the Delivery Manager to align network priorities with delivery objectives, supporting estimation, dependency management, resource planning, and predictable execution.
• Collaborate closely with Architecture and Security to co-create secure, scalable, and maintainable network solutions that support both technical and business objectives.
• Contribute to maintaining the Network Engineering skills matrix, identifying development opportunities, and supporting continuous improvement across the team.

What are we looking for

• 7+ years of enterprise, service provider, cloud, or datacentre networking experience.
• Previous experience providing technical leadership or leading small engineering teams.
• Minimum Cisco CCNP Enterprise (or equivalent enterprise networking certification).
• Strong experience across routing and switching (BGP, OSPF, EVPN, VXLAN desirable).
• Experience supporting cloud networking within OpenStack, Proxmox, Kubernetes, VMware, or similar environments.
• Strong understanding of firewalls, VPNs, load balancing, network segmentation, high availability, and security best practices.
• Experience with network automation using Ansible, Python, APIs, Git, Infrastructure-as-Code, or similar tooling.
• Experience implementing network monitoring, observability, telemetry, and synthetic testing platforms.
• Strong operational experience across Incident, Problem, Change, Capacity, and Operational Readiness processes.
• Experience supporting customer-facing production environments.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Network Engineering, Telecommunications, Information Technology, or a related discipline is preferred.
• CCNP Enterprise or equivalent is required; CCIE or cloud networking certifications would be advantageous
• Strong hands-on expertise in enterprise, datacentre, and cloud networking, including BGP, OSPF, routing, switching, segmentation, VPNs, firewalls, and high-availability design.
• Experience supporting network services across cloud and virtualisation platforms such as OpenStack, Proxmox, Kubernetes, VMware, or similar environments.
• Strong capability in network automation using Ansible, Python, APIs, Git, and infrastructure-as-code or GitOps-based practices.
• Experience with network monitoring, telemetry, observability, synthetic testing, and performance analysis to support proactive fault detection and reliability improvement.
• Strong understanding of incident, problem, change, capacity, and operational readiness practices within customer-facing production environments.