Network Team Lead

Ilkari; Málaga; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private life & health insurance

Hybrid working model

Learning budget

Gym reimbursement

Volunteer days

Referral bonuses

Job summary

Ilkari seeks a hands-on Network Team Lead to drive development and operation of its network engineering across datacentre, cloud, customer, and corporate environments in Málaga, Spain.

You will lead recruitment, onboarding, and capability development while remaining deeply involved in design, implementation, automation, and reliability of the network estate.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in enterprise, service provider, cloud, or datacentre networking.
• CCNP Enterprise (or equivalent) required; CCIE advantageous.
• Experience with network automation and IaC.

Responsibilities

• Lead and guide a multisite Network Engineering team with clear priorities.
• Design, implement, operate, and improve enterprise cloud, datacentre, and customer networks.
• Advance Network Reliability Engineering through automation, testing, and observability.
• Promote infrastructure-as-code and network automation using Ansible, Python, and GitOps.

Skills

Technical leadership

Cloud networking

Networking design

Security best practices

Incident management

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related

CCNP Enterprise or equivalent

Tools

Cisco CCNP Enterprise

OpenStack

Proxmox

Kubernetes

VMware

Ansible

Python

Git

IaC / GitOps

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.

Department: Product Development

Location: Málaga, Spain

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

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 you'll bring

• 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.

What's in it for you

• A friendly, inclusive and multicultural environment - We are made up of over 20 nationalities.
• Private life and health insurance for you and your family.
• Four weeks per year to work from anywhere for eligible employees.
• Gym reimbursement.
• Learning Pocket: annual budget for courses, tools, or certifications.
• Three paid volunteering days each year.
• Generous referral bonus programme.
• A hybrid working model with flexible hours.

Ilkari is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from everyone and make hiring decisions on merit, regardless of age, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion or belief, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, trade union membership, or any other characteristic protected by law in the country where the role is based.

If you need any adjustment to the recruitment process, tell us and we will make it happen.