Head of Networking

Rhaelm; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

RHAELM invites an experienced Head of Networking to own network architecture end-to-end across bare metal, Kubernetes and GPU/AI hosting. You will set standards, define change control, and lead the new Network Engineering team, partnering with Engineering and ITSM, with global coordination across EMEA and APAC.

This technical leadership role requires 7+ years in network engineering, data centre design, and proven staff development.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of hands-on network engineering experience with leadership.
• Deep background in data centre network architecture and design.
• Experience defining network change management, monitoring and incident response from scratch.
• Familiarity with bare metal provisioning, Kubernetes and GPU/AI hosting.
• Ability to triage incidents and coordinate with adjacent teams.
• Experience with incident escalation and change coordination with IT and support teams.

Responsibilities

• Own network architecture end-to-end across bare metal, Kubernetes and AI environments.
• Define change control, monitoring standards, and incident response runbooks.
• Build and lead the Network Engineering team and hire engineers.
• Own network side of client-facing escalations with clear response expectations.
• Partner with Engineering on shared standards and escalation paths.
• Represent Network in cross-team design and escalation work.
• Report on network health and performance.
• Promote documentation-first culture and continuous improvement from day one.

Skills

Technical leadership

Network design

Communication

Cross-functional collaboration

GPU/AI infra

Polish/Japanese (desirable)

Education

CCNP/CCIE or equivalent data centre networking credentials

Tools

ITSM platforms

Job description

Head of Networking

RHAELM | Infrastructure & SRE | EMEA & APAC | Flexible location, HQ preferred

About RHAELM

RHAELM is the sovereign AI cloud built to accelerate secure AI deployment at scale, combining power and infrastructure pipelines with global capability and local, in-country operations. Headquartered in London, with deployments across Europe and APAC, we deliver ring-fenced compute, networking, and storage infrastructure alongside a sovereign platform and flexible Bare Metal, Kubernetes, and AI-as-a-Service models. Focused on regulated and mission-critical sectors including Government, Defence, Healthcare, and Financial Services, we give organisations sovereign control over their AI infrastructure, platform, and data.

This Role

You will own RHAELM’s network architecture and define how the network is run, from design standards and change control to monitoring and incident response. That covers our bare metal, Kubernetes and GPU/AI hosting environments across every site and region.

This is a technical leadership seat within the SRE team, reporting to the SVP of Operations. You will work closely with Engineering to design the platform, set shared standards and establish escalation paths as Operations scales. In the interim, you will also own infrastructure design, architecture and escalations. You will build the Network Engineering team from a standing start, and shape its structure and playbook. Expect regular travel across EMEA and APAC, including to network infrastructure locations and our Global NOC hub in Poland.

Key Responsibilities

• Own network architecture end-to-end, designing a consistent topology across bare metal, Kubernetes and GPU/AI environments

• Define change control and approval procedures, monitoring and alerting standards, incident response playbooks and network runbooks

• Build and lead the Network Engineering team, hiring and developing engineers as the function scales

• Own the network side of client-facing escalations from Support, with clear response expectations

• Partner with Engineering on shared technical standards, documentation practices and escalation paths

• Represent the Network function in cross-team design and escalation work

• Report on network health and performance

• Build a culture of technical rigour, documentation-first thinking and continuous improvement from day one

Experience

• 7+ years of hands-on network engineering experience, including several years in a leadership role at a hosting, colocation, cloud infrastructure or managed services company

• Deep background in data centre network architecture and design: routing and switching, topology and capacity planning at multi-site scale

• Experience defining network change management, monitoring and incident response from scratch, rather than only within an established framework

• Familiarity with bare metal provisioning, Kubernetes and GPU/AI hosting, enough to ground architecture and staffing decisions in the platform

• Comfortable owning hands-on triage of non-client-facing infrastructure incidents beyond pure networking, and coordinating with adjacent teams such as Storage & Backup Engineering

• Experience working with IT and customer support teams on incident escalation and change coordination

Skills

• Technical leadership and the ability to scale a function from a single leader into a dedicated team

• Network design, routing and switching, and capacity planning

• Clear communication, including reporting progress to senior leadership

• Cross-functional partnership without direct line management

• Experience with ITSM, ticketing or network monitoring and observability platforms (desirable)

• Experience with GPU/AI infrastructure (desirable)

• Polish and/or Japanese language skills (desirable)

Qualifications

• CCNP, CCIE or equivalent data centre networking credentials (desirable)