Lead Specialist Engineer - Networks

UK Health Security Agency; City Of London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Civil Service pension

Professional development opportunities

Job summary

UK Health Security Agency is seeking an experienced Lead Specialist Engineer - Networks to sustain and enhance critical network services. You will drive availability, security and performance while mentoring others and guiding best practices in a large public sector environment.

Responsibilities include incident response, configuration, monitoring, patching and documentation, with opportunities for professional development and contribution to national health ICT resilience.

Qualifications

• Formal technical qualification, e.g. CCNA or equivalent.
• Experience with Extreme Networks and Cisco equipment.
• Strong knowledge of TCP/IP, WAN/LAN/WLAN architectures.
• Experience managing networks for large user bases.
• VPN deployment and remote access expertise.

Responsibilities

• Maintain, optimise and secure enterprise network infrastructure for high availability.
• Configure, monitor and support network hardware and software.
• Respond to incidents, outages and disruptions to restore service quickly.
• Maintain system security, backups and disaster recovery processes.
• Apply patches, upgrades and enhancements in a controlled manner.
• Produce and maintain technical documentation and operational standards.
• Support infrastructure projects, upgrades and migrations.

Skills

TCP/IP protocols

VPN deployment

Network monitoring

Load balancing

WAN/LAN/WLAN

CCNA

Security standards (NCSC)

Wireless networks (Extreme/Cisco)

Education

Cisco CCNA or equivalent

Tools

Palo Alto Firewalls

Extreme Networks equipment

Cisco networking gear

Job description

We're looking for an experienced and technically skilled Lead Specialist Engineer - Networks to play a key role in maintaining and enhancing the critical network infrastructure that underpins UKHSA's vital public health mission.

This is an exciting opportunity to work within a highly specialised environment, ensuring the availability, performance, security and resilience of enterprise network services. You'll act as a technical expert within your field, supporting the delivery of robust, secure and reliable networking solutions while contributing to the continuous improvement of our ICT services. As a senior technical specialist, you'll work closely with engineers across the ICT function, respond to incidents and service disruptions, and help drive best practice across network operations and service delivery.

What You'll Be Doing

• Managing, maintaining and optimising network infrastructure to ensure high levels of availability and performance.
• Configuring, monitoring and supporting network hardware, software and associated technologies.
• Troubleshooting incidents, outages and technical issues, taking swift action to minimise disruption and restore service.
• Maintaining system security, integrity and resilience, including access controls, backup arrangements and disaster recovery processes.
• Applying patches, upgrades and enhancements in a timely and controlled manner.
• Monitoring performance, capacity and utilisation trends, providing recommendations for future improvements and investment.
• Producing and maintaining technical documentation, procedures and operational standards.
• Supporting infrastructure projects, system implementations, upgrades and migrations.
• Providing technical guidance, knowledge sharing and support to colleagues, including junior engineers where required.
• Ensuring compliance with UKHSA policies, security standards and industry best practice.
• Keeping up to date with emerging technologies and making recommendations on innovations that could benefit UKHSA's network services.
• Providing accurate effort estimates, technical advice and updates to senior engineers and managers.
• Participating in out-of-hours support activities when required.

Essential Criteria

• Extreme Networks and Cisco network equipment.
• Network routing and TCP/IP protocols.
• Palo Alto Firewalls.
• Extreme Networks (or equivalent) Wireless access point technologies.
• VPN deployment and configuration.
• NCSC requirements for the implementation, management and administration of secure networks.
• Familiarity with NCSC Secure by Design Principles.
• Understanding of network security principles and practices, data encryption and remote access technologies.
• WAN/LAN/WLAN Architectures.
• Application Delivery Controllers and/or Load Balancing technologies.
• Must have previous experience of undertaking a specialist role and of managing systems for a large user base.
• Experience with monitoring a network infrastructure to optimise performance and support capacity planning.
• Ability to analyse and interpret information, pre-empt and evaluate issues, and recommend an appropriate course of action to address the issues.
• Ability to work on own initiative and organise own workload without supervision, working to tight and often changing timescales.
• Formal technical qualification, e.g. Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) or equivalent.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience with Network Function Virtualisation and Software Defined Network architecture.
• Skills for communication on complex matters and difficult situations, requiring persuasion and influence.

In return, you'll benefit from:

• Working on nationally significant technology services.
• A generous Civil Service pension, with employer contributions averaging 28.97%.
• Exposure to complex, large-scale and diverse network environments.
• Investment in learning, development and professional certifications.
• A collaborative, supportive and inclusive culture.
• Opportunities to influence the future of critical public sector technology.

Discover more about our rewards and benefits on our website.

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