Network & Systems Manager

Holtec International; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 46,000 - 51,000; Full time

Job summary

Guildhall School of Music & Drama invites applications for a Network & Systems Manager to own day-to-day operations of the school's recording, broadcast and AV networks and systems, including Dante, NDI and IP-based infrastructure.

You will problem-solve at a systems level, document changes, and collaborate with engineers, academics and students to deliver reliable, scalable workflows for performances, teaching and research.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience with professional audio, video or broadcast systems.
• Strong understanding of IP networking in media environments.
• Experience with Dante, NDI, and network administration.
• Knowledge of emerging media-over-IP tech including ST 2110; CCNA useful.
• Comfortable working with students.

Responsibilities

• Take day-to-day operational responsibility for the School's recording, broadcast and AV systems and networks.
• Diagnose problems, document findings and improve systems for reliability.
• Work with Recording & AV engineers, venue teams and academic departments to shape workflows.
• Influence how infrastructure develops to support performances and teaching.
• Support concerts, teaching sessions, and student-led projects.

Skills

Dante

NDI

IP networking

Broadcast systems

AV systems

Tools

CCNA

ST 2110

Job description

Network & Systems Manager

Posting Start Date: 02/10/2026

Posting End Date: 19/10/2026

Department: Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Office Location: Guildhall School of Music and Drama

Level of DBS required for this role: None required

Level of vetting required?: No security vetting is required

Is this a politically restricted post?: No

Does this post require a Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) check?: No

Salary: £45,650 - £50,860 per annum (including Inner London Weighting)

Contractual Hours: 35, Full-time

Basis: Permanent

Workplace category: Hybrid

Attachments: Job Information Pack

Guildhall School is a vibrant, international community of musicians, actors and production artists in the heart of the City of London. Ranked as number one in Arts, Drama & Music by the Complete University Guide 2025, and in the top four in the world for Music and Performing Arts by the QS World University Rankings 2025, we deliver world-class professional training in partnership with distinguished artists, companies and ensembles. A global leader in creative and professional practice, we promote innovation, experiment and research, and are also one of the UK's leading providers of lifelong learning in the performing arts, offering inspiring training for children, young people, adult learners, and creative and business professionals.

The role

As DPVS Network & Systems Manager, you will take day-to-day operational responsibility for the School's specialist recording, broadcast and audio-visual systems and networks. That includes a large low-latency audio network, Dante Domain Manager, NDI video distribution, networked recording systems, specialist software, and the increasingly complex infrastructure that connects our studios, concert halls, theatres, teaching rooms and production spaces.

You will be somebody who enjoys getting beneath the surface of a system: diagnosing problems properly, understanding why something behaves the way it does, documenting it, improving it and making it more resilient. Just as importantly, this is not an IT role sitting at a distance from the work. You will be part of a busy, vibrant technical department supporting concerts, theatre productions, recording sessions, broadcasts, teaching, research and student-led work every day. You might spend one morning investigating multicast behaviour or a Dante clocking issue and the afternoon working with engineers, academics or students to develop a completely new production workflow. You will work closely with our Recording & AV engineers, venue teams, academic departments and the School's central IT colleagues, and will have considerable scope to influence how our infrastructure develops in the coming years.

Who we are looking for

We are deliberately interested in people from a wide range of technical backgrounds.

Perticularly you are currently a systems engineer in broadcast or live production and would like to bring that experience into a role with greater continuity, where you can build, refine and take long-term ownership of the systems you work with. Perhaps you have spent years touring and are looking for a little more routine without losing the technical complexity, live performance environment and sense of occasion that attracted you to the industry in the first place.

You might be a broadcast systems engineer, studio technical manager, media-network specialist, AV systems engineer, or someone working in higher education who wants to operate at a much greater technical scale.

We are less interested in where you learned your skills than in what you can do with them.

You will need substantial experience of professional audio, video or broadcast systems and a strong understanding of IP networking in a media environment. Experience with technologies such as Dante, NDI, and network administration will be particularly valuable, as will an understanding of recording studios, production workflows and integrated AV systems.

Knowledge of emerging media-over-IP technologies including ST 2110 would be very welcome. A networking qualification such as CCNA would be useful, but equivalent professional experience is equally welcome.

You should also be comfortable working with young people.

Guildhall is a creative educational environment rather than a traditional corporate network operation. Our systems ultimately exist to enable people to make music, theatre, recordings, films and performances. Being able to explain complex technology clearly, work collaboratively with engineers and academics, and help students understand the systems they are using is therefore an important part of the role.

The environment

DPVS is a large multidisciplinary department bringing together recording, broadcast, AV, sound, lighting, stage, technical production and venue operations. The scale and variety of the work is unusual. Our teams support thousands of recordings and a huge programme of performances and projects every year, ranging from student sessions and teaching activity through to major public concerts, theatre productions, broadcasts and collaborations with internationally recognised artists and organisations.

The technology behind that programme is changing rapidly. Networked audio and video are becoming fundamental to almost everything we do, and this role will be central to determining how that infrastructure develops.

You will be encouraged to question existing workflows, test new ideas and introduce technologies where they genuinely improve reliability, capability or the experience of our students.

You will also help us maintain relationships with manufacturers, integrators and colleagues across the professional audio, broadcast and performing-arts industries, ensuring Guildhall remains connected to current professional practice rather than simply following it.

You will need excellent organisational skills, the confidence to take ownership of complex systems, and the ability to manage several competing priorities in an environment where performances and teaching cannot simply stop because something technical has gone wrong.

Why Guildhall?

You will be working alongside an experienced and enthusiastic technical team, but the ultimate beneficiaries of your work are some extraordinarily talented students at the beginning of their professional careers. A reliable network might mean a student can hear their orchestral recording immediately after a session. A better video workflow might transform how a production is taught or captured. A well-designed system might become the infrastructure behind thousands of performances over the next decade.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly encourage candidates who may not previously have considered working within a conservatoire or higher-education environment.

If your experience has been gained in touring, live sound, broadcast, post-production, studios, systems integration, professional AV or another adjacent industry, we would encourage you to look carefully at the person specification rather than assuming that your career path needs to have followed a particular route.

This is a full-time role working 35 hours per week. Some evening and weekend work is required in support of the School's performance programme, with overtime arrangements applicable.

If you are excited by complex systems, brilliant performances, ambitious students and the idea of helping shape the technical infrastructure of a world-leading performing arts institution, we would love to hear from you.

For further information, please download the Job Information Pack.

For more details regarding the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, please visit http://www.gsmd.ac.uk.

Closing date: Monday 19 October, 12 noon.

Interviews to be held: TBC

Please note that late applications will not be accepted.

Guildhall School welcomes applications from people of all backgrounds and experiences. We are particularly keen to encourage interest from people with disabilities, LGBTQIA+, Black, Asian, and other global majority backgrounds who are currently under-represented at Guildhall School. In recognising the positive value of diversity, we want to better reflect and understand the communities we exist to serve. We are members of the Disability Confident Scheme and guarantee to interview all disabled candidates who would like to be considered under this scheme and who meet the minimum essential criteria for the role. We support and provide adjustments for people with disabilities - if you have a disability and need help with the application process please contact us.

The Guildhall School is committed to Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and adults at risk and expects all employees, workers, and volunteers to share this commitment.