Senior Network Engineer- IP

BT Group; Ipswich, Birmingham, Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus 10%

Private GP

Carers leave

Maternity/Paternity/Adoption leave

BT product discounts

Pension scheme

Holiday purchase scheme

Job summary

BT Group is seeking a Senior Network Engineer- IP to join Professional Services. You will act as a subject matter expert across network engineering and SRE, leading complex fault resolution and end-to-end changes across BT’s fixed network infrastructure.

You will champion reliability, automation and observability, delivering high-impact improvements while partnering with stakeholders. The role supports a 3 days in office, 2 days from home pattern across Ipswich, Birmingham and London locations.

Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on experience across IP networking, switching and routing, with knowledge of Juniper, Cisco, Nokia, and Palo Alto.
• Strong incident and change management skills with governance adherence.
• Self-driven learner with ability to coach others.

Responsibilities

• Act as subject matter expert for network engineering and SRE domain, overseeing design, build, testing, and support of network infrastructure.
• Lead on complex incidents as final escalation point and drive blameless PIRs for root-cause improvements.
• Propose and implement innovations to improve reliability and automate repetitive tasks.
• Execute complex network changes in live environments using CI/CD pipelines and governance.
• Provide 24/7 operational support for network faults across multiple domains.
• Manage stakeholder expectations and communicate with Senior Leadership Team.

Skills

IP networking

Routing & Switching

Firewall technologies

Incident management

Automation

SRE practices

CI/CD pipelines

Python scripting

Stakeholder communication

Job description

Job Description

Job Title: Senior Network Engineer- IP

Req ID: 62900

Job Function: Engineering

Posting Start Date: 24/09/2026

Posting End Date: 07/10/2026

Division: Networks

Job Location: GBR Ipswich - B16 Adastral Pk, GBR-Birmingham-Three Snowhill, GBR-London-BTHQ One Braham

Advertised Salary: Competitive + great benefits

Location: Ipswich, Birmingham, London

Working Style: 3 days a week in office, 2 days from home

About the role

Professional Services was formed as a progressive development towards the convergence of multiple domains across BT. We pride ourselves on providing expert third line support to an extensive range of services; ensuring required levels of availability are maintained. The team is widely recognised for getting things done, while making transformational improvements along the way.

The purpose of this role is to be a subject matter expert within the network engineering and Site Reliability Engineering domain, accountable for major end-to-end technology introduction and final line fault resolution across BT’s fixed network infrastructure. You will take the lead on complex, high-impact fault resolution spanning multiple platforms and services, acting as a senior technical escalation point.

Applying SRE principles and deep technical knowledge, you will drive improvements in service availability and reliability through end-to-end business ownership – implementing flawless network change, championing automation to reduce operational toil, and embedding observability and reliability‑first practices across the team.

You will champion and build effective working relationships, both internally and externally, to deliver business outcomes and add value throughout. You will also promote a culture of continuous improvement within a team of engineering professionals – contributing to the resource strategy, enhancing the profile of the team, and challenging and supporting those around you to be accountable and perform at their best.

What you’ll be doing

• Acts as a subject matter expert within the network engineering domain and is accountable for system design, build, testing, validation, maintenance, monitoring and ongoing support of all network infrastructure components.
• Leads on complex and high-impact incidents as a final technical escalation point within immediate domain, and leads blameless post-incident reviews (PIRs) to uncover systemic root causes and convert learnings into concrete reliability, automation and process improvements.
• Proposes, drives and implements innovations for continuous improvement in network reliability and operational efficiency, championing the adoption of Site Reliability Engineering practices and automating repetitive operational tasks to reduce toil.
• Leads the execution of complex network and infrastructure change into the live network in line with change management best practice and associated governance, utilising automation and CI/CD pipelines to deliver flawless change.
• Provides 365x24/7 operational support for network faults and platform issues that span a range of network and platform domains, i.e. out-of-hours change and callout, acting as a senior point of technical resolution.
• Manages stakeholder and demand expectations through cross-area engagement, communicating confidently and professionally with all stakeholders including the Senior Leadership Team.
• Champions a reliability‑first change culture and supports the technical development of others, contributing to recruitment and resource strategy and enhancing the profile of the team through continued learning and use of BT’s learning tools.
• Will champion and build effective working relationships, both internally and externally, to deliver business outcomes, adding value throughout.
• Responsible for delivering the change execution, network operations support, and assurance of Fixed Network platforms managed by Professional Services.

Essential Skills / Experience

• Extensive hands‑on experience across IP networking, switching and routing, and/or firewall technologies, with the ability to lead troubleshooting and resolution of complex, high-impact live network issues. Experience with Juniper, Cisco, Nokia and Palo Alto solutions is highly advantageous.
• Deep expertise in incident and change management, acting as a senior escalation point and driving complex issues through to resolution while adhering to governance processes and maintaining a strong focus on end‑to‑end customer service outcomes.
• A self‑driven approach to learning new technologies and a track record of aiding the development of others, supported by strong knowledge of network technologies and protocols within your native domain and the E2E service journeys.

Desirable Skills / Experience

• Network Automation: Strong, demonstrable experience using automation and IaC tools (e.g. Ansible, Terraform, Netconf/YANG) to manage network infrastructure at scale and reduce operational toil.
• Proven ability to apply SRE principles – automation, observability and toil reduction – to improve service availability, with proficiency in a programming or scripting language such as Python.
• Strong proficiency in building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines and associated tooling (e.g. GitLab CI, Jenkins).
• Application/Infrastructure Monitoring: Experience configuring and maintaining monitoring and observability solutions such as the ELK stack, Prometheus and Grafana.
• Cloud Computing: Strong understanding of cloud computing and best practices.
• Experience with Linux/Unix system administration to a high standard, with a focus on performance optimisation, security and automation.
• Experience delivering high-impact changes in a live network and system environment.
• Proven experience working in a high‑pressure operational environment, ideally in a fast‑paced ISP or large-scale network setting.
• Confident and professional in communicating with all stakeholders, including the Senior Leadership Team.
• Experience advocating and applying technology or automation where it has not been used previously, and delivering results when the deliverables were unclear.
• Experience learning new technologies and driving the development of others.

Our Package

• 10% on target annual bonus
• Access to an online private GP 24/7 for you and your immediate family
• Market‑leading paid carers leave with up to 2 weeks off
• Equalized maternity, paternity, and adoption leave – 18 weeks’ full pay and 8 weeks’ half pay
• Discounted EE and BT products, including mobile and broadband
• Market leading Pension scheme – 5% from you and 10% from us
• Holiday purchase scheme

You can select additional benefits, including healthcare, dental, gym memberships and more when you’re ready.

About BT Group

BT Group is the UK’s leading communications group and the holding company behind some of the country’s most recognised brands – including BT, EE, Openreach and Plusnet. Our purpose is as simple as it is ambitious: we connect for good. Our customers include consumers, small, medium and large businesses, public sector organisations and other communications providers.

BT Group’s role is about setting direction, unlocking value and creating the conditions for our brands and businesses to thrive.

Having come through the most capital‑intensive phase of our fibre investment, our focus now is on what comes next – simplifying how we operate, using technology and AI to work smarter, and organising ourselves to serve customers better and grow sustainably. Group teams shape strategy, policy, brand, capital allocation and transformation, helping the whole organisation perform at its best.

We have a singular culture that unites all our people: we are customer‑first challengers, who are committed, clear and connected. These behaviours unite us as one team to deliver for our colleagues, our customers, our stakeholders and the country.

Joining BT Group means working at the heart of a business that matters to the UK, with the opportunity to shape decisions, influence outcomes and help set the future course of one of the country’s most important companies.