At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and support secure enterprise network infrastructure for UK Defence customers.
- Company: Established defence technology company with a focus on high-performance networking solutions.
- Benefits: Flexible working hours, 25 days leave, health cash plan, and ongoing training.
- Other info: Frequent travel across the UK with excellent career growth opportunities.
- Why this job: Join a dynamic team solving complex challenges in secure environments.
- Qualifications: Experience in network engineering and strong troubleshooting skills required.
The predicted salary is between 47500 - 47500 £ per year.
Our client is an established and growing defence technology company delivering secure, high-performance networking solutions to UK Defence customers. Due to continued growth, they are seeking an experienced Network Engineer to join their engineering team. This is a predominantly field-based role, supporting the deployment, maintenance and optimisation of enterprise network infrastructure across secure customer environments. This position is ideal for an engineer who enjoys combining technical expertise with customer engagement, taking ownership of projects and delivering resilient, secure networking solutions that support mission-critical operations.
The Role
- As a Network Engineer, you'll be responsible for designing, implementing and supporting enterprise network infrastructure across a range of secure Defence environments.
- Working closely with customers and internal engineering teams, you'll carry out installations, upgrades, preventative maintenance, network audits and fault resolution, ensuring systems remain secure, reliable and available.
- This role involves frequent travel to customer sites throughout the UK, primarily across the Midlands and surrounding areas. A mileage allowance is provided for all business travel.
Key Responsibilities
- Design, implement and support enterprise network infrastructure.
- Deploy, configure and maintain high-performance routing and switching environments.
- Configure and support NVIDIA Mellanox Ethernet switches running Cumulus Linux (including MSN2100, MSN2201 and MSN3420 platforms).
- Install, configure and support Cisco Catalyst 9300 switching platforms.
- Configure, administer and troubleshoot Cisco Firepower 2100 Series appliances running Firepower Threat Defence (FTD).
- Deliver customer site installations, upgrades, preventative maintenance and technical health checks.
- Diagnose and resolve complex routing, switching, firewall and connectivity issues.
- Produce high-quality technical documentation including implementation plans, network diagrams and operational procedures.
- Work directly with customers to understand technical requirements and deliver effective networking solutions.
- Participate in planned maintenance windows and occasional out-of-hours activities where required.
About You
- Our client is looking for an experienced Network Engineer who enjoys solving complex technical challenges and working directly with customers.
- You'll be confident leading technical discussions, comfortable working independently and committed to delivering high-quality engineering solutions within secure environments.
- You’ll ideally have:
- Extensive experience designing, implementing and supporting enterprise network infrastructure.
- Expert knowledge of routing and switching technologies.
- Strong troubleshooting, analytical and diagnostic skills.
- Excellent customer-facing communication and stakeholder management skills.
- Experience working within secure or cryptographic environments.
Strong knowledge of:
- BGP
- OSPF
- VLANs
- VRRP / HSRP
- Spanning Tree
- Quality of Service (QoS)
- Multicast
- IPv4 / IPv6
- High Availability networking
Hands-on experience with:
- NVIDIA Mellanox Ethernet switches running Cumulus Linux.
- Modern data centre networking technologies including:
- EVPN
- VXLAN
- MLAG
- Leaf-Spine architectures
Desirable Skills
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Ansible.
- Linux systems administration.
- VMware ESXi administration.
- Network automation and configuration management.
- Monitoring, logging and network performance analysis tools.
- Git-based configuration management.
- Experience supporting secure or air-gapped environments.
- Relevant certifications such as CCNP Enterprise, CCIE Enterprise Infrastructure, NVIDIA Networking, or equivalent.
Benefits
- Flexible working culture and flexible working hours.
- 25 days annual leave plus the option to purchase additional leave.
- 10% employer pension contribution.
- Health Cash Plan for employees and eligible family members.
- Benefits platform including Cycle to Work, technology purchase schemes and retail discounts.
- Ongoing training and professional development.
- Two annual bonus opportunities (subject to company performance).
- Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave.
- Recruitment referral bonus.
- Reservist leave.
- Modern office facilities with complimentary refreshments.
- Smart casual "Dress for Your Day" policy.
- Free parking or parking reimbursement.
- Company social events and annual training days.
Security Requirements
Due to the nature of this role, applicants must be eligible to obtain and maintain UK Developed Vetting (DV) clearance and STRAP access. A full UK driving licence and willingness to travel extensively throughout the UK are essential. Candidates with active DV clearance are highly encouraged to apply.
If you are interested in applying, please send a copy of your CV to Dan Martin at Ex-Mill Recruitment Ltd.
