Head of Networks in London

A leadership role responsible for the strategy, performance and continual improvement of Global's IP network estate. Leading a small team of highly skilled specialists, this role ensures the networks supporting Global's live and always-on services are resilient, secure, scalable and aligned to business needs, while creating the environment, clarity and direction for the team to do their best work. Global operates a geographically distributed, high-availability network with characteristics similar to a service provider, supporting live broadcast and a nationwide outdoor estate.

Key responsibilities

• Network Strategy, Service Ownership & Delivery (40%): Define and lead the roadmap for Global's network services and infrastructure, ensuring they support resilient, secure and high-performing services across Global's live and business-critical environments. Oversee the design, delivery and lifecycle management of core network services, balancing current operational needs with future growth and change.
• Team Leadership & Capability Development (30%): Lead, support and develop a small team of network specialists, setting clear priorities and creating a high-trust, high-accountability culture. Provide leadership that enables deep technical experts to thrive, removing blockers, supporting decision-making and ensuring the team is focused on the work that matters most.
• Operational Resilience, Governance & Continuous Improvement (20%): Own network service performance, availability, incident management, escalation readiness, change governance, capacity planning, documentation and service improvement. Ensure robust standards, processes and controls are in place to support stable, secure and well-managed network operations for services that are relied upon around the clock.
• Stakeholder, Vendor & Partner Management (10%): Work closely with Technology, Cyber Security, Broadcast Engineering, Product and business stakeholders, as well as external providers and carriers, to align priorities, manage risk and deliver reliable network services. Act as the senior point of contact for escalations, service reviews and strategic supplier relationships.

What You'll Love About This Role

• Think Big: Shape the direction of Global's network capability and play a key role in enabling resilient, future-ready technology across the business.
• Own It: Take accountability for a critical technology domain that underpins business continuity, operational performance and future transformation.
• Keep it Simple: Bring clarity, structure and prioritisation to a technically complex environment, helping specialists focus on the highest-value work.
• Better Together: Partner with highly capable engineers, technical leads and stakeholders across the organisation to solve important problems and deliver dependable outcomes.

What Success Looks

• Built a strong understanding of Global's network estate, service model, risks, dependencies and key priorities.
• Established credibility with the networks team by providing clear leadership, sound judgement and effective support.
• Brought clarity to priorities, ownership, ways of working and delivery expectations across the team.
• Strengthened operational oversight across incidents, changes, resilience, documentation and service performance for critical services.
• Built strong working relationships with internal stakeholders, strategic suppliers and service partners.
• Identified opportunities to improve reliability, scalability, governance and team effectiveness across the network function.

What You'll Need

• Network Leadership Experience: Significant experience in network infrastructure roles, including leading or managing high-performing technical teams in complex enterprise environments.
• Strong Networking Knowledge: Good understanding of core IP networking concepts and technologies, including routing and switching, WAN/LAN, firewalls, VPNs, wireless networking, resilience and performance management.
• Technical Credibility: Able to engage confidently with specialists on topics such as OSPF, BGP, peering, routing policy, network segmentation, security controls and carrier connectivity, without needing to be the deepest technical expert in the team.
• People Leadership: Proven ability to lead, coach and develop technically strong individuals, creating clarity, accountability and an inclusive, supportive culture.
• Critical Service Awareness: Experience working in environments where network services underpin live, high-availability or business-critical operations, with a strong appreciation for resilience, continuity, controlled change and effective incident management.
• Operational Management: Experience overseeing service performance, incident management, change control, capacity planning, disaster recovery, support models and continual improvement activities.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Able to work effectively across Technology, Security, Engineering and business teams, balancing competing priorities and translating technical issues into clear business impact.
• Vendor & Commercial Management: Experience managing network suppliers, carriers, support partners and service reviews, with strong judgement around risk, value and delivery.
• Documentation & Governance: Strong appreciation for standards, documentation, lifecycle management, supportability and operational rigour.
• Communication Skills: Able to communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical audiences, including senior stakeholders.
• Mindset: Calm, pragmatic, people-focused and outcome-oriented, with the judgement to know when to challenge, when to support and when to delegate to technical experts.