Senior Network Engineer- Cisco, Cloud & Network Automation - 12 months contract, London £600-650 pd

Senior Network Engineer - London - £600-650 per day (inside IR35)

Cisco, Cloud & Network Automation

Hybrid working - 2 days per week in office + 3 days WFH

Role Summary

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Network Engineer to support the design, implementation, scalability, and reliability of our enterprise network infrastructure. This role will play a key part in network modernization initiatives, connecting colocation data centers with multi-cloud environments, and contributing deep technical expertise across network design, operations, and incident response.

The ideal candidate brings strong experience in enterprise networking, hybrid-cloud connectivity, automation, and performance optimization, along with the ability to mentor team members and promote best practices across the network engineering domain.

Responsibilities

Network Engineering & Design

• Design, implement, and maintain scalable, resilient, and secure LAN/WAN, SD-WAN, and hybrid-cloud network solutions
• Contribute to network standards, reference architectures, and roadmaps that support business growth and technology modernization
• Evaluate and recommend network hardware, software, and service providers to improve performance, reliability, and scalability

Cloud & Hybrid Connectivity

• Design, implement, and support cloud networking solutions across AWS, Azure, and GCP
• Support and optimize hybrid connectivity using technologies such as AWS VPC, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, Azure VNet, and ExpressRoute
• Ensure seamless integration between on-premises environments and cloud platforms

Performance & Reliability

• Support and enhance Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices for network operations
• Help define, monitor, and improve service-level objectives (SLOs) related to network availability, latency, and capacity
• Proactively identify performance bottlenecks and implement solutions to improve network resilience and efficiency

Automation & Infrastructure as Code

• Contribute to network automation initiatives to reduce manual configuration and improve consistency
• Develop and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) solutions using tools such as Terraform, Ansible, and Python
• Partner with operations teams to standardize deployment, monitoring, and operational processes

Incident Escalation & Root Cause Analysis

• Serve as a senior technical escalation point for complex network incidents
• Support critical incident response efforts, including troubleshooting, coordination, communication, and service restoration
• Conduct root cause analysis and contribute to post-incident reviews to prevent recurrence

Security & Compliance

• Implement and maintain network security controls in partnership with Information Security teams
• Manage and audit Firewalls, load balancers, segmentation policies, access controls, and Suricata Firewall rules
• Ensure network designs and operational practices align with security, compliance, and risk management requirements

Technical Leadership & Collaboration

• Mentor junior and mid-level network engineers
• Participate in peer design reviews and provide guidance on architecture, troubleshooting, and operational excellence
• Promote engineering best practices, documentation standards, and continuous improvement across the team

Qualifications

Required

• Bachelor's degree or qualiifed by experience with the equivalent combination of education and relevant experience
• 5+ years of relevant experience

Preferred

• Expertise in core networking technologies and protocols, including:

- BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, BFD

- EVPN/VXLAN, IPSec, MAC-SEC

- Zscaler, Zero-trust technologies

• Proven experience designing, implementing, and supporting hybrid-cloud networking across AWS, Azure, and/or GCP
• Solid experience with network automation and Infrastructure as Code, including Terraform, Ansible, and Python
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex troubleshooting efforts and resolve high-severity production incidents
• Solid communication skills with the ability to collaborate across infrastructure, cloud, security, and application teams
• Industry certifications such as: CCNA/CCIE or ideally AWS Certified Advanced Networking - Specialty
• Experience with SD-WAN, network observability, and modern monitoring platforms
• Familiarity with load balancing technologies and enterprise Firewall platforms
• Experience leading technical teams, mentoring engineers, and influencing architecture decisions across organizations