Communications Network Architect

80609 - Communications Network Architect

This Communications Network Architect will report to the Network Capability Manager and will work within the Technology, Strategy Regulation and Support Services directorate based in our Ipswich office. You will be a permanent employee.

You will attract a salary of £60,564.00 and a bonus of 7.5%. This role can also offer blended working after probationary period (6 months) - 3 days in the office and 2 remote.

Close Date: 13/04/2025.

We Also Provide The Following Additional Benefits:

• 25 Days Annual Leave plus bank holidays.
• Reservist Leave – Additional 18 days full pay and 22 unpaid.
• Personal Pension Plan – Personal contribution rates of 4% or 5% (UK Power Networks will make a corresponding contribution of 8% or 10%).
• Tenancy Loan Deposit Scheme, Season Ticket Loan.
• Tax efficient benefits: Cycle to Work, Home & Tech, and Green Car Leasing Schemes.
• Occupational Health support.
• Switched On – scheme providing discount on hundreds of retailers' products.
• Discounted gym membership.
• Employee Assistance Programme.

Job Purpose:

As an important member of the technology team, you will manage the design, documentation and implementation into BAU for the network and voice services covering many service providers for the IP/MPLS SCADA network across the UKPN estate.

You will come at an exciting time for UKPN as we integrate services into private- and public-cloud environments, and under a backdrop of convergence of IT and OT, with a focus on automation and orchestration of services, where you will play an important part.

We ask that you have technical expertise across multiple areas and functions - ability to work with pre-sales and internal teams on requirements gathering, creation of high-level and detailed design specs, ability to partner with development teams to automate configuration, delivery and support processes, and ownership of overall projects.

Dimensions:

Direct reports: none. Supervise infrastructure personnel in 3rd party organisations.

Budget: none.

Support of Infrastructure Architecture circa 6,000 users and associated infrastructure.

Technical validation of the development of Infrastructure solutions ranging from £2m out of a total estimated installed base of circa £10m of in-scope IT equipment.

Principal Accountabilities:

• Develop and help design and implement IT/OT network Infrastructure for UKPN.
• Design and support solutions specific to our Communications market.
• Developing the architecture that supports our wide portfolio of products in the Communications market including LTE Roaming and clearing, Caller ID and protection services, Messaging services, SS7 and mobile signalling services.
• Design solutions such as large-scale SD-WAN, IPSec and MPLS VPN, IP multicast solutions and public cloud interconnects across wired and wireless comms.
• Work with strategic vendors for solution evaluation and customization and will provide third-level Operations support for incident resolution, and leadership over critical operational maintenance works.
• Monitor IT industry advances in technical infrastructure and associated new technology. Use this knowledge to assess likely impact on architecture, and to assist IT Operations and Business Architects in considering use of such technology etc.
• Develop standards and policy relating to technical architecture direction and usage.

Essential Skills To Be Successful In The Role:

• Familiarisation of SCADA network infrastructure and protocols.
• Experience of carrier-based multiplexer networks (TDM & SDH).
• Experience of modem configuration and serial comms protocols.
• Experience of Avaya/Extreme/Ruggedcom LAN switches and configuration.
• Experience resolving spanning-tree issues.
• Experience of designing complex multi-vendor, multi-technology IP networks.
• Experience with architecture and provisioning of solutions within MPLS or SD-WAN based environments.
• Experience in network design and implementation based on high-level customer requirements.
• TCP/IP and routing knowledge (BGP & OSPF).
• Experience with Customer Edge features such as Network Address Translation, VRRP/HSRP.
• Familiar with mobile networks.
• Familiar with optic fibre networks.
• Familiar with satellite and radio networks.
• The ability to produce detailed network drawings using AutoCAD & Visio.
• Able to work flexible hours and provide on-call support.

Desirable Skills:

• Experience with AAA, Tacacs+, Radius, and CA/PKI.
• Experience with Voice over IP, Dial Services (Async/PPP, ISDN), Wireless services (CDMA, EVDO, GPRS, EDGE, 802.11b/g/n), Server Load-Balancing (F5).
• Proficient in IPSec (including DMVPN and RRI) design, configuration, operation, and troubleshooting.
• Proficient in IP Multicast design, configuration, operation, and troubleshooting.

Nature & Scope:

The Technology Department works across UK Power Networks, supporting us in the achievement of our vision to become the best performing DNO. The team achieve this through the provision of technology solutions and the optimisation of current solutions to improve how we operate. Continuous improvement, customer service and seamless delivery is at the heart of this ethos and are therefore underpinned by effective network and voice solutions.

The team vision is "To operate the best utility owned communications network in the UK ensuring the Secure, Resilient and Reliable control of our electricity network whilst enabling new technology to support net zero for all".

You will work with the Corporate Network Manager, OT Datacentre Manager, OT focused support teams and partners, the rest of Technology team, IT Service Providers and partners across UKPN to implement and improve networking and voice arrangements.

You will blend several skillsets including network technology assessment, design, implementation, operation, governance, change management and communications. The main measure of success for this role is upholding the IT and organisational resilience of UKPN concerning threats and incidents.

Health & Safety Responsibilities:

Managers and supervisors carry both legal and company responsibilities for ensuring the health and safety of their employees, those under their control and those who might be affected by the work undertaken, i.e. public, visitors and employees of other organisations. This includes briefing individuals working for them and ensuring there is the necessary understanding, competence and application of requirements to work safely and without harming the environment.

Employees will ensure they understand the health and safety risks involved in their work activities and their responsibility to apply the controls needed to manage those risks to acceptable levels. Similarly where work activities can have an adverse impact upon the environment, and where there are legal requirements, employees will understand those impacts and the controls they must ensure are applied.

If in doubt ask

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

If you have any queries in connection to this vacancy or your application, please contact us at careers@ukpowernetworks.co.uk quoting the vacancy reference number and a member of the team will get in touch with you as soon as possible.