Location
Central London

Hours
Full Time - 24/7 Network Operations Centre shift patterns

Salary
£44,447 to £52,422 per annum (plus a Digital Allowance of up to £5,895 per annum for exceptional candidates)

About the Role
Join the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Digital team as a Network Operations Engineer and operate one of the UK’s largest mission-critical network estates, supporting services used by millions of citizens daily. You will work within a high-performing Network Operations Centre (NOC) responsible for the stability, performance, and security of a large-scale, multi-vendor network estate.

Your responsibilities will include proactive network monitoring, incident and problem management, and service optimisation to ensure high availability and resilience of critical national services. Collaborating closely with engineering, architecture, and security teams, you will help deliver secure, scalable infrastructure aligned to DWP’s strategic goals.

This role offers exposure to advanced technologies such as data centre networking (leaf-spine fabrics, VXLAN/EVPN), network segmentation (VRF), load balancing (F5), next-generation firewalls, and hybrid cloud networking (AWS/Azure). You will support the transition from legacy platforms to modern, cloud-enabled, internet-first architectures.

Strong technical leadership, stakeholder engagement, and a focus on measurable outcomes are essential. You will drive continuous improvement through network automation, observability, performance tuning, and DevOps practices, reducing operational toil and enhancing service reliability.

This position directly impacts the delivery of secure, resilient, and scalable digital services that support millions of UK citizens and enable DWP’s ongoing digital transformation.

Experience
Proven experience designing, implementing, and supporting enterprise-scale network infrastructure both on-premises and in the cloud, ensuring operational stability, resilience, and availability.
Working knowledge of network security principles and technologies including next-generation firewalls, VPNs, encryption, and authentication, with practical experience applying security controls in live environments.
Proven experience providing 3rd line support and managing incidents, problems, and changes using ITSM practices, including proactive monitoring and service improvement.
Strong technical knowledge of TCP/IP networking including routing protocols (e.g. OSPF, BGP, VXLAN), IP services (DNS, DHCP, NTP), and the ability to independently troubleshoot and resolve complex issues.
Experience working with data centre networking, hybrid cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/OCI), load balancing, PKI services, and enterprise monitoring tools such as BMC Entuity and NetScout is highly desirable.

About You
You are a skilled and motivated network professional with strong technical leadership and effective stakeholder engagement skills.
You have a proactive approach to problem solving and continuous service improvement.
You are comfortable working in a fast-paced 24/7 Network Operations Centre environment.
You have excellent communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively across multidisciplinary teams.
You are committed to delivering high-quality outcomes that support critical national services.

Qualifications
Security Check clearance is required for this role.
Relevant industry certifications such as Aruba, Arista, AWS, or Azure are beneficial but not essential.
Experience or knowledge of Infrastructure as Code and network automation tools (e.g. Terraform, Ansible, Python) is advantageous.
A full clean UK driving licence is not required.
Applicants must have resided continuously in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years, with 2 of those years immediately preceding the application.