3rd Line Network Engineer
Reading, mostly office based | £45,000 to £50,000 | Permanent, full time
We are seeking an experienced network engineer to take technical ownership of networking and network security across the client estates we manage.
The position operates as the final point of escalation for network faults, receiving work that cannot be resolved by our first and second-line teams. It is not solely a reactive role. You will be involved in project work as well, contributing to scoping and design as new work comes into the business, and remaining engaged through implementation and handover
Our client base ranges from single site offices to multi-site organisations with more involved routing and connectivity requirements, so the work carries genuine variety.
Responsibilities
- Acting as the senior escalation point for network faults raised by the service desk
- Diagnosing connectivity, performance and routing issues through to root cause
- Contributing to project scoping, design and delivery as new work enters the business, including client onboarding and infrastructure change
- Configuring and maintaining firewalls, switches, routers and wireless infrastructure
- Building and troubleshooting site to site and remote access VPNs
- Conducting firewall rule reviews and advising on network segmentation and security configuration
- Managing ISP and circuit escalations through to resolution
- Contributing to the development of the second line team through mentoring and knowledge sharing
- Maintaining network documentation and diagrams to a standard the wider team can work from
Requirements
- Substantial commercial networking experience at third line or senior level
- Confident and independent troubleshooting from the physical layer through to transport, covering cabling and interface faults, switching, VLANs, spanning tree and ARP, IP addressing, subnetting, routing and NAT, and TCP and UDP behaviour including handshakes, resets, retransmissions and MTU issues
- The ability to diagnose at the application layer, particularly DNS, HTTP and SMB, and to establish whether a reported application fault is in fact a network one
- A working understanding of TLS, including certificate and handshake failures arising from firewall inspection
- Practical firewall experience with one or more of Fortinet, Sophos, WatchGuard, Cisco, Palo Alto or Draytek
- Confident configuration and troubleshooting of VPNs and site to site connectivity, including the ability to isolate tunnel failures at either negotiation phase
- Wireless design and troubleshooting experience
- A structured approach to fault isolation, proving each layer in turn rather than working by trial and error
- The ability to communicate clearly with technical colleagues and non-technical stakeholders alike
Desirable
CCNA, CCNP or Fortinet NSE certification, SD WAN deployment experience, exposure to Azure networking, packet capture analysis, and prior managed service provider experience.
Package and working arrangements
£45,000 to £50,000 depending on experience,
22 days holiday plus bank holidays,
Private healthcare,
Onsite parking.
The role is primarily office based in Reading, with occasional visits to client sites
Pay: £45,000.00-£50,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Free parking
- On-site parking
- Private medical insurance
Ability to commute/relocate:
- Reading RG2: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Education:
- Certificate of Higher Education (preferred)
Experience:
- Network engineering: 4 years (preferred)
Work authorisation:
- United Kingdom (required)
Work Location: In person
