HR Busines Partner

About the role

Accountable for the design, ownership, and continuous improvement of KFC UK&I’s network solutions, ensuring secure, resilient, and high‑performing connectivity across 1,000+ restaurants and corporate environments. Responsible for leading the network engineering team, mentoring two network engineers, and managing the delivery and lifecycle of network technology and services. Vendor collaboration is a key part of this role as KFC has partnered with various organisations to assist with day‑to‑day operations.

• Network Solution Design & Authority

  Owner of network architecture and design, accountable for developing and maintaining scalable, secure, resilient, and innovative solutions that align with business and security requirements. Responsible for evaluating emerging technologies, driving adoption of best practices, and ensuring all network solutions are future‑proof and cost‑effective.

• Team Leadership & Mentoring

  Lead, mentor, and develop a team of network engineers, managing their workload, performance, and professional growth. Allocate tasks, set priorities, and ensure the team delivers high‑quality support and project outcomes within agreed SLAs.

• Operational Excellence

  Accountable for the operational integrity of WAN, LAN, Wi‑Fi, and cloud‑based network services. Oversee incident response, troubleshooting, and root‑cause analysis for complex network issues, ensuring timely resolution and minimal business impact. Owner of network device configuration management, backup, and disaster recovery processes.

• Security & Compliance

  Responsible for enforcing network security baselines, compliance with internal policies, and external standards (e.g., ISO 27001, NIST CSF). Collaborate with the Security team on vulnerability management, incident response, and audit readiness.

• Supplier & Stakeholder Management

  Act as the primary technical authority with network service providers and hardware vendors, accountable for SLA adherence, capacity planning, and service improvement. Coordinate change windows, communications, and post‑change validation with business and IT stakeholders.

• Documentation & Governance

  Owner of network documentation, including diagrams, inventories, runbooks, and change records. Contribute to architecture standards, design reviews, and continuous improvement initiatives.

• On‑call & Travel

  Participate in an on‑call rota for major incidents and perform occasional travel to sites and data centers.

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Security, or related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Cisco CCNP or higher (or equivalent).
• Cloud networking certification (e.g., Azure/AWS) highly desirable.
• Security certifications (e.g., CompTIA Security+, CySA+, or SSCP) are advantageous.

• Minimum 10 years’ experience in enterprise network engineering, with proven team leadership and workload management responsibilities.
• Demonstrated experience in designing, implementing, and supporting SD‑WAN, large‑scale Wi‑Fi, NAC, and firewall solutions in hybrid (cloud/on‑prem) environments.
• Experience in leading a small team of engineers, including resource planning.
• Track record of leading network changes in high‑availability, mission‑critical environments with minimal downtime.
• Experience collaborating with third‑party vendors and suppliers to deliver critical services and oversee SLA compliance.

• Routing & Switching: Expert knowledge of BGP, static routing, route redistribution. VLANs, trunking, STP variants, LACP/Ether Channel.
• Cloud & Modern IT: Significant knowledge of cloud networking principles including the design and configuration of services (Azure/AWS), including Express Routes, vNets, NGS’s, routing tables, and security appliances.
• Networking Principles & Protocols: Expert understanding of network protocols and infrastructure such as TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, 802.1x. SD‑WAN, PKI, Radius, QoS, IP addressing and subnetting.
• Firewalls: Substantial understanding and experience of policy & object configuration, IPS/IDS, web filtering, application control, SSL inspection, VPN’s, IPsec…