Communications Network Architect

Communications Network Architect at Alternative Networks (now part of Daisy Group)

This role is based in our Ipswich office. You will be a permanent employee.

Salary up to £85,000 plus a 7.5% bonus. Blended working 3 days in office, 2 remote after 6‑month probation.

Close Date: 01/01/2026

• 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.

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, partnership with development teams to automate configuration, delivery and support processes, and ownership of overall projects.

• Develop and help design and implement IT/OT network infrastructure for UKPN.
• Design and support solutions specific to our Communications market.
• Develop the architecture supporting our wide portfolio of products in the Communications market including LTE Roaming and clearing, Caller  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 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.
• Develop standards and policy relating to technical architecture direction and usage.

• 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.

• 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.

The Technology Department works across UK Power Networks, supporting us in…