Head of Network Engineering & Architecture

Network Architecture / Network Engineering / Design and Build / SD-WAN / WAN / CISCO / Vertas / Fortinet

Hybrid, up to 3 days per week in Reading

As the Head of Network Engineering & Architecture, you have not only technical network and architect skills but also strong people and managerial skills, giving you the ability to lead your team with a shared vision, to provide it with a clear work organisation and to keep control on your projects progress and risks.

• Prepare the future of networks, ensuring the use of efficient and modern technology.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to gather requirements and define project scope and timeline, providing regular updates and gathering feedback for continuous improvement.
• Lead the engineering budgeting, planning, execution, and delivery of the portfolio, managing projects and ensuring they align with strategic goals.
• Monitor project progress, identifying and addressing issues or risks to keep the project on track.
• Foster a collaborative environment by coordinating cross-functional team engineers (WAN, SD-WAN, SSE…)
• Implement and promote best practices in Agile methodologies and a Dev Ops mindset (e.g. CI / CD, automation).
• Ensure thorough quality assurance processes are in place to meet product standards and customer expectations.
• Ensure proper life cycle of current solutions and address technical debt.
• Develop and maintain comprehensive documentation for all project phases, ensuring knowledge transfer and continuity.
• Manage performance, develop talent and keep skilled staff motivated.
• Lead, mentor and coach your team members to foster knowledge sharing, growth, learning, accountability and team spirit.
• Report on the progress of the network portfolio initiatives and projects.
• Act as product owner for your area, manage a backlog and prioritise initiatives to improve key metrics.
• Lead and manage selection and maintenance of infrastructure vendors and partners to support the organisation's goals.

• Deep SD-WAN expertise (mandatory) - Proven hands‑on experience with technologies such as Versa, Cisco/Viptela, Fortinet, including architecture design and trade‑offs.
• Engineering leadership (not operations) - Experience leading architecture and build teams, not service delivery or support.
• Structured execution mindset
  - Ability to define roadmaps, standards, and engineering governance.
• Program / portfolio management
  - Proven track record managing complex multi‑stream programs with clear prioritisation and tracking.
• Strong communication discipline
  - Ability to communicate clearly, concisely, and in a structured way (executive‑level).
• Transformation experience
  - Led network modernisation (SD‑WAN, SASE, cloud connectivity) in complex environments.

If this opportunity sounds of interest and you have the required technical and managerial experience within Network and Architecture, please submit your cv for consideration.