Reference Number - 79227

This Communications Network Architect will report to the Network Capability Manager and will work within the Technology Strategy Regulation and Support Services directorate based in our Ipswich office. You will be a permanent employee.

You will attract a salary of £57,680.00 and a bonus of 7.5%. This role can also offer blended working after probationary period (6 months) - 3 days in the office and 2 remote

Close Date: 22/07/2024

We also provide the following additional benefits

• Annual Leave
• 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
• Tax efficient benefits: cycle to work scheme
• Season ticket loan
• Occupational Health support
• Switched On - scheme providing discount on hundreds of retailers products.
• Discounted access to sports and social clubs
• Employee Assistance Programme.

Job Purpose

As an important member of the technology team, you will manage the design, documentation and implementation in to BAU for the network and voice services covering many service providers for the IP/MPLS SCADA network across the UKPN estate.

You will join 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, ability to partner with development teams to automate configuration and delivery processes, and ownership of overall projects.

DIMENSIONS:

Direct reports: none. Supervise infrastructure personnel in 3rd party organisations

Budget: none

Support of Infrastructure Architecture circa 6,000 users and associated infrastructure.

Technical validation of the development of Infrastructure solutions ranging from <£100k to >£2m out of a total estimated installed base of circa £10m of in-scope IT equipment

Principal Accountabilities

• Develop, maintain and help design and implement the IT/OT network Infrastructure for UKPN.
• Design and support solutions specific to our Communications market
• Develop the architecture that supports our wide portfolio of products in the Communications market including- LTE Roaming and clearing, Caller ID and protection services, Messaging services, SS7 and mobile signalling services.
• Designing 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 will 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.

Essential Skills to be successful in the role

• 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 of 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
• Extensive 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.
• Able to work flexible hours and provide on-call support

Desirable Skills

• 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 troubleshootin

Nature & Scope

The Technology Department works across UK Power Networks, supporting us in the achievement of our vision to become the best performing DNO. The team achieve this through the provision of technology solutions and the optimisation of current solutions to improve how we operate. Continuous improvement, customer service and seamless delivery is at the heart of this ethos and are therefore underpinned by effective network and voice solutions.

You will work with the Corporate Network Manager, OT Datacentre Manager, OT focused support teams and partners, the rest of Technology team, IT Service Providers and partners across UKPN to implement and improve networking and voice arrangements.