Network Manager

Job description

Contract terms

Starting salary: HC1 (£70,854 – £81,621)
Work Location: Alexandra House, 10 Station Road, Wood Green, London, N22 7TR
Hours per week: 36 hours, Full Time
Contract type: Permanent
Closing date: Sunday 1st December 2024, at 23:59

About Haringey

Haringey is a fantastic place to live and work – the world in one borough. A place brimming with creativity, personality, radicalism, and community. It is a place where we stand up for each other. A place that is proudly distinctive. We’ll be celebrating all this and more as the “rebel borough” when we are the 2027 London Borough of Culture.

Our history champions change-makers and everyday rebels; revelling in our differences, battling discrimination, championing equality, and doing things our own way. Haringey’s people are a huge asset, with knowledge, expertise, and passion. Our staff members embody our organisational values: Caring, Creative, Courageous, Collaborative and Community-focused. These values keep us looking forward, ambitious for the future, and continuously striving to do our very best for all of our residents.

About the role

Haringey Council is currently seeking a Network Manager to join the Technology team within the Culture, Strategy, and Engagement – Digital and Change Directorate. We are looking for a dedicated and passionate individual who can bring their skills and expertise to the team. As Network Manager, the successful candidate will be responsible for the management and maintenance of the council’s network infrastructure (LAN and WAN), voice, and telecoms systems, including all routing, switching, Wi-Fi, and security devices.

The role requires leading the network team, ensuring an effective balance between operational support and project work, while providing strong leadership and management. The Network Manager will collaborate closely with the security team to ensure the council remains protected against internal and external threats. Additionally, the role involves participation in an out-of-hours, rota-based callout system.

In this position, you will lead investigations to diagnose and resolve complex network issues, working with users, colleagues, and suppliers as required. You will also take the lead in managing major incidents (MIs) affecting the network, ensuring timely updates are provided to the Digital Senior Management Team (SMT), Senior Leadership, and emergency planning personnel to facilitate coordinated responses.

A key aspect of the role is mitigating the impact of MIs across the organisation’s network, implementing measures to prevent recurrence. As part of the Technology management team, you may also deputise for the Head of Technology when needed. You will be expected to identify, recommend, and support the development and delivery of improvements, contributing to the creation and enforcement of policies, procedures, and systems.

Effective resource management across multiple concurrent projects and support activities is essential to achieve agreed outputs. You will ensure team members possess the necessary skills, experience, and behaviours for their roles, understand their responsibilities within the wider Digital and Change team, and have clearly defined objectives that are regularly monitored. Providing regular, constructive feedback to direct reports will be a key part of supporting their development and success in the role.

About the team

The network team is responsible for leading investigations to diagnose and resolve complex network issues, collaborating with users, colleagues, and suppliers as needed. They manage major incidents (MIs) affecting the network, providing updates to the Digital Senior Management Team (SMT), Senior Leadership, and emergency planning personnel. The team works to mitigate the impact of MIs across the organisation’s network and implements measures to prevent similar threats in the future.

As part of the Technology management team, the network team deputises for the Head of Technology when required. They play a key role in identifying, recommending, and supporting the development and delivery of improvements, contributing to the creation and implementation of policies, procedures, and systems. The team oversees resources across multiple concurrent projects and support activities to ensure the delivery of agreed outputs.

Team members are equipped with the necessary skills, experience, and behaviours for their roles. They are clear on their responsibilities within the wider Digital and Change team and are given defined objectives that are closely monitored. The team ensures regular, timely, and constructive feedback is provided, fostering ongoing development and overall success.

Reporting to the Head of Technology, the team provides updates on risks, progress, and challenges. They ensure all network and security devices and software are supported and maintained, including timely updates to the networking hardware and software estate (such as telephony systems). The team oversees change operations in line with the council’s change procedures and ensures that network team SLA targets are met. They are also responsible for maintaining comprehensive technical documentation, policies, and procedures.

The network team manages out-of-hours and standby arrangements for the network, leads discussions, and represents their work in meetings related to the council’s governance and processes. These include the Enterprise Architecture (EA) Board, Digital Advisory Boards, TAG, and the Security Forum.

About you

We are looking for individuals who can work effectively in small teams on a daily basis and who possess the necessary qualifications and experience. Ideal candidates will hold a degree, an equivalent vocational qualification, or relevant Cisco certifications (CCNA, CCNP) with expertise in firewalls and network technologies, including security.

Strong communication skills are vital, as candidates must be able to explain complex network issues to non-technical audiences. The ability to coach and mentor team members, including developing training plans to support emerging technologies, is also essential. Candidates should have experience managing a diverse workload, meeting the needs of various stakeholders, and maintaining high team morale through open and effective communication.

The role requires expertise in networking protocols such as BGP, OSPF, VRF, and EIGRP, as well as Cisco router and switch management, firewall administration (Cisco ASA and Palo Alto), and Wi-Fi infrastructure configuration (Meraki). A thorough understanding of security threats, vulnerabilities, and the corresponding controls to manage security incidents is equally important.

Key technical skills include the ability to create technical documentation, subnetting, VLAN configuration, wireless transmission planning, and familiarity with advanced IP and synchronisation technologies such as PTP 1588v2, SyncE, and SONUS SBC.

Candidates should have experience in Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC), IPT, VoIP, conferencing, and contact centre design and management. Expertise in Cisco voice platforms, including Unified Call Manager, Unity, Jabber, WebEx, and a variety of call centre solutions, is also required.

A broad understanding of IT networking concepts such as TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, VPNs, and VoIP, along with strong knowledge of IP routing and switching, is essential for success in this role.

Working for Haringey

At Haringey Council we are committed to creating a workplace culture where all our people feel valued, included, and able to be their best at work, and we recognise the benefits of a diverse workforce so welcome applications from all ethnicities and communities so that we continue to make a difference to our residents and community.  Our benefits package includes a leave entitlement of 30 days + bank holidays, potential hybrid working opportunities, health and wellbeing support, a generous local government pension scheme and a range of discount schemes across leisure and culture that provide both financial and money-saving discounts.