Senior Network Engineer

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Job summary

In this role, you will be responsible for ensuring the stability, security, and efficiency of the trust IT network infrastructure. You will also work on projects and be on-call to respond to network issues.

The role will deputise for the network manager and ensure that the management; configuration; maintenance and implementation of enhancements to the current network infrastructure across Bolton NHS Foundation Trust are completed in line with agreed procedures.

Previous applicants need not apply.

Main duties of the job

The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in firewall, VPN, network security, switching and routing, wireless, excellent communication and documentation skills.

About us

The Trust is a great place to work, evidenced by the most recently NHS Staff Survey results where our staff ranked us as the best NHS place to work in Greater Manchester. We are really proud of this and ensure that everyone in the Trust is both seen and heard. It has been a challenging time for the NHS with the national pandemic response at the forefront of our minds and activities, but we are coming out of pandemic pressures with renewed energy, and it is a truly exciting time for the Trust with investment and development of the IT Infrastructure of which this role will be a key part.

So, we hope the above has encouraged you to join a high-performing IT team in an equally high-performing Trust! We look forward to hearing from you.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Manage the availability, supportability and peak effectiveness of the IT network Infrastructures, tools, appliances and services.

Act as an escalation point for issues, provide leadership to ensure any issues or disruptions (planned or unplanned) are managed and resolved in timely manner

Deliver a high-quality service by continuously seeking ways to improve services, leveraging the investment in the products, and evaluating new products and services

Manage suppliers by holding them accountable to the contractual SLAs, and the quality of their services to a high standard, ensuring that they understand and support our priorities and engage them as a partner to find solutions for the challenges we have.

Liaise with operational service managers, team leads and their staff to develop and implement a contingency strategy for all systems where business continuity is critical.

To assist in the development of business cases for investment in IT Networks

Acting as a substitute for the Network Manager whenever necessary.

Ensuring that any proposed changes to the network design comply with the Trusts corporate strategy, Information governance (IG) guidance, ITIL best practice, and NHS IP addressing scheme.

Supporting and maintaining network security to ensure that the Trust fulfils its requirements under the NHS Executive Code of Connection.

Performing tasks related to securing the availability and performance of network and voice infrastructure services.

Monitoring the daily availability, capacity, and performance of network infrastructure services, and assisting the Network Manager in delivering effective availability, capacity, and performance management.

Assisting in documenting the architecture of the Trust's Local Area and Wide Area Network infrastructure.

Measuring network load and performance and providing reports and statistics.

Maintaining accurate and up-to-date network schematics, addressing data, site plans, and cable layouts.

Ensuring compliance with Trust change controls.

Liaising with third-party network suppliers regarding the delivery of network hardware and software support, logging fault calls, and ensuring that they are dealt with appropriately to prevent adverse effects on the Trust's services.

Providing high-quality network support as needed to all users connected to the Trust's infrastructure environment, using diagnostic tools and fault finding techniques to identify root causes.

Collaborating with the Data Centre/Network/UC Manager to plan and implement changes to network infrastructure systems to support the VOIP deployment, ensuring that issues are addressed by improvements in capacity and performance.

Providing network support for new system implementations and participating in project teams as required, reporting progress as directed by the Network Manager.

Supporting the CTO/Data Centre/Network Manager in ensuring that appropriate disaster recovery plans are in place in the event of technology failure.

Working according to the defined incident/problem/change management process, systematically carrying out assignments originating from the Service Desk within SLA times to keep incidents/problems to a minimum, maintaining accurate log entries of requests with fault details and contract information.

Ensuring compliance with all aspects of information security and confidentiality, particularly with regard to the Data Protection Act (2018) and ISO 27001.

Participating in the IT on-call rota.

Undertaking required training to maintain, strengthen, or develop relevant skills.

Working with customers and team members to resolve ongoing technical issues (Root Cause Analysis) and ensuring effective communication at all times.

Attending sites to troubleshoot and test replace and maintain network equipment as necessary.

Ensuring backups are taken and maintained for network-related hardware and software.

Collaborating with various teams within the Informatics department and keeping team members up-to-date as required.

Work alongside PMO and Project managers as a technical work stream to deliver projects in a timely and efficient manner with awareness of Prince 2 Standards.

Site Surveys in relation to IT requirements and documenting findings in a clear and concise manner.

Job description
Job responsibilities

Manage the availability, supportability and peak effectiveness of the IT network Infrastructures, tools, appliances and services.

Act as an escalation point for issues, provide leadership to ensure any issues or disruptions (planned or unplanned) are managed and resolved in timely manner

Deliver a high-quality service by continuously seeking ways to improve services, leveraging the investment in the products, and evaluating new products and services

Manage suppliers by holding them accountable to the contractual SLAs, and the quality of their services to a high standard, ensuring that they understand and support our priorities and engage them as a partner to find solutions for the challenges we have.

Liaise with operational service managers, team leads and their staff to develop and implement a contingency strategy for all systems where business continuity is critical.

To assist in the development of business cases for investment in IT Networks

Acting as a substitute for the Network Manager whenever necessary.

Ensuring that any proposed changes to the network design comply with the Trusts corporate strategy, Information governance (IG) guidance, ITIL best practice, and NHS IP addressing scheme.

Supporting and maintaining network security to ensure that the Trust fulfils its requirements under the NHS Executive Code of Connection.

Performing tasks related to securing the availability and performance of network and voice infrastructure services.

Monitoring the daily availability, capacity, and performance of network infrastructure services, and assisting the Network Manager in delivering effective availability, capacity, and performance management.

Assisting in documenting the architecture of the Trust's Local Area and Wide Area Network infrastructure.

Measuring network load and performance and providing reports and statistics.

Maintaining accurate and up-to-date network schematics, addressing data, site plans, and cable layouts.

Ensuring compliance with Trust change controls.

Liaising with third-party network suppliers regarding the delivery of network hardware and software support, logging fault calls, and ensuring that they are dealt with appropriately to prevent adverse effects on the Trust's services.

Providing high-quality network support as needed to all users connected to the Trust's infrastructure environment, using diagnostic tools and fault finding techniques to identify root causes.

Collaborating with the Data Centre/Network/UC Manager to plan and implement changes to network infrastructure systems to support the VOIP deployment, ensuring that issues are addressed by improvements in capacity and performance.

Providing network support for new system implementations and participating in project teams as required, reporting progress as directed by the Network Manager.

Supporting the CTO/Data Centre/Network Manager in ensuring that appropriate disaster recovery plans are in place in the event of technology failure.

Working according to the defined incident/problem/change management process, systematically carrying out assignments originating from the Service Desk within SLA times to keep incidents/problems to a minimum, maintaining accurate log entries of requests with fault details and contract information.

Ensuring compliance with all aspects of information security and confidentiality, particularly with regard to the Data Protection Act (2018) and ISO 27001.

Participating in the IT on-call rota.

Undertaking required training to maintain, strengthen, or develop relevant skills.

Working with customers and team members to resolve ongoing technical issues (Root Cause Analysis) and ensuring effective communication at all times.

Attending sites to troubleshoot and test replace and maintain network equipment as necessary.

Ensuring backups are taken and maintained for network-related hardware and software.

Collaborating with various teams within the Informatics department and keeping team members up-to-date as required.

Work alongside PMO and Project managers as a technical work stream to deliver projects in a timely and efficient manner with awareness of Prince 2 Standards.

Site Surveys in relation to IT requirements and documenting findings in a clear and concise manner.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Educated to degree level in IT-related subject or equivalent qualifications / experience
• Cisco certified Network Associate (CCNA) or evidence of working towards another relevant technical discipline or equivalent level of experience of working at a similar level.
• Evidence of continuing professional development

Desirable

• Cisco Certified Network (CCNP) Professional

Knowledge & Experience

Essential

• At least 2-3 years' experience of resolving faults on enterprise networks
• Significant experience of working in an IT customer support environment and providing a high level of customer service
• Evidence of good performance in current role.
• Effective team player
• Proven ability to work without supervision and act on own initiative, working to tight and often changing timescales
• Proficient in Microsoft Office products
• Organisational skills
• Problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands
• Experience of interpreting data, creating reports; designs and topology, developing or programming and maintaining documentation relating to hardware and applications support
• Experience of Cisco IOS installation and configuration
• Experience of planning and installing LAN/WAN/Firewalls
• Experience of managing Enterprise Remote Access and VPN solutions
• Good knowledge of networking principles to include strong understanding of TCP/IP, IP subnetting, VLANs, QoS, DNS, DHCP, SSL, routing and switching.
• Good understanding of WAN technologies Including MPLS
• Knowledge of Network resilience and disaster recovery

Desirable

• Experience of Extreme IOS installation and configuration
• Experience of working within the NHS
• Experience in supporting server software and hardware

Skills

Essential

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills, communicates effectively at all levels with a variety of internal and external individuals including clinicians
• Ability to communicate technical solutions to non-technical individuals of all levels and disciplines
• Ability to provide and receive complex and sensitive information
• Ability to influence and gain commitment from key stakeholders at all levels
• Ability to analyse complex facts and situations and develop a range of options
• Must be able to prioritise own work effectively and be able to direct activities of others
• Adaptability, flexibility and ability to cope with uncertainty and change
• Review incident tickets and resolve open tickets in a timely and professional manner, responding to end-users appropriately and within established SLA standards, communicating call status and ensuring a positive client experience
• Support the identification and resolution of service incidents and problems, co-ordinating resolution with third party suppliers and senior engineers as appropriate

Desirable

• Support the delivery of projects to Prince 2 Standard on time, to quality standards and in a cost effective manner

Other

Essential

• Able to participate in an on-call rota
• Be prepared to work outside of normal working hours to ensure testing and implementation can occur in order to minimise disruption to service users Contributes to the development of IM&T training packages
• Responsible for the proper and safe use of expensive IT equipment including installation and/or repair and maintenance of physical assets
• Be prepared to travel within the Trust geographical area as required by the role
• Used to working in a busy environment

Desirable

• Valid UK Driving License

Person Specification
Qualifications

Essential

• Educated to degree level in IT-related subject or equivalent qualifications / experience
• Cisco certified Network Associate (CCNA) or evidence of working towards another relevant technical discipline or equivalent level of experience of working at a similar level.
• Evidence of continuing professional development

Desirable

• Cisco Certified Network (CCNP) Professional

Knowledge & Experience

Essential

• At least 2-3 years' experience of resolving faults on enterprise networks
• Significant experience of working in an IT customer support environment and providing a high level of customer service
• Evidence of good performance in current role.
• Effective team player
• Proven ability to work without supervision and act on own initiative, working to tight and often changing timescales
• Proficient in Microsoft Office products
• Organisational skills
• Problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands
• Experience of interpreting data, creating reports; designs and topology, developing or programming and maintaining documentation relating to hardware and applications support
• Experience of Cisco IOS installation and configuration
• Experience of planning and installing LAN/WAN/Firewalls
• Experience of managing Enterprise Remote Access and VPN solutions
• Good knowledge of networking principles to include strong understanding of TCP/IP, IP subnetting, VLANs, QoS, DNS, DHCP, SSL, routing and switching.
• Good understanding of WAN technologies Including MPLS
• Knowledge of Network resilience and disaster recovery

Desirable

• Experience of Extreme IOS installation and configuration
• Experience of working within the NHS
• Experience in supporting server software and hardware

Skills

Essential

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills, communicates effectively at all levels with a variety of internal and external individuals including clinicians
• Ability to communicate technical solutions to non-technical individuals of all levels and disciplines
• Ability to provide and receive complex and sensitive information
• Ability to influence and gain commitment from key stakeholders at all levels
• Ability to analyse complex facts and situations and develop a range of options
• Must be able to prioritise own work effectively and be able to direct activities of others
• Adaptability, flexibility and ability to cope with uncertainty and change
• Review incident tickets and resolve open tickets in a timely and professional manner, responding to end-users appropriately and within established SLA standards, communicating call status and ensuring a positive client experience
• Support the identification and resolution of service incidents and problems, co-ordinating resolution with third party suppliers and senior engineers as appropriate

Desirable

• Support the delivery of projects to Prince 2 Standard on time, to quality standards and in a cost effective manner

Other

Essential

• Able to participate in an on-call rota
• Be prepared to work outside of normal working hours to ensure testing and implementation can occur in order to minimise disruption to service users Contributes to the development of IM&T training packages
• Responsible for the proper and safe use of expensive IT equipment including installation and/or repair and maintenance of physical assets
• Be prepared to travel within the Trust geographical area as required by the role
• Used to working in a busy environment

Desirable

• Valid UK Driving License

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the .

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. .

Additional information
Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the .

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. .

Employer details

Employer name

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust
Address

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust

Kinlay Road

Farnworth, Bolton

BL4 0JR

Employer's website