Lead Administrator

Work Location: UK (Hybrid - Warwick / Wokingham)

Contract Type: B2B Contract - Inside IR35

Experience Required: 5-8 years

Mandatory Skill: Cisco ACI Administration

We are seeking an experienced Lead Administrator L1 / Network Technical Lead to design, implement, and manage enterprise-grade network infrastructure. The ideal candidate will provide technical leadership across projects, ensure high availability and security of network services, and support day-to-day operations within a hybrid working environment.

• Lead the design and evolution of LAN, WAN, WLAN, SD-WAN, and cloud networking solutions.
• Develop scalable, secure architecture based on business requirements.

• Act as the technical lead for network projects (migrations, upgrades, deployments).
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams for seamless integration of network services.

• Oversee daily network operations, troubleshooting, and performance tuning.
• Manage network monitoring tools and promptly respond to incidents/outages.

• Implement and maintain network security controls (firewalls, VPNs, access controls).
• Ensure compliance with ISO, GDPR, and internal standards.

• Work closely with service providers, hardware vendors, and managed service partners.
• Provide technical guidance and support to stakeholders; mentor junior engineers.

• Maintain detailed documentation of configurations, policies, and procedures.
• Prepare regular reports on network performance, capacity, and major incidents.

• 5-8 years of proven experience in enterprise network design/operations.
• Strong expertise in routing, switching, firewalls, and VPN technologies.
• Hands-on experience with Cisco ACI (Mandatory).
• Experience with Cisco, Juniper, Fortinet, Palo Alto, or equivalent platforms.
• Familiarity with Azure, AWS, or GCP cloud networking.
• Solid understanding of network security principles.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and stakeholder management skills.
• Relevant certifications such as CCNP, CCIE, Azure Network Engineer, AWS Networking Specialty.

• Experience leading network workstreams in transformation or separation projects.
• Knowledge of automation tools (Ansible, Terraform) for network provisioning.
• ITIL certification or experience in service management methodologies.