Principal/Lead Network Engineer

Overview

We are seeking an exceptional Principal Network Engineer to own and evolve our global enterprise networking estate across Private Cloud, AWS, and Azure. This role will lead the design and delivery of our next-generation network architecture, including the introduction of Google Cloud, and the transformation of a historically fragmented environment into a unified, scalable, and high-performance network fabric.

This is a critical leadership position for a highly capable technologist who operates confidently across strategy, architecture, and hands-on delivery. You will bring deep expertise in large-scale hybrid networking and apply it to build a secure, resilient, and fully observable platform that underpins our global products and services.

As the domain owner, you will define and govern networking standards, drive automation, and continuously evolve how connectivity is delivered across the organisation. You will combine strategic vision with technical execution, remaining close to design, implementation, and incident response, while mentoring and elevating the capabilities of internal engineering teams.

This is a hybrid role based out of our Birmingham HQ, with the expectation that the successful candidate will attend the office 1–2 times per month as required.

Responsibilities

Network Ownership & Strategy

• Own the full networking estate across Private Cloud data centres, AWS, and Azure.
• Define and lead the network transformation roadmap, introducing Google Cloud as the global edge.
• Unify cloud and on-prem networks into a consistent, scalable network fabric (“zones”).
• Establish standards and patterns that ensure consistent connectivity across products and platform.

Architecture & Engineering

• Design and implement a unified network architecture supporting hybrid workloads and modern application patterns.
• Optimise multi-cloud connectivity (Direct Connect, ExpressRoute, Cloud Interconnect).
• Standardise network patterns including VPCs/VNets, routing, segmentation, NAT, DNS, firewalls, and load balancing.
• Define and enforce a robust network security posture (zero-trust, DDoS protection, VPNs, policy automation).

Reliability, Operations & Incident Response

• Lead complex incident response and root cause analysis, driving improvements in reliability and MTTR.
• Build platform-wide observability into network services.
• Ensure performance, scalability, and resilience across all environments.

Automation & Governance

• Champion Infrastructure-as-Code for all network deployments (Terraform, CloudFormation, Pulumi).
• Embed automation and policy compliance into CI/CD pipelines.
• Own vendor and partner relationships with ISPs, cloud providers, and hardware suppliers.

Collaboration & Leadership

• Work closely with Platform Engineering, SRE, and Security teams to align design and architecture.
• Provide deep technical mentorship to engineers across the organisation.
• Govern standards, ensure adoption, and elevate network engineering capability across teams.

About You

• Experience in enterprise and cloud networking within hybrid or multi-cloud environments.
• Proven experience designing and operating large-scale, highly available networks across AWS, Azure, and on-prem.
• Deep expertise in routing, switching, BGP, MPLS, DNS, NAT, VPNs, SD-WAN, and load balancing.
• Strong understanding of cloud networking constructs (Transit Gateway, VPC Peering, Virtual WAN, Private Link, etc.).
• Hands-on experience with Google Cloud networking and global edge configurations (highly desirable).
• Strong grounding in network security, including firewall design, zero-trust, WAF, TLS, identity-aware proxies.
• Solid experience automating network infrastructure using IaC and CI/CD pipelines.
• Exceptional diagnostic and troubleshooting skills across distributed systems.
• Strong communication skills and stakeholder management, able to explain complex technical concepts clearly.
• Certifications such as CCNP/CCIE, AWS Advanced Networking, or Azure Network