Principal Network Engineer - Internal Vacancy

Equality of opportunity and inclusivity is fundamental to the vision and values of Wildanet. The principles of equality and diversity are at the heart of Wildanet's work and are supported by appropriate employment policies, procedures and good practice.

Wildanet is a thriving and growing internet provider bringing superfast and super-reliable service to homes and businesses throughout the region. Our aim is to attract, develop and retain colleagues with a unique combination of local knowledge and technical expertise who put the customer at the heart of the business.

Wildanet, building careers from the Southwest to anywhere.

Job Title: Principal Network Engineer - Internal Vacancy 

Benefits: Company Pension/ Employee Assistance Programme for you and your family/ Eyecare Vouchers/ Flexible Working / Bespoke Training & Development Plan/ Spontaneous Awards/ Enhanced Sick, Family leave and Statutory Leave/ Flu Jabs/ Death in Service Benefit/ Paid leave for charity support/ Complimentary tea and coffee in the office/ Attractive holiday package/ Free Broadband (after probation has been passed)/ Access to generous discounts on Wildanet Rewards & Recognition Hub

Location: Liskeard, travel required to sites throughout Cornwall and Devon

Salary: £33,000 - £36,000 DOE per annum

Role Purpose: The primary purpose of this role is to ensure the integrity and performance of Wildanet's Access Network, through carrying out the core duties of a Network Engineer while also acting as the technical subject matter expert for the Access Network team. The role serves as the primary engineering escalation point for complex faults, incidents and technical decisions prior to intervention by the Access Network Manager. Its purpose is to help always ensure continuity of service for customers by safeguarding network integrity, leading proactive maintenance planning, and ensuring emergency repairs and service restoration activities are delivered within agreed SLA targets. The role also supports the wider engineering team through technical leadership, mentoring and continuous improvement of network processes and standards.

Main Responsibilities:

• Deliver the full scope of the Network Engineer role while providing senior technical expertise across the Access Network.


• Act as the principal engineering escalation point for complex faults, incidents and technical decisions prior to escalation to the Access Network Manager.


• Provide hands-on leadership for complex troubleshooting, escalations and network recovery activities.


• Safeguard network integrity, resilience and service availability through effective technical oversight and engineering best practice.


• Lead proactive maintenance planning and support the delivery of planned engineering works to optimise uptime and reduce repeat faults.


• Ensure emergency repairs and service restoration activities are delivered within agreed SLA targets.


• Support the Access Network Manager with technical planning, engineering projects, departmental development and continuous improvement initiatives.


• Ensure B2B customer solutions are in place to manage complex and high value customer connections.


• Increase the competency and capability of the Access Network Team. 
  

Key Activities: 

While duties and responsibilities will vary, they typically include:

• Perform the full range of core Network Engineer duties across deployment, maintenance, fault resolution, customer-impacting repair work, and support for B2B and B2C services.


• Act as the primary engineering escalation point for complex network faults, incidents and technical decisions, providing technical leadership and guidance prior to escalation to the Access Network Manager.


• Lead technical triage, troubleshooting and resolution of major incidents, emergency repairs and service restoration activities, ensuring delivery within agreed SLA targets.


• Safeguard network integrity, resilience and availability through effective monitoring, proactive alarm triage, preventative interventions and engineering best practice.


• Develop and deliver proactive maintenance plans and planned engineering works to optimise network uptime and reduce repeat faults.


• Support the Access Network Manager with technical planning, engineering projects, departmental development and continuous improvement initiatives, including day-to-day operational support where required.


• Support the management of B2B and other complex customer solutions throughout the lifecycle from survey through to install and service handover.


• Coach, mentor and provide technical guidance to Network Engineers and colleagues across the wider Access Network team to build capability and support high performance.


• Lead, coordinate and delegate engineering tasks, projects and planned activities across the team to ensure effective delivery of reactive and proactive work.


• Ensure company systems, CRM and workflow processes are followed, with accurate data capture, closure notes and supporting evidence maintained.


• Liaise with internal teams, external stakeholders, partners and suppliers throughout fault, incident, installation and service activities using appropriate communication channels.


• Participate in the departmental on-call rota to support service continuity for customers on a 24/7 basis.
  
  

Essential Person Specification

Knowledge:

• Understanding of Medium / High networking protocols


• Good working knowledge of routers, switches, radio equipment and fibre technologies
  
  

Skills/Attributes:

• Ability to provide technical leadership and day-to-day coordination across engineering activities without direct line management responsibility.


• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain technical issues clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.


• Ability to coach, support and share knowledge with colleagues to build capability across the Access Network team.


• Ability to prioritise and coordinate workload across reactive faults, planned works and team support activities.


• Sound understanding of network principles relevant to access network operations, fault diagnosis and service delivery.


• Working knowledge of electrical principles relevant to safe installation, maintenance and troubleshooting activities.
  
  

Experience:

• Providing technical support to end user customers with their personal equipment such as Wifi and router issues.


• Experience within a networking or telecommunications environment (including ISPs)


• Using network monitoring tools


• Managerial experience supporting a team


• Escalation Path triage


• Using cloud management platforms


• Terminating Network Cables/ CAT / Fibre / DC
  
  


• Previous experience of WISP (desirable)


• ONMSI - Viavi (desirable)


• CPE Management (desirable)


• OLT Platform Management (desirable)


• Ubiquiti Cloud (desirable)


• Telco (48v) Power Systems (desirable)


• Exposure ITIL based best practice Service Operations (desirable)
  

Qualifications:

• Good level of Numeracy and Literacy.


• CCNA/ JNCIA or equivalent is desirable although the demonstrable experience of network principles and technologies will suffice.


• Level 3 Diploma in Electrical Installations (desirable) 


• NVQ Level 3 (on-site competence) (desirable) 
  

Circumstances:

• A full valid UK driving licence


• Ability to work at heights


• This role is subject to variable shift rotations and out of hours working. There is an expectation to participate in a 24/7 on-call ROTA within this role.


• This role will involve a combination of office-based remote support and physical field-based working.


• Core working hours will be within 08:00 – 20:00. Your normal hours of work will be from 9am to 5pm Monday-Friday. 
  
  

Please note this vacancy is only open to existing Wildanet employees. Regretfully, external applications will not be processed.