Technical Specialist – Networks (273jc) – Birmingham - Excellent Salary vacancy in Birmingham, UK (273jc)

My client, who are a leading IT infrastructure services company, who have been at the leading edge for the last 40 years and who are experiencing exceptional and sustained growth are now seeking additional Technical Specialist to join their expanding teams.

You will be reporting to a Team Manager and you will be heavily involved in the design, implementation and transition of new bespoke customer solutions. You will design solutions based on industry best practices using a number of different vendor technologies with an emphasis on security. You will also work closely with both solution and technical architects to assist in delivery of new technologies and service improvements.

You will also provide 3rd line support where required and act as a technical escalation point and mentor to BAU engineers.

Therefore, your main duties will include:
• Assist engagement with customers and/or internal teams to ensure design of technical solutions are in line with the requirements of the customer
• Assist in the requirements gathering process and pre-sales phase including due diligence, SoW and solution proposals

Design & Architecture
• Work closely with the Technical Architects to contribute to the design of platform service and customer infrastructures from conception to completion
• Assist on the creation of technical architectures stretching across the entire breadth of the IT estate for Data centre platform services and customers alike
• Contribute to the continuous improvement programmes of all technology platforms across the datacentre

Implementation
• Technically lead on the implementation of customer projects into the datacentre and at customer sites
• Liaise with 3rd party ISP’s to assist in the delivery of external links and services into the datacentre
• Liaise with company partners to assist in the delivery of customer projects

Planning & Transition
• Lead on handover and acceptance into service for all new implementations and enhancements/upgrades
• Lead on the creation, approval and quality standards of all technical project documentation
• Lead workshops and training sessions with support staff to facilitate handover to BAU operations

Support
• Act as a technical escalation point for major incidents related to the service delivery from the datacentre and customer sites
• Act as a mentor and coach to BAU staff, providing input to PDRs as directed by line management
• Willing to be part of a 24x7 on call rota

Documentation
• Review High Level Design documentation and provide feedback
• Lead on the creation of technical low-level documentation for all platform services for the data centre and for new customers
• Ensure technical documentation is completed to a professional standard
• Ensure network diagrams are completed with all technical design documents

The ideal individual for this role will be self-motivated with a track record of working with a datacentre technology stack and delivery of both customer and platform projects. Experience of working in a fast paced, dynamic environment with a can-do attitude, showing attention to detail and able to handle work with multiple customers and projects.

Individuals must have experience of working in a large solution provider with a rapidly expanding customer base.

Therefore, the skills you will need will be as follows
Essential
• Strong background in enterprise and datacentre technologies in large-scale deployments
• Minimum 5 years’ experience providing support to enterprise level clients
• Minimum 3 years’ experience in a professional services, datacentre, sales or customer support role
• In-depth experience of Cisco networking products such as ASA, FWSM, IPS, Nexus, 6500 VSS, ACE, backed up by a current CCNP R&S / Security certification
• Proven experience in routing protocols such as OSPF & BGP
• Detailed knowledge and practical experience of firewalls, load balancers and proxy solutions such as Fortinet, CheckPoint and F5, specifically in a cloud environment
• Detailed knowledge of VPN technologies such as IPSEC Site-to-Site, Remote Access (AnyConnect / Juniper / Pulse) with PKI
• Experience in producing Low Level Design documentation & reviewing HLDs
• Experience of working closely with both Solution & Technical Architects
• Ability to logically troubleshoot complex, technical, multi-site and multi-disciplinary problems
• Ability to work under pressure to tight project deadlines
• Willingness to travel (about 25% of the time)
Desirable
• Appropriate certifications in Fortinet, F5 & Checkpoint technologies (FCNSP / NSE4+, F5-CA / F5-CTS, CSSA / CSSE)
• Detailed technical knowledge of software-defined networking (ACI / NSX) & unified networking.
• B.S. degree in Computer Network Engineering or equivalent
• Experience of working with Active Directory (DNS, DHCP & LDAP)
• Experience of working with Network Monitoring Tools using SNMP
• Experience of working in a multi-client solutions provider and/or ISP
• Experience of customer life cycle management particularly pre-sales, strategy, requirements analysis, discovery, technology planning, project management, proposal writing and customer presentations
Advantageous
• Knowledge and experience of working in Official Sensitive environments
• Knowledge and experience of working with PSN
• Experience of delivering bespoke solutions to large enterprise organisations
• Exposure to project management and service management industry best practises (Prince2, ITIL v3, PMP, MSP)

Due to the nature of some of my client’s operations, you will also need to be able to pass SC clearance or hold SC clearance.

In return they are offering a good basic salary and benefits package, as well as ongoing development, promotion and support as well as working within a company that is in the forefront of the sector, and your working hours will be 9.am – 5.30pm core hours, but potential working hours from 8am till 6pm but 37.5 hours total per week.