Communications Network Architect

81918 - Communications Network Architect

This Communications Network Architect will report to the Network Capability Manager and will work within the Technology Strategy Regulation and Support Services directorate based in our Ipswich office. You will be a permanent employee.

You will attract a salary of up to 85000 depending on skills qualifications and experience and a bonus of 7.5%. This role can also offer blended working after probationary period (6 months) - 3 days in the office and 2 remote

Close Date: 01/01/2026

We also provide the following additional benefits

• 25 Days Annual Leave plus bank holidays.
• Reservist Leave Additional 18 days full pay and 22 unpaid
• Personal Pension Plan Personal contribution rates of 4% or 5% (UK Power Networks will make a corresponding contribution of 8% or 10%)
• Tenancy Loan Deposit Scheme Season Ticket Loan
• Tax efficient benefits: Cycle to Work Home & Tech and Green Car Leasing Schemes
• Occupational Health support
• Switched On scheme providing discount on hundreds of retailers products
• Discounted gym membership
• Employee Assistance Programme

Job Purpose

As an important member of the technology team you will manage the design documentation and implementation in to BAU for the network and voice services covering many service providers for the IP/MPLS SCADA network across the UKPN estate.

You will come at an exciting time for UKPN as we integrate services into private- and public-cloud environments and under a backdrop of convergence of IT and OT with a focus on automation and orchestration of services where you will play an important part.

We ask that you have technical expertise across multiple areas and functions - ability to work with pre-sales and internal teams on requirements gathering creation of high-level and detailed design specs ability to partner with development teams to automate configuration delivery and support processes and ownership of overall projects.

Dimensions

Direct reports: none. Supervise infrastructure personnel in 3rd party organisations

Budget: none

Support of Infrastructure Architecture circa 6000 users and associated infrastructure.

Technical validation of the development of Infrastructure solutions ranging from <100k to >2m out of a total estimated installed base of circa 10m of in-scope IT equipment

Principal Accountabilities

• Develop and help design and implement IT/OT network Infrastructure for UKPN.
• Design and support solutions specific to our Communications market
• Developing the architecture that supports our wide portfolio of products in the Communications market including- LTE Roaming and clearing Caller ID and protection services Messaging services SS7 and mobile signalling services.
• Design solutions such as large-scale SD-WAN IPSec and MPLS VPN IP multicast solutions and public cloud interconnects across wired and wireless comms.
• Work with strategic vendors for solution evaluation and customization and will provide third-level Operations support for incident resolution and leadership over critical operational maintenance works.
• Monitor IT industry advances in technical infrastructure and associated new technology. Use this knowledge to assess likely impact on architecture and to assist IT Operations and Business Architects in considering use of such technology etc.
• Develop standards and policy relating to technical architecture direction and usage

Essential Skills to be successful in the role

• Familiarisation of SCADA network infrastructure and protocols.
• Experience of carrier-based multiplexer networks (TDM & SDH).
• Experience of modem configuration and serial comms protocols.
• Experience of Avaya/Extreme/Ruggedcom LAN switches and configuration.
• Experience resolving spanning-tree issues.
• Experience of designing complex multi-vendor multi-technology IP networks.
• Experience with architecture and provisioning of solutions within MPLS or SD-WAN based environments
• Experience in network design and implementation based on high-level customer requirements
• TCP/IP and routing knowledge (BGP & OSPF).
• Experience with Customer Edge features such as Network Address Translation VRRP/HSRP
• Familiar with mobile networks.
• Familiar with optic fibre networks.
• Familiar with satellite and radio networks.
• The ability to produce detailed network drawings using AutoCAD & Visio
• Able to work flexible hours and provide on-call support

Desirable Skills

• Experience with AAA Tacacs Radius and CA/PKI
• Experience with Voice over IP Dial Services (Async/PPP ISDN) Wireless services (CDMA EVDO GPRS EDGE 802.11b/g/n) Server Load-Balancing (F5)
• Proficient in IPSec (including DMVPN and RRI) design configuration operation and troubleshooting
• Proficient in IP Multicast design configuration operation and troubleshooting

Nature & Scope

The Technology Department works across UK Power Networks supporting us in the achievement of our vision to become the best performing DNO. The team achieve this through the provision of technology solutions and the optimisation of current solutions to improve how we operate. Continuous improvement customer service and seamless delivery is at the heart of this ethos and are therefore underpinned by effective network and voice solutions.

The team vision is To operate the best utility owned communications network in the UK ensuring the Secure Resilient and Reliable control of our electricity network whilst enabling new technology to support net zero for all.

You will work with the Corporate Network Manager OT Datacentre Manager OT focused support teams and partners the rest of Technology team IT Service Providers and partners across UKPN to implement and improve networking and voice arrangements.

You will blend several skillsets including network technology assessment design implementation operation governance change management and communications. The main measure of success for this role is upholding the IT and organisational resilience of UKPN concerning threats and incidents.

Health & Safety Responsibilities

Managers and supervisors carry both legal and company responsibilities for ensuring the health and safety of their employees those under their control and those who might be affected by the work undertaken i.e. public visitors and employees of other organisations. This includes briefing individuals working for them and ensuring there is the necessary understanding competence and application of requirements to work safely and without harming the environment.

Employees will ensure they understand the health and safety risks involved in their work activities and their responsibility to apply the controls needed to manage those risks to acceptable levels. Similarly where work activities can have an adverse impact upon the environment and where there are legal requirements employees will understand those impacts and the controls they must ensure are applied.

If in doubt ask!

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race colour ancestry religion sex national origin sexual orientation age citizenship marital status disability gender gender identity or expression or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.

If you have any queries in connection to this vacancy or your application please contact us at quoting the vacancy reference number and a member of the team will get in touch with you as soon as possible.