About the role

To provide Acceptance Into Service governance for new or changed network products, services and solutions, acting as the operational gatekeeper between Projects and Operations. The role ensures that the project has supplied all mandatory operational, technical, support, monitoring, security, documentation and handover artefacts required before the product or service is accepted into live support.

The AIS Professional validates operational readiness, identifies supportability gaps, challenges incomplete project handovers, coordinates remediation actions, and protects Operations from accepting services that are not supportable, observable, documented, secure, resilient or aligned to agreed service management standards.

What you’ll be doing

• Act as the AIS gatekeeper between Project delivery teams and Operations to ensure controlled transition of products, services and network changes into live support.
• Validate that the project has provided all required operational artefacts including design documents, support model, monitoring requirements, inventory data, configuration records, operational procedures and escalation paths.
• Review service readiness against agreed AIS entry and exit criteria, highlighting gaps, risks, dependencies and actions before operational acceptance.
• Assess supportability of new or changed services by reviewing service scope, technology stack, interdependencies, observability, resilience, customer impact and operational ownership.
• Ensure monitoring, alerting, logging, backup, capacity, availability, performance, service reporting and incident response requirements are defined before go-live.
• Validate that operational teams have received required knowledge transfer, runbooks, troubleshooting guides, known error records, vendor contacts and service recovery procedures.
• Review network implementation and handover packs for completeness, including topology, IP addressing, routing, firewall/security dependencies, circuit details and management access requirements.
• Coordinate with Project Managers, Design, Build, Security, Service Management, Tooling, Vendors and Operations to resolve acceptance gaps and drive readiness to closure.
• Support readiness reviews, service transition boards, CAB discussions and operational acceptance forums by providing clear go/no-go recommendations.
• Ensure risks, assumptions, issues and dependencies are formally tracked, communicated and owned before service acceptance.
• Protect Operations from premature handover by challenging incomplete documentation, unclear ownership, missing monitoring, unsupported designs or unverified operational processes.
• Contribute to continuous improvement of AIS checklists, acceptance criteria, handover quality, service transition governance and operational readiness reporting.

Essential Skills / Experience

• Strong technical foundation equivalent to a Networks L2 or L3 Engineer with hands-on understanding of enterprise LAN, WAN, routing, switching and service provider network operations.
• Good knowledge of Cisco routing and switching technologies, including ISR/ASR, Catalyst, Nexus and enterprise/service provider network platforms.
• Good Understanding of the Network Security Products like Firewalls and SASE and NAC solutions from different Vendors.
• Sound understanding of routing protocols and network services such as BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, IS-IS, MPLS, L3VPN, IPv6, QoS, DHCP, DNS, ARP, RADIUS and TACACS.
• Ability to understand interconnected systems across network, security, monitoring, tooling, IPAM, identity/access, logging, backup, vendor support and service management platforms.
• Ability to validate a comprehensive operational acceptance checklist covering design, support model, monitoring, access, documentation, resilience, capacity, security, compliance and service ownership.
• Practical understanding of ITIL aligned incident, problem, change, configuration, release and service transition processes.
• Experience reviewing technical design documents, low level designs, implementation plans, rollback plans, test evidence, operational handover packs and knowledge-transfer material.
• Working knowledge of ServiceNow/Remedy or similar ITSM platforms, CMDB/inventory practices and operational reporting requirements.
• Ability to identify operational risks from missing documentation, unclear ownership, unsupported components, poor monitoring, weak escalation paths or incomplete acceptance criteria.
• Effective stakeholder management, negotiation and communication skills to challenge delivery gaps professionally and drive closure across multiple teams.

Experience you would be expected to have

• 6 to 11 years of related experience in network operations, service transition, technical management, service introduction, project handover or operational readiness roles.
• Experience working in a global customer-facing network operations environment with exposure to 24x7 support, SLA-driven service delivery and ITIL processes.
• Professional qualification such as B.E./B.Tech/MCA preferred; diploma in a relevant technical field is acceptable with appropriate experience.
• CCNP Routing & Switching / Enterprise preferred; CCIE or ITIL certification will be an added advantage.
• Proven experience reviewing network designs, operational documentation, implementation plans and support procedures for technical and operational completeness.
• Experience coordinating across Projects, Design, Build, Operations, Service Management, Security, Tooling and Vendors to complete service readiness actions.
• Ability to communicate clearly with technical teams, service owners, project managers and customer stakeholders, including concise risk and readiness reporting.
• Ability to work under pressure, challenge constructively, prioritise operational risk and maintain strong governance discipline during transition deadlines.