Principal Network Designer, Ethernet platforms

Recruiter: Daniel McCarthy 

Hiring Manager: Kate Hicks

Career Grade: C 

Internal Closing Date: 24/6/25

About us

BT Group was the world’s first telco and our heritage in the sector is unrivalled.  As home to several of the UK’s most recognised and cherished brands – BT, EE, Openreach and Plusnet, we have always played a critical role in creating the future, and we have reached an inflection point in the transformation of our business. 
 
Over the next two years, we will complete the UK’s largest and most successful digital infrastructure project – connecting more than 25 million premises to full fibre broadband.  Together with our heavy investment in 5G, we play a central role in revolutionising how people connect with each other. 
 
While we are through the most capital-intensive phase of our fibre investment, meaning we can reward our shareholders for their commitment and patience, we are absolutely focused on how we organise ourselves in the best way to serve our customers in the years to come.  This includes radical simplification of systems, structures, and processes on a huge scale. Together with our application of AI and technology, we are on a path to creating the UK’s best telco, reimagining the customer experience and relationship with one of this country’s biggest infrastructure companies.  
 
Change on the scale we will all experience in the coming years is unprecedented.  BT Group is committed to being the driving force behind improving connectivity for millions and there has never been a more exciting time to join a company and leadership team with the skills, experience, creativity, and passion to take this company into a new era.

Why this job matters
This role will be a critical part of the team that will transform BT’s UK Business Connectivity portfolio through the use of Fabric (NaaS) platform. This is a major Business transformation project which will span multiple products -  IPVPN, Ethernet and Internet Access – and deliver services for Critical National Infrastructure, Government and UK business customers. 

What you'll be doing 
As the Senior Network Design Principle, you will be the technical lead for all VPN network design and development across UK Fabric.

Specifically, this role is accountable for:

• All VPN network designs of the NaaS ecosystem (inc. configuration orchestration and underlay)
• The whole lifecycle of the solution -  deployment, operation, migration, evolution, in life
• The development of product and features on the new NaaS ecosystem
• Successful integration with a variety of OSS / BSS systems
• Tracking progress, resolving dependencies, evaluating risk and communicating status to stakeholders
• Leading a matrix team of technical experts to deliver features/integration solutions and provide technical thought leadership to a larger matrix team.
• Acting as a technical ambassador for the company and providing expert technical consulting to customers at a platform and/or overall solution level.

The skills you'll need to succeed

Mandatory

• Engineering leadership and excellence
• Systematic problem-solving approach, coupled with effective verbal and written communication skills
• Expertise in designing, configuring, analysing, integrating and troubleshooting Cisco software / hardware in a service provider setting.
• Experience with scalable service provisioning (FCAPS)
• Extensive hand-on demonstratable experience with core routing technologies (e.g. BGP, scalable IGP, MPLS-VPNs)
• In-Depth understanding and hand-on experience with Quality of Service (QoS).
• Experience with networks data modelling

Expected

• Ability to debug, troubleshoot and resolve technical issues
• Experience in network statistics and performance management i.e. streaming telemetry
• Understanding of Life-Cycle Management (devices, services, resources)
• Hands-on experience with virtiualisaton and containerised routers
• Experience with defect management.
• Specialist knowledge of relevant emerging network/software technologies.
• Experience in resolution of customer impacting network issues.

Desirable

• Experience with agile delivery
• Experience with gNMI, gRPC, JSON.
• Experience with CICD methodologies (Robot, Gitlab, BDD)
• Hands-on experience with test tools e.g  lxia lxNetwork, lxload, lxBreakingPoint
• Understanding / experience of segment routing protocols e.g. SR-TE, SRv6, BGP-LS and PCEP
• Typical Certifications/Accreditations attained or working towards include:
• Member of a professional body e.g. Institution of Engineering and Technology
• Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) or vendor equivalent experience.
• Demonstrable experience with Python (or similar) programming language 

A FEW POINTS TO NOTE:

Although these roles are listed as full-time, if you’re a job share partnership, work reduced hours, or any other way of working flexibly, please still get in touch.

We will also offer reasonable adjustments for the selection process if required, so please do not hesitate to inform us.

DON'T MEET EVERY SINGLE REQUIREMENT?

Studies have shown that women and people who are disabled, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse or from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification and criteria. We're committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace where everyone can be their best, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every requirement on the Job Description, please apply anyway - you may just be the right candidate for this or other roles in our wider team.