Site Reliability Engineering Principal

Recruiter: Danel McCarthy

Career Grade: C

Internal Closing Date: 26/6/2025

About us

BT is part of BT Group, along with EE, Openreach, and Plusnet.

Millions of people rely on us every day to help them live their lives, power their businesses, and keep their public services running. We connect friends to family, clients to colleagues, people to possibilities. We keep the wheels of business spinning, and the emergency services responding. 

We value diversity and celebrate difference. ‘We embed diversity and inclusion into everything that we do. It’s fundamental to our purpose: we connect for good.’

We all stick to the same values: Personal, Simple, and Brilliant. From day one, you’ll get stuck in to tough challenges, pitch in with ideas, make things happen. But you won’t be alone: we’ll be there with help and support, learning and development.  

This is your chance to make a real difference to the world: to be part of the digital transformation of countless lives and businesses. Grab it.

Why this job matters 

The Site Reliability Engineering Principal is a key technical member of the Network Services line of business that ensures BT is in the best position to deliver the service performance, reliability and availability that internal and external customers expect, through leading on cross-functional engineering discussions to achieve scalable, measurable, fault-tolerant and cost-effective network solutions. 

What you’ll be doing – your accountabilities 

• Building a next generation Network as a Service platform that is software driven from day one enabling BT to revolutionise the way customers consume services from us today.
• Defining the strategy and framework for building network automation tools for delivering network change, with a focus on consistency and building a re-usable and scalable software suite. 
• Leading the implementation of complex technical solutions spanning multiple network domains, from initial scoping of requirements through to delivery, integration, and in-life support. 
• Providing operational, design & deployment consultancy to teams across BT adding low level end-to-end technical insight. 
• Be a part of a 24x7 365 days a year callout rota providing final line technical expertise on BT’s critical national infrastructure.
• Mentor and coach a team of experienced SRE/ Network engineers to develop current and future team capabilities and ensure peak performance, identifying new ways to promote efficiency in existing processes and procedures. 
• Drive new ways of working that align with BT’s current and future security commitments, promoting a “secure by design” culture. 
• Operate as an SME to provide service assurance at the highest technical level across the whole BT Fixed Network’s estate.  
• Design and implement robust monitoring and alerting systems for BT’s Fixed Networks. 
• Develop engagement with other engineering communities within BT’s network and CFU teams. 

The skills you’ll need to succeed 

• A subject matter in the following network technologies MPLS (SR, LDP etc), OSPF, IS-IS, BGP-VPN/ L3VPN & eBGP.
• Strong understanding of model-driven network programmability e.g. RESTCONF, NETCONF, GNMI & YANG models.
• Strong software development skills with a focus on network automation e.g. Ansible, Jinja2 & Python. 
• Strong datacentre infrastructure skills, Virtualisation, Containerisation, DC switch fabric (VXLAN/ EVPN), Network attach storage & Firewalls. 
• Strong understanding of cyber security best practice, using this to promote a “secure by design” approach. 
• Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to build strong relationships with key stakeholders across Fixed Networks and the wider BT group. 
• Ability to understand a broad range of technical requirements and translate these into robust & scalable network solutions. 
• Excellent prioritisation skills, with the ability to understand BT product roadmaps and use this to influence the teams workstack priorities. 
• Must have strong technical mentoring skills. 

Experience you’d be expected to have 

• Significant Senior Network Engineer level experience both from an operational and design perspective. 
• Strong experience in mentoring a team of SRE/ Network engineers. 
• Extensive experience in a 24x7 operational environment managing large impact incidents. 
• Experience communicating to a wide audience up to and including C-suite executives. 

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.