Network Operations Engineer

About the job

• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Location

This role may be located in one of the following locations; Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester or Newcastle.

Please find further information on the Corporate hub locations here.

Please note that for candidates requesting to work in Newcastle, the role will initially be based at Benton Park View. It will then move to 1 Pilgrim Place in Newcastle city centre by the end of 2027.*

You will be part of a rota-based support model operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including early, late shifts with on-call responsibilities.

About the job

Job summary

Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. For further information, please see 'Selection process details'.

Do you want to operate and optimise one of the UK’s largest mission-critical network estates, supporting services used by millions of citizens every day?

If so, come and join us as a Network Operations Engineer within DWP Digital.

You will be a skilled practitioner operating within a high-performing Network Operations Centre (NOC), responsible for the stability, performance and security of a large-scale, multi-vendor network estate. You will take ownership of live service operations, including proactive network monitoring, incident management, problem management and service optimisation, ensuring high availability and resilience for critical national services.

Working at the heart of Network Services, you will collaborate with engineering, architecture and security teams to deliver secure, scalable infrastructure aligned to DWP strategy. You will support the evolution of legacy platforms into modern, cloud-enabled and internet-first architectures, with exposure to technologies including data centre networking (leaf-spine fabrics, VXLAN/EVPN), network segmentation (VRF), load balancing (F5), next-generation firewalls, and hybrid cloud networking (AWS/Azure).

The role requires strong technical leadership, effective stakeholder engagement and a focus on delivering measurable outcomes. You will drive continuous improvement through network automation, observability, performance tuning and DevOps practices, reducing operational toil and improving service reliability.

This role has a direct impact on the delivery of secure, resilient and scalable digital services, supporting millions of UK citizens and enabling DWP’s ongoing digital transformation.

Job description

In this role, you will operate as part of a 24/7 Network Operations function responsible for maintaining the stability, performance and security of DWP’s large-scale, multi-vendor network estate. You will play a key role in supporting live services that underpin critical digital platforms, ensuring high availability and rapid restoration of service where incidents occur.

You will be responsible for managing and resolving network incidents and problems, working across a range of technologies including data centre networking, hybrid cloud platforms (AWS/Azure/OCI), next-generation firewalls, load balancing and PKI services. This includes proactive monitoring and analysis of network performance using enterprise tooling such as BMC Entuity, NetScout and packet analysis tools (e.g. Wireshark), enabling early identification of issues and continuous service improvement.

Working collaboratively with engineering, architecture, security teams and third-party suppliers, you will contribute to the delivery of business-as-usual (BAU) changes, Acceptance into Service activities, and the ongoing modernisation of network services. You will apply ITIL-based service management practices, with a strong focus on Incident, Problem and Acceptance into Service Management, ensuring services meet operational and supportability standards.

You will have the autonomy to investigate and resolve complex technical issues, contribute to reliability and performance improvements, and support the transition from legacy infrastructure to modern, cloud-enabled architectures. This role provides significant opportunity to influence service quality and user experience across services used by millions of citizens.

While not essential, experience in Infrastructure as Code and network automation (e.g. Terraform, Ansible, Python), as well as relevant industry certifications (Aruba, Arista, AWS or Azure), would be beneficial when starting the role.

Person specification

See selection process for further details.

If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact Richard.hanley@dwp.gov.uk.

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Technical Breadth

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,447, Department for Work and Pensions contributes

£12,876 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave – at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

Hybrid Working

This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.

If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office.

If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.

Salary Information

Pay for this role is from £44,447 to £52,422.

The maximum salary for the grade is £46,547, however a Digital Allowance of up to £5,895 per annum is available for exceptional candidates. Digital Allowance is non-salary, and non-pensionable, and is classed as a temporary allowance. It is reviewed annually where it could be retained, amended, or removed.

Our offer to successful candidates will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview.

Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer will maintain their current substantive salary.

Civil Servants who gain promotion will move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or receive a 10% increase applied to their current substantive salary, whichever is greater.

Any temporary allowances that you are currently in receipt of will not form part of the calculation to determine your pay. Any allowances that are in payment will cease when you move into your new role.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Experience and Technical skills.

Stage 1: Application

Your application will consist of four parts:

1. A Personal Details application form.

2. Employment history - this should contain your work experience and any skills, qualifications and accomplishments relevant to the jobs you have completed.

3. Personal statement - up to 1250 words. This statement should be used to provide examples of how you meet the essential criteria below:

• Design, build and operate network infrastructure: Proven experience designing, implementing and supporting enterprise-scale network infrastructure (on-prem and cloud), ensuring operational stability, resilience and availability.
• Network security and controls: Working knowledge of network security principles and technologies including next-generation firewalls, VPNs, encryption and authentication, with experience applying security controls in live environments.
• Incident, problem and service management: Proven experience providing 3rd line support and managing incidents, problems and changes using ITSM practices, including proactive monitoring and service improvement.
• Operational ownership and decision making: Ability to manage day-to-day operational issues, analyse root causes, and take ownership of resolving and preventing network service issues across a complex estate.
• Collaboration and communication: Strong communication skills with the ability to work effectively across multidisciplinary teams and with stakeholders, contributing to service improvement and delivering high-quality outcomes.

4. Technical statement (up to 250 words). The following statement is aligned to the required technical skill of Technical Breadth. This statement should be used to provide example(s) of how you meet the criterion below:

• Core networking and troubleshooting: Strong technical knowledge of TCP/IP networking including routing protocols (e.g. OSPF, BGP, VXLAN), IP services (DNS, DHCP, NTP), with the ability to independently troubleshoot and resolve complex issues.

Ensure that all examples provided in your statements are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. If you choose to use gen-AI to support your statements, you must follow the guidelines outlined in the Artificial intelligence and recruitment guide.

The sift panel will use the information in your employment history, personal statement, and technical statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge.

An initial sift will be conducted using the technical statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift will be progressed to a full sift.

If you do progress to a full sift, you will be provided with one combined overall assessment score for both your employment history and Personal Statement.

For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.

Important Information

• You will be asked to complete your employment history. Any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.
• Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered.
• If your employment history, personal statemen