Platform Infrastructure Lead (Networks)

About the role

Here at the John Lewis Partnership, we have a bold and innovative IT team. We support our business by providing industry-leading technology solutions that cater to our customer needs whenever and wherever they are, continually promoting innovation, transforming our infrastructure, and delivering new and unique ways of shopping. Our mission is to delight customers at every opportunity and to maintain our reputation as the best retailer in the country.

We are embarking on an exciting journey to modernise our technology and ways of working, which together deliver the pace and agility that we will harness to meet the diverse needs and value expectations of our customers.

We now have a fantastic and exciting opportunity within our IT team to join us as an Infrastructure Platform Lead (Networks) to advance several key Network towers including core networking, network security, edge connectivity, and cloud networking. We are seeking an individual with significant experience, someone who is motivated, innovative, and committed to lead technology towers and to deliver secure, robust, stable, and performant future-ready infrastructure.

You will have demonstrable experience in designing, implementing, and managing innovative, cost-efficient solutions, modernising network infrastructure services both on-premise and for the public cloud (predominantly Google Cloud Platform), simplifying and rationalising existing technologies, whilst maintaining Operational Excellence.

If you’re enthusiastic about on-premise and cloud network technologies, if you thrive and perform in a time-sensitive, high-demand environment, and if you take satisfaction in delivering results through others, then we want to hear from you!

Salary - £59,500 - £115,000

Contract type - This position is a Permanent contract.

Working pattern/flexible working - The Partnership has adopted a hybrid working approach, meaning you'll be able to work a mixture between the office and home based upon your personal needs whilst balancing the needs of the business. The team attends the office on a Tuesday every week to connect and on a more ad-hoc basis to attend key meetings.

Location - This role is based at our Bracknell Head Office.

Key responsibilities

1. As a senior member, you will be working as part of a larger team covering a spectrum of technologies in a modern hybrid enterprise environment where interdependencies make up a proficient infrastructure capability.
2. You will drive and be accountable for the outcomes the business requires in relation to your services.
3. Work effectively with Partners, vendors, and our strategic third-party service providers to ensure effective delivery of the service and strategy, whilst managing operational risks throughout.
4. Your wealth of expertise will be instrumental in running agile product teams and driving forward the technology roadmap.
5. Manage and support business-critical or escalated issues, providing effective solutions.
6. Act as the technical authority in the event of a major incident, communicating effectively with all stakeholders, coordinating the technical response, and ensuring clear updates are provided throughout the resolution process.
7. Develop working relationships with key business stakeholders and build understanding of the commercial, technical, and operational landscape and business strategy.
8. Be the product owner for your key technology towers, both on-premise and cloud.
9. Define the vision for the product backlog and prioritise product group workloads to deliver business and technical requirements.
10. Manage suppliers and vendors to ensure the network services remain secure, stable, robust, and performant.
11. Ensure that the services provided by vendors meet agreed SLAs and key metrics.
12. Work with Architecture to ensure deliverables align with the business and technical strategy.
13. Ensure full life cycle management is planned, managed, and delivered across the network infrastructure estate.
14. Be the technical SME and authoritative point of escalation for your technology towers.
15. Identify and deliver cost efficiencies across all commercial contracts in scope of your technologies.
16. Manage utilisation against entitlement of commercial products, ensuring robust Capacity Management process and reporting are in place.

Essential skills/experience you’ll need

1. Deep technical expertise and experience in key technologies including on-premise and cloud networking.
2. Proven history of developing IT Delivery in a lean and agile environment.
3. Demonstrable experience in leading managed services / high-value third-party contracts in a complex enterprise IT environment.
4. Comprehensive knowledge of agile methodologies & DevSecOps frameworks.
5. Effective communication skills that go beyond “tech talk.”
6. A credible and established expert with good commercial and operational acumen.
7. Deep technical expertise in some or all of the following areas: SDWAN / WAN / MPLS / DWDM, LAN / WiFi, Internet Proxy, Software Defined Networking, Firewalls, Voice including UCaaS and CCaaS, NSX-T, DMZ, PCI, VPN.

Desirable skills/experience you may have

1. A degree in Computer Science, IT, Systems Engineering or a related qualification.
2. Experience in the retail sector, both physical and online.

About The Partnership

We’re the largest employee-owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible.

Important points to note: It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates).