Solution Architect Lead

Vodafone Group; Newbury; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 90,000

Job description

Join Us

At Vodafone, we’re not just shaping the future of connectivity for our customers – we’re shaping the future for everyone who joins our team. When you work with us, you’re part of a global mission to connect people, solve complex challenges, and create a sustainable and more inclusive world. If you want to grow your career whilst finding the perfect balance between work and life, Vodafone offers the opportunities to help you belong and make a real impact.

What you’ll do

SDN and Security Product Architect

As an SDN and Security Product Architect at Vodafone Business Platforms & Solutions (VBPS), you will have the opportunity to bring state-of-the-art business products to market for our global business customers. This highly interactive role involves working closely with several internal departments, external partners, and Group and Local Markets teams. You will engage with Commercial and Product Management functions, as well as Technology Product Owners, to ensure high-quality requirements and a healthy product backlog. You will translate functional and non-functional requirements into solutions that span the end-to-end implementation, including determining costs for development. You will be responsible for the High-Level Design of the solution, ensuring it meets Product Requirements, and accountable for the end-to-end solution, including technical design authority, review of service model, IT architecture, low-level design, security by design, privacy, and Legal & Regulatory policies. You will drive technical aspects of vendor management, set technical priorities, and contribute to product improvement. Additionally, you will improve the end-to-end In-Life Operating Model, own the product lifecycle, and manage 'end of life' events appropriately. Embracing and supporting the organizational strategy and principles, you will provide advice and guidance from a technological perspective and drive improvements.

Who you are

• Positive team player attitude, with the ability to collaboratively address complex issues
• Strong communication and presentation skills, to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Expertise in Cisco Viptela, Cisco Catalyst and SASE technologies
• Experience in dealing with internal stakeholders, external partners, and geographically dispersed virtual teams
• Ability to manage multiple and changing priorities and follow-up until delivered
• Proven ability to handle technically and operationally complex solutions with strict timelines
• Ability to manage product lifecycle activities
• Relevant higher education in a related field (computer science/networking with elements of modern software programming)
• Knowledge of both Mobile and Fixed Networks (desirable)
• Working experience with Agile framework (desirable)
• Proven experience in solution design leadership for telecom services at a multi-national mobile operator (desirable)
• Expertise in Infrastructure as a Code technologies: Ansible, Terraform, CloudFormation (desirable)
• Expertise in Cloud and cloud-native application concepts (AWS, GCP, containers/K8S) (desirable)
• Software Development experience (e.g., Python, JS React, Node.JS) (desirable)
• Experience with infrastructure/service declarative modeling (JSON/XML, Yang/Netconf/Tosca) (desirable)
• Knowledge of Software Development, DevOps, and API methodology and API gateways (desirable)
• Virtualization and orchestration experience (VM, Containers, Kubernetes) (desirable)
• Relevant University degree in Networking, Computer Science, or related field
• Knowledge and understanding of the enterprise technology market
• Experience in design, implementation, and rollout of telecom services, preferably in an international/global context
• 3rd party Cloud certifications or key experience

Not a perfect fit?

Worried that you don’t meet all the desired criteria exactly? At Vodafone we are passionate about empowering people and creating a workplace where everyone can thrive, whatever their personal or professional background. If you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align exactly with every part of the job description, we encourage you to still apply as you may be the right candidate for this role or another opportunity.

What's in it for you

• Discretionary yearly bonus: 10%
• Annual leave: 28 days + bank holidays + the opportunity to buy/sell/carry over 5 days/year
• Enjoy working up to 20 days a year from abroad
• Charity days: 5 days/year
• Wellbeing: Quarterly Spirit Days to focus on wellbeing and personal development
• Maternity leave: 52 weeks out of which the first 13 weeks are fully paid followed by 26 weeks of half pay and 6 months - working 4 days, getting paid 5
• Paternity leave: 16 weeks fully paid
• Private pension: You can contribute up to 5% of your basic pay with 2:1 matching from Vodafone up to 10%.
• Access to: private medical, private dental, free health assessments, share save scheme
• Additional discounts: Vodafone retail, gym, cinema, cycle to work, season ticket loan

Who we are

We are a leading international Telco, serving millions of customers. At Vodafone, we believe that connectivity is a force for good. If we use it for the things that really matter, it can improve people's lives and the world around us. Through our technology we empower people, connecting everyone regardless of who they are or where they live and we protect the planet, whilst helping our customers do the same.

Belonging at Vodafone isn't a concept; it's lived, breathed, and cultivated through everything we do. You'll be part of a global and diverse community, with many different minds, abilities, backgrounds and cultures. We're committed to increase diversity, ensure equal representation, and make Vodafone a place everyone feels safe, valued and included.

If you require any reasonable adjustments or have an accessibility request as part of your recruitment journey, for example, extended time or breaks in between online assessments, please refer to this link for guidance.

Together we can.

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