IT Network Engineer (Infrastructure Team)

About Withersworldwide

A law firm focused on people and collaboration. For the past 125 years, Withers has supported some of the world's most remarkable people and organisations at defining moments in their lives. We are the only international law firm focused on successful individuals and private capital, working closely with founders, investors and family offices. We also advise governments, charities, global brands and start-ups of all shapes and sizes. Many of our clients are shaping the future and creating solutions to tackle many of the world's problems.  It makes for a fascinating and challenging practice. Our role is to get to know each individual client, find out where they want to be, and help them to get there – whether they are building a business, looking after their family, involved in a complex dispute or protecting their finances for the future. To meet their unique needs we are exceptionally collaborative, working together across teams and time zones. We are agile, focusing on strategy rather than rigid ideas and traditional hierarchy. It is a truly flexible working culture that puts people first. Join us to be part of a team that is always looking to the future. Where initiative, big ideas and bold moves are always encouraged. Where you can truly be yourself.

What are we looking for?

We are looking for a Network Engineer to join our highly skilled, highly motivated Infrastructure team. Working alongside the Senior Network Engineer, the role holder will be responsible for the design, implementation, management and ongoing maintenance of network and related technologies. A deep technical knowledge is required with respect to core networking methodologies, Cisco technology stacks and unified communications. The role will also encompass other Infrastructure technologies such as datacentre, compute, fabric and security.

The ideal candidate must be passionate about technology, solution driven and enjoy collaborating as part of a larger team. The candidate must have strong expertise across a wide array of Infrastructure platforms, specialising as a subject matter expert in a number of these.

The role will include operational support and maintenance, as well as project related work streams. The candidate will need to be comfortable taking on this mixture of responsibilities, which will vary between design, implementation and operational tasks.

The candidate should be comfortable raising risks, recommending improvements, contributing to strategy, building mandates and architecting new solutions aligned to our overall Infrastructure strategy. They will be taking a technical lead on work steams and must have the interpersonal skills required to engage with technical and non-technical stake holders.

The individual will work in our London office as part of the Global Systems Team. The Global Systems Team is located in London and is responsible for supporting and maintaining the firm's technology across geographical regions. The Global Systems Team is split into five functional but collaborative groups – Infrastructure, Applications, Solution Architecture, Testing and Change and Release

The infrastructure team are responsible for supporting the firm's global Infrastructure platforms and services, including but not limited to Windows Server operating systems, Active Directory Services, Co-Lo, virtualisation, compute, storage, backup, networking, cloud, unified communications and security.

This is a global role with responsibilities across Europe, Asia-pacific and the United States. The role will require international travel to our regional offices and datacentres as projects demand.

The priority for all IT activity is to maintain the highest levels of stability and reliability in the services delivered.

This role requires experience of working in a medium to large multi-site professional services organisation.  Strong written and verbal communication skills are required with the ability to work with a wide range of people including vendors, project managers, technologists, legal staff, partners, secretaries and other support staff.

A very high level of personal organisation and professionalism is required, together with a 'can-do' attitude and an ability to work to tight deadlines and under pressure. The candidate must be able to manage their own day to day workload as well as long term initiatives. This person must inspire a positive work environment and help champion quality, innovation, teamwork, and service to the business.

Technical experience required

• Extensive experience of LAN network systems, protocols, and standards such as Ethernet, Token ring, OSPF, BGP, LACP, Trunking, VLANs, TCP/IP.
• Extensive experience of WAN technologies such as MPLS, DIA, SDN and SD-WAN.
• Experience working in a switched and routed environment.
• Experience troubleshooting complex Hardware, software, and networks.
• Experience with current network hardware – Cisco.
• Strong knowledge of network management and analysis tools like DNA and SolarWinds.
• Strong experience around security standards both internal and edge.
• Experience of working in an ITIL-based support environment.

Areas of focus and responsibilities

• Work closely with the "Senior Network Engineer' to deliver global system stability and availability.
• Influence the broader strategy for the department which will involve cross-functional collaboration.
• Develop and maintains technical documentation, policies, and procedures, including low level designs.
• Plan and implement any improvement, modification, or replacement of network infrastructure components, assuring adherence to industry standards.
• Establish connectivity and uptime service reporting and management.
• Ensure the stable operation and efficient performance of company networks.
• Responsible for the development, management, and ongoing maintenance of Network systems and appliances across the enterprise.
• Planning, developing, configuring, maintaining, supporting, and optimizing all local and wide area network connections, associated software, and communication links.
• Support systems, ensuring that the highest levels of stability and reliability are maintained.
• Identifying, documenting and undertaking maintenance and administration processes on systems.
• Provide a technical resource for projects run by the Head of IT Systems or Project Management Office and progress projects and tasks on time and to budget.
• Develop, present and implement proposals to improve assigned systems and infrastructure.
• Monitor the team queue in the Help Desk call-logging system to ensure incidents are managed in a timely manner and escalated using the correct procedures.  Close calls when a satisfactory resolution has been achieved.
• Produce and maintain technical documentation and articles for the knowledge base.
• Define and track SLAs for key systems with special emphasis on legal applications.
• Maintain technical leadership in assigned technologies and ensure that responsibilities for key technologies are appropriately allocated and understood by colleagues.
• Continually maintain and expand strong working knowledge of current Firm-supported and future technologies to provide technically accurate solutions to end-users.
• Correctly diagnose software and hardware faults and liaise with 3rd party engineers where needed. Incidents should be actioned within agreed timescales and monitored to resolution.
• Working with the Global IT Infrastructure, ensure that support contracts are in place for all systems and appropriate support, backup and capacity procedures are in place and documented.
• Assist with occasional infrastructure / server support and patching out of other office core hours.
• Identify major support incidents and liaise with support teams, following the Major Incident process. Inform the manager and senior IT Management of any escalating support issues in order that they may be resolved within reasonable time scales.
• Establish and maintain contact with colleagues in all offices to ensure that a consistent approach is being adopted across the firm.
• Adhere fully to the Change and Release management processes.
• Adhere fully to the Problem management process and to the investigation of the root cause of outages.
• Ensure that the housekeeping and administration of systems are carried out in accordance with the firm's policies and procedures.
• Ensure security is maintained in line with the Firm’s security standards.
• Contribute to the IT Risk register to identify and manage operational risks and work to eliminate areas of vulnerability.

The Essentials

• 9.30am to 5.30pm core but flexibility is a must.
• 8am to 4pm early shift is in place. It rotates every 4-5 weeks.
• 24/7 on call rota is in place. It rotates every 4-5 weeks.
• Agile working environment split between the London office and home.
• 12 weeks' probation period.
• 12 weeks’ notice period.
• Flexible benefits package including pension, private medical, season ticket loan, subsidised gym memberships, lifestyle discount scheme, on site café plus more.

Information for Recruitment Agencies

Withersworldwide endeavours to recruit and fill vacancies directly. However, when we do need to engage with agencies, Withersworldwide operates a preferred supplier list and will not be accepting unsolicited applications from non-PSL agencies for this role.

Equal Opportunities Employment Statement

It is the policy of Withersworldwide to provide equal opportunities for all employees in relation to recruitment, training and promotion.  Decisions in these areas will be made only by reference to the requirements of the job and shall not be influenced by any consideration of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race (including colour, nationality and ethnic and national origin), religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.