IT Network Manager

The National Lottery Community Fund is looking for a skilled and proactive Network Manager to become part of their compact IT Infrastructure Team located in Birmingham. This role will report directly to the Head of IT Infrastructure & Security. Hybrid working is available, though occasional travel to various UK sites will be required.

Role Expectations

As a Network Manager, you will play a pivotal role in maintaining and enhancing our IT network, ensuring optimal performance, up-to-date security, and reliability.

Key responsibilities may include:

• Be an integral part of the Team and act as the go to person and SME for networking requirements. Work with stakeholders both internally and externally from diverse backgrounds and communities.
• Collaborate closely with Network Managers, Infrastructure Engineers, Security Team and Project Managers to understand and address their requirements.
• Manage and optimise network infrastructure, including on-premise networks, public cloud (Azure) networks, virtual networks and WAN technologies.
• Apply strong analytical and troubleshooting skills to resolve network issues.
• Strong interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
• Monitor network performance, identify and resolve bottlenecks.
• Collaborate with service desk staff, providing education and support while resolving network-related tickets.
• Be responsible for end-to-end delivery of the Project tasks.
• Lead networking element of projects to improve production environments.
• Ability to write clear, concise technical documentation such as Network Designs.
• Responsible for ensuring that any designs produced are in line with the current network architecture and infrastructure strategy documentation and are fit for purpose.
• Provide timely updates and whenever necessary timely escalation of issues to right stakeholders.

Skills & Requirements

• Configure and manage Firewalls, Routers, Access Points, Switches, SD-WAN and Networking Appliances.
• Demonstrate advanced knowledge of networking, including TCP/IP protocols, subnetting, VLANs, load balancing, and VPNs.
• Configuring and installing hardware in both office and data centre environments.
• Contribute to design and architecture discussions.
• Mitigate Pen Test and Audit findings.
• Participate in out of hours implementations of change/support as required.
• Accurate estimation of workload and timelines for delivery.
• Support and maintain backup and disaster recovery solutions.
• Compliance to regulatory and mandatory policies.
• Relevant vendor management experience.

Interview details:

• Interview date: 12/05 05/2026
• Format: Online

Location: Birmingham - We have a hybrid approach to working, with a home/office split that suits you, though the role will include travel across the UK as and when required. Work pattern and location will be agreed with the successful candidate.

We will be hosting a briefing session on: 17th April 2026, 2pm. To register or ask any questions please email us.

For an informal discussion about the role, please email us.

How to apply:

Upload your CV in word format and write a supporting statement (1000 words) with the following criteria, we will use this to score your application.

Essential Criteria:

• Demonstrable experience in network administration and deployment.
• Experience with Cisco Switches, including configuration, security, and firmware updates.
• Knowledge of Firewalls (Preferentially Cisco Meraki MX and Azure Firewalls).
• Experience with Microsoft Azure cloud services and architectures, networking (NSG, VNet peering, UDR, Private Link/Endpoint, Azure Firewall, load balancer).
• Knowledge of Cisco Meraki SD-WAN (MX Appliances).
• Analyse, troubleshoot, and resolve incidents escalated from service desk support.

Desirable Criteria:

• Knowledge of Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points.
• Centralized Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) Cisco ISE.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Communities in the UK come in all shapes and sizes. National Lottery funding is for everyone therefore, we are committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and we work hard to ensure our funding reaches where it is needed.

We also believe our people should represent the communities, organisations and individuals we work with. That s why The National Lottery Community Fund is committed to being an inclusive employer and a great place to work. We recognise and celebrate the fact that our people come from diverse backgrounds. We positively welcome applications from people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities or longstanding health conditions, people who are LGBTQ+, and people from different socio-economic and educational backgrounds, as well as people of all ages.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we take a proactive approach in making reasonable adjustments, if needed, throughout the recruitment process and during employment. (This can be related to a physical and mental health condition.)