Network Technical Architect - Government Property Agency - G7

Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Leeds, Manchester, Nottingham, Swindon

The Government Property Agency is the largest property holder in government, with more than £2.1 billion in property assets and over 55% of the government's office estate.

We are transforming the way the Civil Service works by creating great places to work, leading the largest commercial office programme in the UK, working towards halving carbon emissions from government offices, and achieving greater value for taxpayers. And we are looking for innovative, solutions-focused people to join our team.

Representing the best covenant in the UK - His Majesty's Government - we are leading transformational programmes such as the Government Hubs Programme, Whitehall Campus Programme and Net Zero Programme, as well as delivering modern, cost-effective real estate service solutions.

Innovation and progress are at the heart of our behaviours. We foster a culture of lifelong learning, where curiosity and self-improvement are encouraged. And we're dedicated to becoming a leading, inclusive employer both in the external market and throughout the Civil Service. Our strong emphasis on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) is not just about driving inclusion across our organisation, it is also about ensuring our services meet the needs of government departments and the civil servants who use our spaces.

Join our dynamic and diverse team that leads with purpose, improving sustainability, nurturing social value, driving inclusivity and flexibility, and kickstarting economic growth. We are driven by purpose, and you can be part of it too: where you make a meaningful impact; where you influence; where your voice really matters; where you help to shape our future direction.

The GPA is committed to representing the communities we serve by making Diversity, Equality and Inclusion part of everything we do.

To ensure that we are always recruiting and retaining a diverse mix of talent, we are particularly inviting applications from candidates who are disabled, ethnically or gender diverse, and people who identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

As well as the exciting UK-wide property agenda we are delivering a leading-edge technology programme. We're looking for an exceptional Technical Architect to ensure the successful delivery of this technology programme in the GPA's property portfolio. We want someone who will seize the challenge and own the role, with energy and a commitment to quality.

Our teams work on exciting projects to deliver new and refurbished Government Buildings across the whole of the country. You will work with colleagues who manage the construction project and with the GPA's technology specialists and suppliers to ensure the successful delivery of our services in these buildings.

Your role is to tailor our standard designs to meet the needs of the project, and to oversee and assure suppliers whilst they deliver to meet our standards.

We expect that you will have a strong background in IT Infrastructure with demonstrable experience in network implementation.

In particular we are seeking people with strong experience of Wi-Fi implementation and experience of integrating other IT systems onto a network.

As a project architect you will meet the following DDaT role profile:

A Technical Architect is accountable for the delivery of network architecture in different GPA buildings and representing their business area.

At this role level, you will:

• Be consulted about network design and provide design patterns
• Identify deeper network issues that need fixing
• Look for opportunities to collaborate and reuse components, communicating with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Have a good understanding of most network technologies including LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network), WIFI, data centre LAN, SD (software-defined) networks, telephony, mobile solutions infrastructure, unified comms, network management solutions, and network specific security and remote access technologies and approaches
• Champion new technologies and solutions
• Be a strategic thinker who can communicate network concepts to technical and non-technical stakeholders

Key responsibilities:

• Contributing to updating the network high level design (HLD) based on project experience
• Tailoring the HLD to meet specific project requirements
• Liaising with other technical specialists to understand requirements and integrate IT systems onto the shared networks.
• Assurance of supplier delivery throughout the project lifecycle including coordination of all technical integrations for our customers.
• Facilitating the network handover, including overseeing early life support during transition to the IT support partner
• Ongoing support to problem solving and technical incident resolution of live services
• Working alongside other technical project managers and often across multiple concurrent projects.
• Frequent travel to different sites across the UK in order to carry out technical delivery assurance activities with our strategic partners and suppliers.

We are looking for resourceful individuals, capable of working to hard project deadlines.

You should have a range of IT infrastructure engineering experience, with a focus on the delivery of end user networks.

Essential criteria:

• Experience of multi-tenant network and IT infrastructure delivery
• Wi-Fi networking experience
• Experience of IT delivery in new build and refurbishment construction projects in accordance with RIBA stage lifecycle.

Desirable criteria:

• Good communication
• Documentation

Qualifications and Accreditations

Essential criteria:

• Demonstrate level of experience as a Network Architect
• Experience in delivery large Wi-Fi networks in multi-tenant buildings
• Good understanding of network technology including WAN, LAN, WLAN, Firewalls etc
• Experience with range of network equipment and vendor technologies
• Evidence of working with suppliers when delivering and supporting networks
• Strong customer engagement skills

Desirable criteria:

• CCNA or similar experience
• CWNA or similar wireless network experience in multi- tenancy environment
• Meraki certifications: ECMS1 and/or ECMS2