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 for 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 attend the office on aTuesday 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
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.
You will drive and be accountable for the outcomes the business requires in relation to your services. This means that you will be working 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.
Your wealth of expertise will be instrumental in running agile product teams and driving forward the technology roadmap. Additionally, you will be expected to manage and support business-critical or escalated issues, providing effective solutions.
In the event of a major incident, you will act as the technical authority, communicating effectively with all stakeholders, coordinating the technical response, and ensuring clear and concise updates are provided throughout the resolution process. You will participate in post incident reviews, owning actions within your tower.
This role demands effective communication and coordination abilities. You will need to build positive working relationships within cross-functional teams, ensuring everyone is aligned and informed, whilst also maintaining clear and productive communication with external vendors.
Develop working relationships with key business stakeholders and build understanding of the commercial, technical, and operational landscape and business strategy
Have responsibility for technology towers and will strongly influence how the network evolves to meet business needs. You will work with a diverse range of technical and non-technical stakeholders which will require comprehensive communication skills
Be the product owner for your key technology towers, both on-premise and cloud
As Product Owner, define the vision for the product backlog and prioritise product group workloads to deliver business and technical requirements
Deliver value for John Lewis Partnership by ensuring quality, efficiency and cost effectiveness from all infrastructure management contracts
Manage suppliers and vendors to ensure the network services remain secure, stable, robust and performant by delivering and maintaining end to end Operational Excellence
Ensure that the services provided by vendors and managed service suppliers deliver against agreed SLAs, key metrics, and statements of work
Use your knowledge and experience of network services and an understanding of their consumption by the business, to develop a forecast of demand for the service and (by extension) the vendor’s services
Manage third party provision of network services and maintain operational integrity
Work with Architecture to ensure deliverables are aligned with the business and technical strategy, producing business cases to deliver change and innovation, and translate architectural designs into operations.
Ensure full life cycle management is planned, managed and delivered across the network infrastructure estate; with published and managed roadmaps, aligned to strategy
Be the technical SME and authoritative point of escalation for your technology towers
Identify and deliver cost efficiencies across all commercial contracts in scope of your technologies, establishing value for the Partnership
Manage utilisation against entitlement of commercial products, ensure robust Capacity Management process and reporting are in place.
You will also have key input into deriving efficiency in cost management and consumption, working alongside FinOps when required
You will shape and implement policy alongside Security Operations.
You will work closely with the other Infrastructure areas and interface with the established Product & Platform teams to embed capability within areas.
Essential skills/experience you’ll need
Deep technical expertise and experience in key technologies as defined below including experience of on premise and cloud networking.
Proven history of developing IT Delivery in a lean and agile environment through managing and motivating technical teams to deliver growth.
Demonstrable experience in leading managed services / high-value third-party contracts in a complex enterprise IT environment.
Comprehensive knowledge of agile methodologies & DevSecOps frameworks
Effective communication skills that go beyond “tech talk” – the ability to translate complex IT matters to those without an IT background
A credible and established expert with good commercial and operational acumen, who is able to demonstrate extensive knowledge and hands-on experience in building positive relationships, including third parties.
Deep technical expertise and experience in some or all of the following areas:
SDWAN / WAN / MPLS / DWDM
Cloud Networking Technologies
LAN / WiFi
Internet Proxy
Software Defined Networking
Firewalls
Load Balancing
Voice including UCaaS and CCaaS
NSX-T
DMZ
PCI
VPN
Desirable skills/experience you may have
A degree in Computer Science, IT, Systems Engineering or a related qualification
FinOps experience: Budgeting/Forecasting/Cost Optimisation
Experience in the retail sector, both physical and online
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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’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.
As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect.
We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective.
As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.
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). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third-party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.
We also recommend that you apply as soon as possible as vacancies can close early if we see a high number of applicants.
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. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.
