Job Title:

Head of Networks and Data Centre Operations

Reporting to:

Chief Digital Officer

Location:

Ash (Kent) or Newbury (Berkshire) - Hybrid working with 2-3 days in the office per week

Hours of Work:

37.5 per week

Core hours 10am - 4.00pm with 1 hour for Lunch

Reward Package:

- 25 days annual holiday + Birthday off in addition and option to buy/sell additional 5 days

- Growth Opportunities – Continuous learning and career development opportunities

-Company Pension Scheme

-Private medical Cover

-Life Assurance

-Extensive non-taxable benefits

THE ROLE

This is an exciting opportunity to join our Industry Leading Secure and Recover arm, as the Head of Networks and Data Centre Operations, supporting the next phase of Cyberfort’s growth. You’ll be joining a culture of knowledge sharing and continuous learning with expert peers in Network and Cloud Engineering. We work across a number of sectors with a diverse client base. We aim to create an environment where everyone can reach their full potential. We work together, we are passionate, creative, and we embrace difference.

As a key member of the Secure and Recover senior leadership team, the Head of Networks and Data Centre Operations is responsible for Architecting, implementing, and delivering best-in-class IT services for both customers and internal teams. Reporting to the Chief Digital Officer, this role works cross-functionally to ensure our technology capabilities remain market-leading.

Serving as a technical evangelist for network services and data centre colocation, the Head of Networks and Data Centre Operations leads on product development, managing product life cycles, and supporting the delivery of Cyberfort’s core USPs in the cybersecurity and cloud service provider markets. Integrating cutting-edge technologies to build infrastructure that meets Security, Environmental, and Quality benchmarks while ensuring Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability (CIA) standards.

This role drives innovation across multi-cloud environments, ensuring solutions are fit for purpose, technology stacks remain current, and teams are equipped with the right skills to deliver. They will also collaborate with sales and marketing to define go-to-market strategies. You’ll also be responsible for the ongoing delivery and maintenance of network and colocation products, serving as a point of escalation for critical incidents, complex changes, and problem management.

The Impact You’ll Make

In this role, you’ll be:

• Defining a departmental strategy and deliver operational change through a program of planned service improvements, including automation, standardisation, monitoring and capacity planning.
• Day to day management of Network and Data Centre Operations Teams. Supporting their development, knowledge base and growth.
• Continually ensure that services are provided within agreed service levels. Manage all aspects of the operational delivery of service support for colocation services, ensuring that deliverables are on time, to specification and to the appropriate quality standard
• Acting as the decision maker and design authority for all core network, connectivity, security activities.
• Responsible for Network and Colocation standards, policies and procedures to ensure high-quality, reliable and availability client platforms for shared, cloud and dedicated environments.
• Ensuring the availability of all network services in the delivery of Internal, Managed Cloud and Colocation services provided by the business.
• Leading colocation and network products and service developments, bringing new innovative solutions to support the companies growth ambitions and gain competitive advantage.
• Develop, design and drive network standards to class leading (including build standardisation, documentation, and system testing) throughout the business unit.
• Supporting timely and accurate client solution designs, proposals and tender response submissions.
• Ensuring all company network services are protected by implementing stringent controls and appropriate cyber security protections are in place, monitored, regularly tested and operational.
• Diplomatic and able to interact successfully at all levels of the business, customers and supplier, often navigating challenging situations to ensure successful outcomes.
• Collaborating across the entire business unit to develop a product-oriented mind-set, with a focus on ensuring the right solution is delivered based upon customer needs.
• Being the interface between other areas of the business/customers and technical teams. Juggling different priorities and aims to make sure the client is at the forefront of our approach.
• Being key link between technology subject matter experts and the C-suite.

What You’ll Bring to the Team and the Tools you’ll need:

Our values

• Work with an open and honest approach to our clients and colleagues, garner opinions and ideas and give due consideration, act upon decisions and feedback on outcomes. Trust each other to do the right thing, take pride in your actions and celebrate successes.
• Collaborate and play to everyone’s collective strengths. Respect each other’s differences, give honest feedback and be accountable for your actions, act positively to grow and develop yourself and your colleagues.
• Approach change with curiosity, openness and energy. Move forwards by learning quickly and be brave and confident in the decisions you and others make. Recognise and celebrate yours and others successes.

Based on Strengthscope areas: The 5 key strengths needed to excel in this role.

Collaboration, Common Sense, Compassion, Courage, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Decisiveness, Detail orientation, Developing others, Efficiency, Emotional control, Empathy, Enthusiasm, Flexibility, Initiative, Leading, Optimism, Persuasiveness, Relationship building, Resilience, Results focused, Self-confidence, Self-improvement, Strategic mindedness

Technical Competencies

• Proven experience as Senior Technology Leader, Senior Technical Expert or similar role; in Internet-related fields working in network and system administration, including hands-on experience with routers, switches, and firewalls
• Experience in analysis, implementation and evaluation of IT systems and their specifications
• Strong track record of implementing infrastructure services in a variety of distributed computing environments.
• Expertise in the design, operation, and continuous improvement of colocation environments, including power provisioning (redundancy, UPS, generators), precision cooling, structured cabling, and space allocation.
• Strong knowledge of data center standards (e.g., Uptime Institute, TIA-942) and managing high-availability infrastructure to SLA-backed performance levels.
• Strong command of systems that support operational integrity, including BMS/EMS/DCIM platforms, real-time environmental and power monitoring, incident management, and root cause analysis.
• Expert knowledge of Network Operating Systems.
• Expert knowledge of Network Virtualisation Stacks.
• Expert levels of experience in Incident and Problem Management.
• Expert knowledge of Network Enterprise Technologies.
• Expert knowledge of Network Service Provider technologies.
• Expert knowledge of Network Cloud and Online technologies.
• Expert knowledge of data center operations, processes and controls
• Experience managing data center or technical operations, including data assurance, monitoring, alerting and notifications.
• Proven Experience of leading complex network and infrastructure projects from inception to completion
• Strong working knowledge of TCP/IP fundamentals, IPv4/IPv6, MPLS, routing protocol operation, IP filtering, BGP and OSPF routing protocols, firewalls, VPNs and the associated tunnelling technologies
• A proven track record in design and delivery of highly secure WAN and LAN solutions
• An in depth understanding of the Telco market
• BA/BS degree or equivalent experience.
• Experience with IT compliance and risk management requirements, including PCI-DSS, ISO27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus.

Behavioural & Personality Competencies

• Ability to navigate through ambiguity.
• Demonstrated ability to think strategically about business, product, and technical challenges.
• Able to bring people on your journey, visualise your ideas and be clear as to the benefits of your solutions.
• Thrive on developing others.
• Be able to manage conflicting priorities.
• Being impactful and enjoying shaping company strategy and direction

About us

Our Purpose:

The Cyberfort Group is a community of 200+ passionate people united by one overall mission... to make the world safer, one business at a time. We are the "one-stop shop" for all things cyber and are working to build a centre of excellence for our customers by building an amazing place to work, learn and develop for our people.

We work with a diverse range of clients, including large Governmental departments as well as other public sector organisations and businesses within the private sector. We're growing our business and our team through our continuous investment in developing technology and cyber capability; we aim to deliver innovation to our customers as fast as possible. Whether it's AI-driven ML-based threat intelligence or rapid start hybrid Cloud; our goal is to implement solutions that make us stand out in the market.

If that sounds like you, we'd like to see......

• Your CV

Find your place at the Cyberfort Group - Our vision is to bring together technology, people, expertise, facilities and leaders in Cybersecurity to create capability that is second to none. We aim to create a workplace that leverages the expertise of people from a diverse range of backgrounds that are to be themselves, are celebrated for thinking differently and work together as one team.

We know that a one size fits all approach to our recruitment and selection practices will not allow us to reach some of the incredible people that are out there and it’s common practice for us to make adjustments. When you apply to work for us please let us know if there’s anything we can do to allow you to showcase your skills and talents to the best of your ability.