Network Infrastructure Manager

Team: IT and Infrastructure

Key role details

• Location: London
• Contract type: FTE
• Experience: Experienced. You will have worked in hands-on network infrastructure management or senior network engineering across several sites.

The role VSI’s network supports our offices, studios, data centres, and cloud-connected environments worldwide. As our Network Infrastructure Manager, you will lead the strategy, design, security, resilience and day-to-day performance of this global network. Your work will help our teams deliver localisation services securely and reliably for some of the world’s largest brands.

This is a hands-on leadership role. You will work closely with our Global Director of IT and Infrastructure to set global network standards, lead modernisation and upgrade programmes, and give a clear view of network health, capacity, risk and investment priorities. You will also lead and develop network team members and specialist partners to ensure every VSI location receives consistent support. You will work with colleagues in IT, Security, Content Security and studio operations, and with people across the wider business.

What You Will Do

• Set the network strategy. Own the global network roadmap, architecture principles, technical standards and reference designs. Turn business, studio, security, and growth needs into practical, easy-to-support solutions.
• Run day-to-day network services. Oversee local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), wireless, internet connectivity, remote access, routing, switching, Domain Name System (DNS), Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and network management services. Keep them monitored, maintained and supported to agreed standards.
• Protect the network. Manage firewalls, access control, network segmentation, secure remote connectivity and administrative access. Find vulnerabilities, coordinate fixes and make sure configurations meet VSI’s information security, content security and data protection obligations.
• Manage the infrastructure lifecycle. Plan and deliver the deployment, upgrade, replacement and decommissioning of core network equipment and firewalls across our locations. Keep versions supported, designs resilient, configurations standard, inventories accurate, and ensure the right vendor support is in place.
• Monitor performance and plan capacity. Set up meaningful monitoring, alerting and reporting on availability, utilisation, latency, packet loss, errors and capacity. Analyse trends, resolve performance issues and make evidence-based recommendations for improvement and investment.
• Build resilience. Design resilience that matches how critical each service is to the business. Support disaster recovery and business continuity planning by documenting dependencies, recovery procedures, and test scenarios, and by taking part in regular recovery and failover exercises.
• Manage changes and keep records current. Ensure every network change is risk-assessed, documented, tested, approved, communicated, and includes a rollback plan. Keep network diagrams, configuration standards, Internet Protocol (IP) address records, firewall documentation, procedures and support information up to date.
• Lead the response to major incidents. Provide technical leadership during high-severity network incidents. Coordinate internal teams and suppliers, keep stakeholders updated on impact and recovery, and ensure root causes are identified and corrective actions are completed.
• Lead the network side of projects. Lead the network workstream for office openings, relocations, acquisitions, studio changes, cloud connectivity and other infrastructure programmes. Define scope, dependencies, resources, risks, acceptance criteria and handover requirements.
• Manage suppliers and budgets. Manage network carriers, technology vendors and specialist partners against their contracts and service levels. Contribute to budget planning, forecasting and cost control, and look for ways to consolidate services, improve value and reduce risk.
• Track risk and support audits. Keep visibility of network risks, technical debt, exceptions and improvement actions. Provide evidence for internal, client and external audits of network infrastructure and security controls.
• Develop your team. Manage, mentor and develop network team members and technical colleagues across our locations. Set clear priorities and standards, encourage knowledge sharing, and make sure do…