Network Team Lead
Title: Network Team Lead
Responsible to: Head of Technology Infrastructure
Department: IT
Location: JD Sports Fashion PLC,
Balmoral House, Hollinsbrook Way,
Pilsworth, Bury,
BL98RR.
Business Overview: JD Sports Fashion Plc is a leading UK retailer of sports and casual wear, with over 2500 stores. We focus on staff development, innovation, and teamwork.
Operational Environment: Reporting to the Head of Technology Infrastructure, responsible for the day-to-day management of the Network Team and supporting systems, including LAN, WAN, and Internet platforms.
Role Description: Lead the Network Team to ensure service availability, incident resolution, project completion, and security improvements. Act as a technical escalation point, promote technology benefits, and foster staff development.
Responsibilities:
* Establish relationships with business users and IT teams, facilitate communication and education.
* Coordinate with the Head of Infrastructure Technology on priorities and delivery.
* Review third-party supplier performance.
* Manage impact of changes on network services.
Operational Tasks:
* Monitor and resolve incidents within SLAs.
* Prioritize and assign tasks to the Network Team.
* Ensure network performance and disaster recovery readiness.
* Define standards, security, provisioning, and performance metrics.
* Identify and implement service improvements.
* Lead deployment of new systems requiring infrastructure support.
* Manage technology lifecycle and updates.
* Mentor team members and promote knowledge sharing.
* Advocate benefits of network services across the group.
* Maintain up-to-date technical documentation.
* Oversee team members' personal development.
* Develop and review network strategy.
* Assist with other network-related activities as needed.
Reporting:
* Produce reports for the Head of Infrastructure.
* Review incident statistics and implement reduction plans.
* Monitor licenses and capacity, recommend optimizations.
Experience/Knowledge:
Essential:
* Experience supporting large, complex networks.
* Strong skills with Cisco and HP Procurve switches.
* Knowledge of Cisco ASA, Fortinet, Zscaler firewalls.
* Experience with Aruba wireless, enterprise security products.
* Ability to relate business needs to technical solutions.
* Methodical problem-solving skills and troubleshooting leadership.
* Analytical skills for incident root cause analysis.
* Team management and planning experience.
* Experience in an ITIL environment.
Preferable:
* Relevant certifications.
* Experience with network monitoring, capacity management.
* Knowledge of routing protocols, VPNs, SNMP, 802.1x.
* Understanding of VoIP and QoS.
* Business acumen for expenditure and value.
* Ability to contextualize technical issues within business.
Skills/Behaviours:
Essential:
* Excellent communication skills.
* Problem-solving skills in IT.
* Interpersonal, negotiation, presentation skills.
* Planning, coordination, prioritization abilities.
* Work well under pressure with a structured approach.
* Relate to diverse individuals.
* Demonstrate both business and IT benefits.
Preferable:
* Knowledge of project delivery methods.
* Interest in IT industry developments.
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