Network Production Engineer - 72100

NETWORK PRODUCTION ENGINEER
Location: London – hybrid, 1–2 days onsite per week
Contract: 12 months
Dates: August 2026 – August 2027
Hours: 40 hours per week
Pay rate: £50 per hour PAYE

OVERVIEW

We are looking for an experienced Network Production Engineer to join a Backbone Provisioning and Testing team supporting one of the world’s largest and most complex network infrastructures.

This is a software and automation-focused position. You will design and build production-quality tools, systems and automated workflows used to provision network platforms, qualify new products and deploy routing, switching and optical technologies at a global scale.

Occasional availability until approximately 7:00pm may be required when collaborating with US-based colleagues.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Design and develop automation, tools and workflows for network provisioning, deployment and operations.
• Support the introduction of new routing, switching and optical platforms.
• Build end-to-end test automation frameworks for network hardware, platforms and software.
• Use AI tools to generate, optimise and execute automated test suites at scale.
• Integrate automated testing and platform qualification into CI/CD pipelines.
• Test and qualify new network products within lab environments.
• Work with engineering teams to deploy qualified products into production.
• Develop reliable, scalable production code within Linux-based environments.
• Investigate complex issues involving automation, network software, infrastructure and hardware.
• Deliver technical projects independently against agreed milestones.
• Collaborate with engineering teams across different functions and time zones.

ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCE

• Seven or more years’ experience in software engineering, infrastructure engineering or test automation.
• Strong hands-on programming experience in Python.
• Five or more years’ software-development experience within Linux-based environments.
• Three or more years’ experience building automation and tooling for network provisioning, deployment or operations.
• Three or more years’ experience developing and understanding network-device configurations.
• Experience with at least one major network vendor, such as Cisco, Juniper, Arista, Nokia, Ciena or Infinera.
• Strong understanding of TCP/IP, IPv4/IPv6 and SSH.
• Knowledge of routing technologies and protocols, including BGP, MPLS and IS-IS or similar.
• Understanding of network services such as DHCP and DNS.
• Experience creating test automation frameworks and integrating them into CI/CD pipelines.
• Practical experience using AI tools for coding, automation or test development.
• Strong troubleshooting skills across software, networking, automation and hardware.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

DESIRABLE EXPERIENCE

• Programming experience with Go, C++ or Java.
• Zero-touch provisioning, automated deployment, monitoring, remediation or software-push systems.
• Configuration-management tools such as Ansible, Puppet or Chef.
• Django and SQL databases.
• Network and software debugging, profiling and instrumentation.
• Developing and operating distributed systems at scale.
• Introducing new network platforms into large production environments.
• Experience within hyperscale technology, cloud infrastructure or telecommunications

ABOUT YOU

You will combine advanced networking knowledge with substantial software-development and automation experience. Your background may include roles such as Network Production Engineer, Network Automation Engineer, Network Software Engineer, Infrastructure Software Engineer or Network Development Engineer.

This role is unlikely to suit candidates whose experience is mainly limited to manual network configuration, ticket-based support or traditional BAU network operations without significant hands-on coding and automation responsibilities.