Engineering Lead – Network Services

JOB TITLE: Engineering Lead – Network Services

LOCATION(S): London / Leeds / Manchester with travel required, as the Network Labs are spread across multiple hub locations

HOURS: Full time

WORKING PATTERN: Our work style is hybrid, which involves spending at least two days per week, or 40% of our time, at our locations noted above.

About this Opportunity

The Lloyds Banking Group Network is one of the largest networks in the UK, covering data centres, cloud services, offices, and branches across the UK, Europe, and India. Network Services Labs consists of about 250 colleagues (permanent and partner) and manages an expenditure of £100m. The Network Labs are responsible for maintaining and transforming the networking infrastructure, software and ways of working.

Our core technologies are:
• Software Defined Networking using Cisco ACI and SDWAN
• WIFI services including DNA centre, DNAC
• Telephony services including Avaya, HUCS and ring central
• Loading balancing services using F5
• Firewall technologies utilising Checkpoint, Fortinet, and Cisco
• Network Security services including Forescout, NIPS, NDR
• DNS and IPAM management using Infoblox
• Utilising GitHub, Harness, Ansible and Terraform to deliver Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

The goal over the next 5 years is to offer a software-defined automated set of network services by utilising Infrastructure as Code (IAC) through open APIs provided by modern engineering tools such as GitHub, Harness, Terraform, and Ansible. This approach will increasingly enable a self-service capability for customers while decommissioning our legacy network services and systems.

Why Lloyds Banking Group

We’re on an exciting journey to transform our Group and the way we’re shaping finance for good. We’re focusing on the future, investing in our technologies, workplaces, and colleagues to make our Group a great place for everyone. Including you.

Key responsibilities

• As the Engineering Lead, you will collaborate with the CIO and lab leaders to build a value-generating Network product. Much of Network Services delivery involves inbound tasks delivered to support initiatives for other areas, exceptional collaborative abilities are required, with a strong passion for fostering productive teamwork.

• Define team objectives and rationale, develop implementation strategies, integrate engineering solutions, and implement process changes.

• Driving teams' engagement in Guilds, forums, and meet-ups where engineering methodologies and practices are discussed and refined. This involvement will enable the sharing of new insights and ideas, which can be integrated into the lab to enhance engineering effectiveness. Additionally, you will be a part of the broader engineering leadership team within Core Infrastructure, supporting your continuous professional development. You will also participate in initiatives beyond the Lab, such as contributing to the implementation of engineering changes like developing engineering learning pathways.

• Recruit and champion Network engineering talent in various areas to support team growth.

• It is critical to cultivate a culture of learning and continuous improvement by promoting a “Fail Fast, Learn Faster” mentality within teams. This approach encourages experimentation and testing of innovative engineering methods, acting as a catalyst for change in both engineering practices and team dynamics.  It is important to encourage a systems-thinking approach and prioritise user-friendly design methodologies. The ideal candidate will motivate effective performance while promoting simplicity and fostering confidence and trust.

What you’ll need

• Vision and the ability to provide an engineering strategy and roadmap for the Networks Product domain

• Strong knowledge of the software defined Network development lifecycle and experience in end- to- end delivery of software products

• Experience working with large scale Networking solutions across hybrid architectures

• Experience with agile development methods & tooling e.g., Scrum, Kanban, Jira & Confluence, and experience of leading & working as part of an agile team

• Self-starter who inspires and motivates the teams around you to achieve large scale transformation in ways of working in both process and technology

• Champion an environment where teams are empowered to be autonomous and self-sufficient, and you provide purpose, guidance and support where needed

• Ability to work effectively with multi-disciplinary, internal, and external geographically distributed teams across the project lifecycle

About working for us

Our focus is to ensure we're inclusive every day, building an organisation that reflects modern society and celebrates diversity in all its forms. We want our people to feel that they belong and can be their best, regardless of background, identity, or culture. We were one of the first major organisations to set goals on diversity in senior roles, create a menopause health package, and a dedicated Working with Cancer initiative. And it’s why we especially welcome applications from under-represented groups. We’re disability confident. So, if you’d like reasonable adjustments to be made to our recruitment processes, just let us know.

We also offer a wide-ranging benefits package, which includes

• A generous pension contribution of up to 15%

• An annual performance-related bonus

• Share schemes including free shares.

• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping.

• 30 days’ holiday, with bank holidays on top

• A range of wellbeing initiatives and generous parental leave policies

Want to do amazing work, that’s interesting and makes a difference to millions of people? Join our journey.