Ocho
Principal Network Engineer
How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Principal Network Engineer
At-a-Glance
- Senior-level network engineering role within a fast-scaling fintech / payments organisation
- Deep expertise required across Palo Alto firewalls, Juniper switching and routing, and VXLAN / EVPN
- Hybrid multi-cloud environment spanning AWS, Azure, and GCP alongside on-premise infrastructure
- Fully remote working
- Salary: £95,000 - £115,000
About the Company
Our client is a rapidly growing payments business building the next generation of merchant-first infrastructure. Operating across a complex hybrid multi-cloud and on-premise ecosystem, they are on a mission to deliver radical and responsible value to their merchant base. With a pragmatic, outcomes-driven engineering culture, they invest seriously in their technical people and the tools they need to do great work.
The Role
This is a senior individual contributor role within the Technical Operations practice, sitting at the heart of network design, implementation, and stewardship across the organisation's hosting environments. You will take genuine ownership of complex infrastructure challenges spanning cloud and on-premise, working hands-on alongside peers in DevOps and InfoSec. The role carries real technical authority... you will set standards, mentor colleagues, and act as a trusted advisor to engineering and architecture leadership. If you thrive in dynamic environments where you can drive outcomes with limited oversight, this is a strong fit.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the design, implementation, and ongoing stewardship of network infrastructure across hybrid multi-cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP) and on-premise environments
- Own proactive life cycle management, capacity planning, and high-priority incident, change, and problem management for switches, routers, load balancers, firewalls, compute, storage, and virtualisation assets
- Drive standards and design decisions across TechOps, partnering closely with Engineering, Architecture, and InfoSec
- Evaluate, test, and implement complex technical solutions that address real business problems and deliver measurable value
- Manage highly visible and high-risk change events, ensuring infrastructure runs efficiently and reliably
- Champion observability, high-availability, information security, and infrastructure-as-code as first-class concerns in all new environments
- Develop and maintain a comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plan for network and systems, including periodic testing
- Coordinate vendor relationships for appliance and software upgrades, capacity analysis, and hardware tuning
- Produce technical documentation, engineering drawings, and written procedures to a high standard
- Mentor and develop peers within the TechOps practice, raising the bar across the team
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
What You'll Need
Essential:
- 10+ years of experience in enterprise-level system and network design and support
- 10+ years working within cloud environments (AWS, Azure, and / or GCP)
- 5+ years in a technical lead or architect capacity
- Expert-level, hands-on proficiency with Palo Alto Firewalls and Panorama Administration
- Expert-level, hands-on proficiency with Juniper switching and routing products
- Expert-level, hands-on proficiency with VXLAN and EVPN technologies
- Advanced, hands-on proficiency with OSPF and BGP routing protocols
- Advanced, hands-on proficiency with VPN technologies
- Solid hands-on experience with Enterprise Wireless technologies (Juniper preferred)
- Solid understanding of network security concepts including ACL planning, 802.1x, and NAC solutions
- Hands-on experience with authentication technologies including LDAP / Active Directory and RADIUS
- Hands-on experience with Windows Server and Linux operating systems
- Scripting experience in Bash, PowerShell, Perl, or Python, and Infrastructure as Code via Ansible and Terraform
- Proven track record delivering multiple, complex technical projects end to end
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
Desirable / Nice to Have:
- Relevant certifications such as PCNSA, PCNSE, JNCIA, JNCIS, JNCIP, JNCIE, or CCSP
- Experience with configuration management platforms such as Chef in addition to Ansible
- ITIL or equivalent best-practice methodology certification
Why Apply?
- Salary of £95,000 - £115,000
- Fully remote working
- Senior technical role with genuine autonomy... set standards and drive outcomes without needless process
- Work on a modern, complex hybrid multi-cloud estate at a business scaling rapidly in the payments space
- Collaborative, curious engineering culture that values learning and outcomes over outputs
- Real opportunity to shape TechOps practice and leave a lasting mark on the infrastructure foundations
Next Steps
If this sounds like the right move for you, get in touch with Luke directly at luke@ochopeople.com or connect on LinkedIn to have a confidential conversation.
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Skills
Location