Head of Network Automation - Telco industry

Job Title: Head of Network Automation - Telco industry

Location: Remote - with occasional travel to the office for workshops, which usually take place once every 3 weeks.

Salary/Rate: Up to £795 a day Inside IR35

Start Date: September 2025

Job Type: 3-mth contract with scope to extend

Company Introduction

Head of Network Automation sought to join a Telecommunications client.

You will need to demonstrate an understanding of the challenges of automating on hardware devices / like routers / RAN etc.

You should be able to show where the value is brought to the business during your recent assignments. Our client seeks an individual who's very value-oriented.

You will need to have strong leadership skills as there will be direct management of several tech leads.

Job Responsibilities/Objectives

• Recruit, develop, and lead multiple development squads across internal and external resources
• Understand the challenges faced when automating on hardware devices like Routers / RAN etc
• Assess use cases in backlog, estimate MVP and sizing effort to ensure team resources are sized appropriately with the right skills.
• Work alongside SA to do strategic use case design and design tactical solution with a strategic outcome in mind
• LLD, develop and create workflows (when required)
• Approve Code reviews before merge (when required)
• Internal/External stakeholder engagement (including vendors)
• Set standards - coding, ways of working, documentation, for 30 developers and provide thought leadership to wider development community across NSE etc.
• Encourage close loop automation across Plan, Provide & Assure, ensuring Automation Silos are broken.
• Set development and SA targets
• High level shaping of tickets; size ticket and allocating to squads
• Explore new libraries, opensource tools, adapters
• Contribute to team's roadmap and strategy
• Develop & mentor your teams and arrange training where necessary
• Work across both fixed and mobile networks and create synergies and consolidation where possible

Required Skills/Experience

• Experience in a senior developer role, ideally in a large Telco or IT company
• Be value-oriented and have the desire to bring value to the project you are working on.
• Experience working in Networks or IT network transformations
• Proven track record of delivering high-quality code and leading development squads
• Experienced individual with a software engineering background
• Fixed mobile/ b2b experience

Skills:

• Netconf, APIs, XML, JSON, Jinja 2, Python, JavaScript
• Cisco NSO, Ansible, Net Miko, Docker
• Workflow automation Itential IAP, Appian, Resolve
• Knowledge of telecom networks, technologies, and standards e.g TMF/Tosca/MEF
• YANG/TOSCA for service modelling
• CI/CD/CT - GITLAB, Robot, Selenium, Cucumber, Veracode, Sonar cube
• Familiarity with AI/ML - understanding concepts