Network Automation and Tooling Engineer

Role Specification: Network Automation & Tooling Engineer (Contract)

Programme Context

Programme: Technology Separation (Divestiture)
Workstream: Network Separation Automation & Tooling
Engagement Type: Contract (via supplier)
Reports to: Engineering Lead / Programme Leads
Location: Remote / Hybrid (as agreed)

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Purpose of the Role

We are seeking experienced Network Automation & Tooling Engineers to join an established automation engineering team delivering network infrastructure separation as part of a large-scale corporate divestiture programme. The team is responsible for building and operating automated pipelines that provision, validate, and maintain network infrastructure, as well as delivering the full suite of network management, monitoring, alerting, and operational tooling required for both the retained and divested entities.

The successful candidate will work within an established automation framework built on Python, Terraform, Nautobot, and CI/CD tooling, delivering network change capability and tooling at pace while maintaining data integrity and operational reliability through Day 1 and beyond. They will also contribute to the design, build, and migration of monitoring and management platforms, out-of-band management systems, and test infrastructure.

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Key Responsibilities

Network Automation & CI/CD

• Build, test, and deploy network configuration changes through automated CI/CD pipelines
  • Develop and maintain Python-based network automation tooling using Nornir, NAPALM, and pyATS
  • Manage Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Terraform, including brownfield migration
  • Build and deploy containerised services using Docker and Docker Compose
  • Integrate automation workflows with Nautobot as the single source of truth for network data
  • Implement GitOps practices to maintain network data integrity across environments
  • Develop automation templates and services to accelerate and standardise builds across multiple network workstreams (core routing, edge, security)
  

Monitoring, Alerting & Observability

• Contribute to the design and build of a net-new network monitoring and alerting platform (SaaS-first approach, e.g. LogicMonitor or equivalent)
  • Integrate new monitoring platform with network infrastructure
  • Perform cleanup of existing monitoring platforms (e.g. Solarwinds, ELK) ahead of Day 1 — removing retained-entity components, reconfiguring alerting, and adjusting RBAC for handover
  • Contribute to observability and telemetry solutions including model-driven telemetry and streaming analytics
  

Network Intelligence & Management Platforms

• Retain and integrate the network intelligence platform with the retained entity, decoupling the divested network ahead of Day 1
  • Duplicate and redeploy Nautobot and associated microservices into cloud hosting (AWS ECS or equivalent), migrating from legacy cloud platforms where applicable
  • Develop further automation services and integrations on the Nautobot platform
  

Out-of-Band Management & Test Infrastructure

• Duplicate existing test rig and out-of-band management (Opengear) designs for retained-entity sites
  • Build and configure new Opengear instances hosted in cloud (AWS or equivalent)
  • Perform cleanup and separation of divested-entity-retained test rigs and out-of-band systems — removing integrations and reconfiguring access
  

Platform Separation & Readiness

• Perform data and configuration cleanup across all automation and tooling platforms ahead of separation
  • Reconfigure identity integration and RBAC policies for divested-entity-retained platforms
  • Support RIPE LIR registration activities (new legal entity registration, ASN procurement, prefix migration)
  • Collaborate with platform, identity, and cyber security teams on cross-workstream dependencies
  

Collaboration & Delivery

• Collaborate with the Network Automation Architect on solution design and pipeline architecture
  • Participate in code reviews, testing, and documentation
  • Contribute to design assurance documentation and decision records
  

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Required Skills & Experience

Networking Fundamentals
• Strong routing and switching background (enterprise/service provider environments)
• Solid understanding of network protocols, topologies, and operational practices
• Understanding of network monitoring concepts, SNMP, syslog, and streaming telemetry

Network Automation
• Building network automation solutions using Nornir, NAPALM, and pyATS
• Working knowledge of network device APIs (NETCONF, RESTCONF, gNMI)
• Experience automating network changes across multi-vendor environments
• Developing automation templates to standardise and accelerate infrastructure builds

CI/CD & DevOps
• Building CI/CD pipelines end-to-end
• CI on GitHub / GitHub Actions
• CD on cloud platforms (GCP Cloud Run/Cloud Build or AWS ECS Fargate)
• Daily use of Git (branching strategies, pull requests, merge workflows)

Containerisation
• Building and deploying containers using Docker and Docker Compose
• Understanding of container orchestration patterns
• Deploying containerised services on AWS ECS or equivalent

Infrastructure as Code
• Managing IaC with Terraform (modules, state management, providers)
• Familiarity with migrating brownfield environments into IaC
• Understanding of plan/apply workflows and drift detection

Software Development
• Building and maintaining Python codebases
• Working knowledge of network libraries, data transformation, microservices, and testing frameworks (pytest, unittest)
• Comfortable parsing deeply nested data structures
• Working knowledge of REST APIs, JSON, YAML, and Jinja2 templating

Source of Truth & Data Integrity
• Familiarity with Nautobot or similar IPAM/DCIM tools
• Building applications that leverage a single source of truth to maintain network data integrity
• Integration with GitOps workflows

Monitoring & Observability Platforms
• Experience with network monitoring platforms (e.g. LogicMonitor, Solarwinds, LibreNMS, or similar SaaS NMS)
• Familiarity with ELK stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) for log aggregation
• Experience with Cisco Model Driven Telemetry
• Experience with TIG/TILG observability stack (Telegraf, InfluxDB, Grafana) or similar
• Understanding of alert routing, escalation, and integration with ticketing systems

Out-of-Band & Lab Infrastructure
• Experience with Opengear or similar out-of-band management platforms
• Familiarity with network test rig design and deployment
• Understanding of console server management and remote access patterns

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Desirable Skills

• Experience with network separation, divestiture, or large-scale migration programmes
  • Familiarity with Batfish or similar network verification tools
  • Experience with Pydantic for data validation
  • Knowledge of async Python (asyncio, httpx)
  • Exposure to graph databases (Neo4j) for network topology modelling
  • Experience with RIPE database, LIR management, or IP resource administration
  • Experience with virtual lab environments (EVE-NG, CML)
  • Understanding of Puppet or similar configuration management for golden image delivery
  • CCNP/CCIE or equivalent vendor certifications
  

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Working Practices

• Agile delivery within two-week sprints
  • All code and configuration submitted via pull request with peer review where applicable
  • Infrastructure and automation code maintained in GitHub repositories
  • Design decisions documented and aligned to the programme's design assurance framework
  • Collaboration via Slack, Google Meet, and Jira
  

Documentation & Design
• Produce low-level designs (LLDs), technical working papers, and decision records as part of day-to-day delivery
• Documentation authored and maintained in Confluence and Google Drive
• Diagramming in Miro and Draw.io, following C4 modelling conventions where appropriate

AI & Productivity Tooling
• Expected to leverage AI-assisted tools including Gemini, NotebookLM, GitHub Copilot, and Kiro to accelerate delivery and improve quality