Head Of Network Operations

Overview

In this senior leadership role you will steer the network function to the next maturity stage, aligning strategy with commercial and customer priorities. You will lead cross-functional teams to improve efficiency, resilience, and performance across complex environments. The role combines technical direction with operational leadership and commercial accountability, underpinning strategic investments and transformation. You will work from London (hybrid) in a growth-focused, PE-backed organisation with potential international expansion.

Responsibilities

• Set and execute the network strategy and technology roadmap aligned with commercial and customer objectives
• Lead Network Operations, Engineering, Architecture and Service Performance with clear accountability across the function
• Own network availability, resilience, capacity, security, performance and associated business risk
• Drive SLA/OLA achievement, continuous improvement and major incident/service recovery
• Set technical direction to ensure scalable, resilient, supportable and commercially sustainable networks
• Lead transformation across automation, observability, operational efficiency and AI-enabled network operations
• Collaborate with Product, Delivery, Commercial and Customer teams to improve customer experience, retention and growth
• Own network OPEX, CAPEX and headcount budgets, driving cost optimisation and EBITDA improvement
• Build business cases for network investment and transformation initiatives
• Manage strategic suppliers, carriers and technology vendors
• Lead senior customer escalations and executive-level network discussions
• Build a high-performing network organisation with strong succession and employee engagement

Key requirements

• Senior leadership experience within telecommunications, connectivity, managed services or technology infrastructure
• Experience leading multidisciplinary Network Operations, Engineering, Architecture and Service teams at scale
• Strong understanding of large-scale, business-critical network environments
• Proven improvements across network reliability, SLAs, customer experience and operational efficiency
• Experience delivering complex network transformation and service-improvement programmes
• Technical credibility across network architecture, resilience, security, capacity and operational risk
• Commercial experience managing significant OPEX, CAPEX and headcount budgets and delivering cost efficiencies
• Strong executive, customer, supplier and carrier stakeholder-management experience
• Ability to balance technical strategy and innovation with operational stability and commercial return

• Stakeholder management
• Strategic thinking
• Collaborative leadership
• Network architecture
• Resilience and security
• Capacity planning

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