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# Network SME (LAN/WLAN & SD-WAN Readiness) - £600 - 650 per day inside IR35

- **Company:** Bench IT
- **Location:** UK (Remote available)
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** £156,000 - £169,000
- **Contract:** Temporary contract
- **Skills:** IEEE 802.1X, Wireless LAN, Access Network, Amazon Web Services, Border Gateway Protocol, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol, RAID, Domain Name System (DNS), Python (Programming Language), Local Area Networks, Network Planning and Design, Routing, Network Service, Open Shortest Path First (OSPF), Ansible, Virtual Local Area Networks, Wide Area Networks, Amazon Connect, Wi-Fi Technology, Genesys, Fortinet, Open Network Automation Platform, Cisco
- **Published:** November 6, 2026
- **Apply:** https://www.careerboard.com/gb/en/find-jobs-in-United-Kingdom/-399380922E657F3900/

## About the Role

* 7+ years enterprise network engineering across LAN, WLAN and WAN edge in multi-site, multi-country estates.
 * Strong routing and switching: BGP/OSPF, VLAN/L2 design, QoS for Real Time voice; hands-on with at least one major vendor stack (Cisco/Meraki, HPE Aruba, Fortinet or similar).
 * Delivered or integrated with an SD-WAN rollout (any major platform: Fortinet, Meraki, Velocloud, Viptela, Versa) from the LAN/customer side.
 * Enterprise Wi-Fi design and NAC/802.1X implementation.
 * Experience of site cutovers in 24×7 operational environments (contact centre or similar).
 * Comfortable as a sole design authority working through third-party field engineers for remote sites.
 * Voice/UC network experience supporting CCaaS (Amazon Connect/Genesys) media quality.
 * Carrier and circuit management across EMEA/Asia; experience of divestiture/separation network splits.
 * Network automation (Python/Ansible) and monitoring tooling integration.

Network SME (LAN/WLAN & SD-WAN Readiness)

## Description

BenchIT seek to appoint a Network Subject Matter Expert (SME) specialising in (LAN/WLAN & SD-WAN Readiness) to take responsibility for the management, configuration and documentation of the Cisco LAN/WLAN estate across all 32 sites and bring every site to readiness for the SD-WAN implementation, which is contracted separately by the organisation. This role is the design authority for the local network during separation: it owns the LAN side of the SD-WAN handoff, works daily with the SD-WAN provider's delivery team, and ensures site networking never blocks the migration programme or live contact-centre operations., * Take over operational management and configuration of the Cisco LAN/WLAN estate (switching, Wi-Fi, NAC, local firewalls/edge) across 32 sites in 8 countries, establishing configuration baselines and backups.

 * Produce and maintain per-site network designs and documentation: topology, VLANs and addressing, QoS for voice/contact-centre traffic, PoE and cabling constraints, circuit inventory.
 * Define and execute SD-WAN readiness per site: LAN handoff design, routing integration (BGP/OSPF/static), DHCP/DNS dependencies, QoS alignment for AWS Connect/Genesys voice, and site survey remediation.
 * Act as the technical interface to the SD-WAN provider: joint low-level designs, site sequencing aligned to the transition plan, pre-staging, cutover support and post-cutover validation.
 * Plan and support site cutovers with rollback positions, prioritising Tier 1 sites and contact-centre continuity; support the 2-4 week stability period per site.
 * Design identity-integrated network access against the new company Entra tenant (802.1X/NAC, RADIUS) as sites separate from existing network services.
 * Standardise monitoring and alerting for LAN/WLAN into the agreed tooling, with handover runbooks to helpdesk and support staff.
 * Track and remediate network risks and dependencies into the programme RAID, including carrier/circuit lead times against the 31 July 2027 TSA boundary.