IT Network Manager

The National Lottery Community Fund

West Midlands, UK

Hybrid

Expires: Expiring in less than 4 weeks

Full time

£43,000 - £46,000 per year

Job summary

The National Lottery Community Fund is looking for a skilled and proactive Network Manager to become part of their compact IT Infrastructure Team located in Birmingham. This role will report directly to the Head of IT Infrastructure & Security. Hybrid working is available, though occasional travel to various UK sites will be required.

Job description

Role Expectations

As a Network Manager, you will play a pivotal role in maintaining and enhancing our IT network, ensuring optimal performance, up-to-date security, and reliability.

Key responsibilities may include:

Be an integral part of the Team and act as the go to person and SME for networking requirements. Work with stakeholders both internally and externally from diverse backgrounds and communities.
Collaborate closely with Network Managers, Infrastructure Engineers, Security Team and Project Managers to understand and address their requirements.
Manage and optimise network infrastructure, including on-premise networks, public cloud (Azure) networks, virtual networks and WAN technologies.
Apply strong analytical and troubleshooting skills to resolve network issues.
Strong interpersonal and problem-solving skills.
Monitor network performance, identify and resolve bottlenecks.
Collaborate with service desk staff, providing education and support while resolving network-related tickets.
Be responsible for end-to-end delivery of the Project tasks.
Lead networking element of projects to improve production environments.
Ability to write clear, concise technical documentation such as Network Designs.
Responsible for ensuring that any designs produced are in line with the current network architecture and infrastructure strategy documentation and are fit for purpose.
Provide timely updates and whenever necessary timely escalation of issues to right stakeholders.

Skills & Requirements

Configure and manage Firewalls, Routers, Access Points, Switches, SD-WAN and Networking Appliances.
Demonstrate advanced knowledge of networking, including TCP/IP protocols, subnetting, VLANs, load balancing, and VPNs.
Configuring and installing hardware in both office and data centre environments.
Contribute to design and architecture discussions.
Mitigate Pen Test and Audit findings.
Participate in out of hours implementations of change/support as required.
Accurate estimation of workload and timelines for delivery.
Support and maintain backup and disaster recovery solutions.
Compliance to regulatory and mandatory policies.
Relevant vendor management experience.

Interview details:

Interview date: 12/05/2026 – 14/05/2026
Format: Online

Location: Birmingham - We have a hybrid approach to working, with a home/office split that suits you, though the role will include travel across the UK as and when required. Work pattern and location will be agreed with the successful candidate.

We will be hosting a briefing session on: 17th April 2026, 2pm. To register or ask any questions please email: recruitment@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk

For an informal discussion about the role, please contact: Ian.Dudfield@tnlcommunityfund.org.uk

Person specification

How to apply:

Upload your CV in word format and write a supporting statement (1000 words) with the following criteria, we will use this to score your application.

Essential Criteria:

Demonstrable experience in network administration and deployment.
Experience with Cisco Switches, including configuration, security, and firmware updates.
Knowledge of Firewalls (Preferentially Cisco Meraki MX and Azure Firewalls).
Experience with Microsoft Azure cloud services and architectures, networking (NSG, VNet peering, UDR, Private Link/Endpoint, Azure Firewall, load balancer).
Knowledge of Cisco Meraki SD-WAN (MX Appliances).
Analyse, troubleshoot, and resolve incidents escalated from service desk support.

Desirable Criteria:

Knowledge of Cisco Catalyst 9100 Access Points.
Centralized Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) Cisco ISE.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Communities in the UK come in all shapes and sizes. National Lottery funding is for everyone – therefore, we are committed to equity, diversity and inclusion and we work hard to ensure our funding reaches where it is needed.

We also believe our people should represent the communities, organisations and individuals we work with. That’s why The National Lottery Community Fund is committed to being an inclusive employer and a great place to work. We recognise and celebrate the fact that our people come from diverse backgrounds. We positively welcome applications from people from ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities or longstanding health conditions, people who are LGBTQ+, and people from different socio-economic and educational backgrounds, as well as people of all ages.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we take a proactive approach in making reasonable adjustments, if needed, throughout the recruitment process and during employment. (This can be related to a physical and mental health condition.)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,000, The National Lottery Community Fund contributes £12,457 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

A full list of our benefits can be found on our website using the link:

Generous Civil Service Pension Scheme
Flexible working
Enhanced paid maternity/ paternity leave
Paid volunteering leave
Season ticket loan

Watch this video to see a full list of benefits available.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Please click the link to apply and upload your supporting statement (1000) and CV when you are submitting your online application to us via our vacancies page. Any application sent to recruitment with your attached documents will not be considered.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

UK nationals
nationals of the Republic of Ireland
nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

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Contact point for applicants

Salary range

£43,000 - £46,000 per year