Senior Network Support Engineer (GSM - R)

Who We Are

Join Network Rail - Where People and Connections Matter

At Network Rail, we're dedicated to keeping passengers and freight moving safely and efficiently across the country. When you join us, you're not just part of a team - you're part of something that matters to millions. We believe that our people are at the heart of what we do, and every role plays a vital part in building a better, more connected railway. Click here to learn more.

We're committed to creating a diverse, inclusive workplace that reflects the communities we serve. To discover more about our ED&I commitments click here. We value flexibility and understand the importance of a healthy work-life balance. As a Disability Confident Leader, we'll do everything we can to accommodate any needs throughout the recruitment process. You can visit Evenbreaks Career Hive for advice on accessibility support.

If you're ready to make a real difference, we'd love to hear from you!

We offer excellent benefits, including:

• Generous annual leave (28 days plus statutory days), with the option to buy/sell days.

• Defined benefit pension scheme.

• 75% subsidy on rail and underground season tickets.

• Up to 75% off leisure travel for you and your family (subject to terms and conditions)

• Interest-free travel loan for train and car park season tickets.

• Discounts at stations with your Network Rail pass.

• Flexible/hybrid working arrangements.

• Volunteer leave to make a positive impact.

• Healthcare Scheme, GymPass discounts, Cycle to work plus more.

• We offer generous maternity, paternity, and adoption leave to support our employees during significant life moments

Plus more....

Vacancy Details

Vacancy Type: Permanent

Working Hours: 35 per week

Location: Stoke TPC

Band & Salary: Band 3C £55,596 to £65,966

About the role

The Senior Network Support Engineer (GSM-R) plays a pivotal role at the heart of a mission-critical railway communication network, ensuring millions of passengers and services stay connected, safe, and on the move. This is more than a support role-it's an opportunity to take ownership of complex technical challenges, leading high-impact incident resolution, driving root cause improvements, and shaping the performance of a vital national infrastructure. Alongside hands-on technical leadership, you'll lead and inspire a team of engineers, developing talent, setting direction, and fostering a high-performance, collaborative culture. Working across GSM-R and telecoms technologies, you'll partner with internal teams and suppliers to deliver continuous improvement and innovation, while maintaining the highest safety and operational standards. If you thrive in fast-paced, high-availability environments and want to make a real difference, this role offers both challenge and impact in equal measure.

What will you be doing?

• Provide GSM-R subject matter expertise and technical leadership, collaborating with other functions and field-based teams to promote best practices across NRT and to restore service as quickly as possible.
• Own the risk profile associated with the GSM-R technology platform, together with the management plan of the potential improvements and related standards in order manage the control and mitigation of risk and provide a sustainable service.
• Own and deliver an audit and communication plan, identifying and communicating opportunities to align and improve working practices in order to deliver agreed targets with fewer interruptions and maximise GSM-R service availability.
• Create and provide technical documentation and briefings associated with GSM-R to engineers in specified delivery units in order that the purpose, as well as the content is understood.
• Manage and be a part of a comprehensive GSM-R operations support service focussed to the delivery units including the delivery of forensic investigations or resolving complex incidents and problems, in order to restore service as quickly as possible.
• Monitor the actions for the restoration of service associated with GSM-R technology and design, planning and implementing measures of improvement by collaborating with other departments to provide consistent approaches in fault investigation and resolution.
• Review and make expert recommendations on derogation and non-compliance to GSM-R related standards so that services can be understood, incidents can be resolved, and services maintained.
• Review and monitor progression of potential improvements to GSM-R related standards and provide technical feedback to the originators in order to influence standards and embed best practice.
• Collaborate with project teams to develop GSM-R related investment papers and project submissions creating change proposals where relevant, in order to maintain and improve service delivery and availability.
• Monitor and analyse the quality and performance of GSM-R related assets across the network and work with colleagues or vendors to implement corrective action as required to reduce impacting incident and increase service availiability.

Your experience and skills

The ideal candidate

Meet the essential criteria? Apply today to join our team

Essential

• Relevant telecoms Degree, or able to demonstrate equivalent competence.
• Minimum Cisco Certified Network Professional (CCNP) Certification.
• Significant GSM-R Network Engineering with experience of operations and maintenance.
• Knowledge of GSM-R Networking concepts including OSPF, STP, BGP, IS-IS, MPLS
• Direct experience with Netflow, Cisco Prime, Adaptive Security Appliance & Juniper firewalls, Protocols, Virtual Routing and Forwarding and layer 2/3 VPNs.
• Substantial knowledge of relevant technical, safety and performance standards.
• Willingness and desire to remain current and learn as new technologies emerge.
• Demonstrates excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Experience leading technical teams and building relationships between teams.
• Understands operational risks and familiar with risk mitigation techniques.
• Willingness to travel extensively within the UK.
• Holds valid UK driving licence, or eligible and willing to obtain.

Desirable

• Understanding and experience of railway infrastructure maintenance.
• Additional relevant licences and technical qualifications, or capable of achieving within reasonable timescales e.g. Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE).
• Member or higher of a relevant Professional Institution (eg IEE, IMechE)
• Experience of undertaking engineering assurance activities.
• Experience of performing competence assessments.
• Experience in vendor engagement / management.
• Able and willing to contribute to a standby / call out roster when required.
• Knowledge of the ITIL Service Management lifecycle and framework.

At Network Rail, we have several employee networks to reflect our diverse population and help to raise issues to the wider workforce and support their membership and support our Everybody Matters strategy, led by our central Diversity & Inclusion team. In IT Services, we have a group of Diversity & Inclusion Champions who take part and lead on many activities, to drive through more initiatives to support an inclusive environment for all its people and promote a professional and positive working environment. For more information on D&I at Network Rail, please follow this link

Do you consider yourself to have a protected characteristic? If so and you require any additional support with your application, please do not hesitate to contact the Resourcer who will happily assist - ***email_hidden***

Key Information

Vacancy Details

Number of Positions

Contract Type

Permanent

Hours

Full Time

Salary

£55,596 - £65,966

Location

Stoke-On-Trent

Geographical Area

Midlands

Closing Date

07-JUN-2026

Job Category

Digital Data and Technology

Function

Route Services

Asset

DDaT Telecoms Operations

Organisation

TA Technical Operations (Telecoms) (570664) G1

Attachments

Senior Network Support Engineer (GSM-R).pdf

Location Map