Chief Network Officer - Telecommunications

About the role

First Point Group is recruiting a Chief Network Officer / Head of Network Engineering & Operations for an established connectivity and managed network services provider, backed by Private Equity investment. The role focuses on harmonisation: strengthening collaboration, developing leadership capability, improving efficiency and keeping network strategy aligned with customer and commercial priorities. It is a hybrid role (3 days per week in London) open only to UK-based candidates, with no visa sponsorship.

Key responsibilities

• Set and execute the network strategy and technology roadmap aligned with commercial and customer objectives.
• Lead Network Operations, Engineering, Architecture and Service Performance, setting 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 and service recovery.
• Ensure network architecture is scalable, resilient, supportable and commercially sustainable.
• Lead transformation across automation, observability, operational efficiency and AI-enabled network operations.
• Work with Product, Delivery, Commercial and Customer teams to improve customer experience, retention and growth.
• Own network OPEX, CAPEX and headcount budgets, drive cost optimisation and measurable EBITDA improvement, and build business cases for network investment.
• Manage strategic suppliers, carriers and technology vendors, and lead senior customer escalations and executive-level network discussions.
• Build a high-performing network organisation with strong succession, capability and employee engagement.

Required profile

• 5+ years of recent experience in senior leadership (Head / Chief titles) of telecom NOC and engineering teams of 50+ people, in Fibre / LAN / WAN / WiFi / IP / MPLS / Private Wireless / 5G.
• Senior leadership experience in telecommunications, connectivity, managed services or technology infrastructure.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary Network Operations, Engineering, Architecture and Service teams at scale.
• Proven improvements in network reliability, SLAs, customer experience and operational efficiency.
• Commercial experience managing significant OPEX, CAPEX and headcount budgets.
• Strong stakeholder management with customers, suppliers and carriers.

Required skills

• Network architecture, resilience, security, capacity and operational risk.
• Desirable: access/core networks, fixed connectivity, SD-WAN, Wi-Fi and network monitoring.
• Desirable: AI, intelligent automation and advanced tooling applied to network operations and service management.