Network Engineer – Trading & Low Latency (London)

About the role

We are seeking an experienced Network Engineer to join a global financial services organisation on a high‑profile, low‑latency trading project. The role is based in London with a hybrid working model (three days in the office each week) and is initially contracted for six months.

Key responsibilities

• Design, implement and maintain low‑latency network infrastructure for electronic trading platforms.
• Configure and optimise routing, switching, firewall and load‑balancing solutions across Cisco, Arista, Palo Alto, Fortinet and A10/F5 devices.
• Monitor and troubleshoot network latency, PTP timing distribution and market data feeds.
• Integrate cloud networking components (AWS, Azure, GCP) and support Kubernetes/OpenShift networking.
• Automate network provisioning and changes using Ansible, Terraform and Python scripts.
• Participate in incident, problem and change management following ITIL v3/v4 processes.

Required profile

• Minimum 7 years of experience supporting mission‑critical networks in financial markets or exchange environments.
• Proven knowledge of electronic trading architectures, market data distribution and exchange connectivity.
• Hands‑on experience with low‑latency network design and latency monitoring tools.
• Familiarity with regulated financial environments and delivery models (Agile, Waterfall, hybrid).

Required skills

• BGP, OSPF, VRF, VLAN, VXLAN, VPN, NAT, DNS, DHCP, PTP, Multicast
• Cisco, Arista, Palo Alto, Fortinet, A10, F5
• Network latency monitoring, timing distribution, regulatory timestamping
• AWS, Azure, GCP
• Kubernetes, OpenShift, CNI plugins, eBPF, service mesh, ingress/egress controllers, network policies
• Ansible, Terraform, Python
• ITIL v3/v4, Agile, Waterfall

What we offer

• Day rate of £800‑£900 (inside IR35 via umbrella)
• Hybrid working arrangement (3 days on‑site)
• Opportunity to work on a high‑visibility project within a leading financial institution