Please note this role will close at 00.01 on 23rd July so we advise making your application by midnight on the 22nd July.

About Ofcom

Ofcom is the regulator for the communications services that we use and rely on each day. We make sure people get the best from their broadband, home phone and mobile services, as well as keeping an eye on TV and radio.

Our culture is clear – we live by our values: Empowerment; Excellence; Collaboration; Agility and Respect. These define how we work to deliver our purpose, now and in the future. The behaviours which support these values set the path for a fully inclusive and innovative culture at Ofcom.

We focus not only on what we do, but how we do it. We pride ourselves on being an organisation of people who genuinely care about helping others.

About the team you’ll be part of

This role sits within Ofcom’s Network and Communications Technology Team (N&C Tech). The N&C Tech team in Ofcom includes technologists across the areas of network infrastructure, resilience, and security topics, and range of wireless and wireline technology contexts. The team supports initiatives across the rest of Ofcom as well as having its own objectives in the areas of ensuring reliable and secure networks and communications services in the UK.

The N&C Tech team are a part of the Network and Communications Groups, with responsibilities in telecoms, postal sectors and digital markets. The N&C Group sits alongside other directorates including: Spectrum, Broadcasting and Media, Online Safety, Strategy, Economics, and Legal.

The Purpose of the Role

• As society has become increasingly dependent on communications services, and telecommunications technologies and infrastructure continue to change at a rapid pace, Ofcom needs technical expertise and market experience in the telecommunications industry in order to support Ofcom in its policy work as well as monitoring the state of play in the industry as well as individual communications providers.
• The purpose of this role (Technical Advisor Associate, Network Resilience) is to help maintain and improve the reliability of communications networks and services in the UK by using your technical expertise to support Ofcom’s colleagues from all the other directorates in achieving our goals together.

Your Key Responsibilities

• Asessing and monitoring how communications providers’ apply the architecture & design ‘good practices’ contained in Ofcom’s ‘Network and Service Resilience Guidance for Communications Providers’ with the aim of achieving appropriate levels of reliability. A mix of pro-active assessment and re-active assessment (following network or service outage incidents) will require an understanding of network planning, operations, or design principles typically used in fixed, mobile, or IP transport communications networks. The role includes keeping up to date with new technology evolution and network deployment models.
• Making use of your technical expertise, the successful candidate will be able to demonstrate the ability to read, listen to, digest, and distil technical and procedural information from communications providers (CPs) and then communicate key information and insights to others in Ofcom. You will regularly participate in meetings with CPs and write to them to seek clarification where needed. You may contribute to changes in Ofcom’s procedures on these topics so that Ofcom’s communications network & service resilience regulation is effective, appropriate, and measurable.
• Following network or service incidents (outages or impairments), you will be involved in triaging and helping to assess whether a CP may have fallen short in the use of architecture, design, and operational ‘good practices’.
• Working alongside other members of the N&C Tech team, you will be key in supporting the network and service resilience assurance programme to ensure that Communications Providers follow good network architecture & design practices for service availability & reliability.
• Having the opportunity to collaborate across other areas of Ofcom, such as market research, to ensure our insights and evaluation are consistent with Ofcom’s wider work.

Skills, knowledge, and experience

• Reasonable experience and understanding of network deployment, planning, or operations including resilience/reliability
• Reasonable understanding of the technical planning or operations for fixed or mobile telecoms networks and services including: capacity planning and resilience concepts
• Reasonable understanding of telecoms network technologies including at least one of these: 4G mobile networks, voice networks, fixed-broadband, NFVI/Virtual Network Functions
• Reasonable understanding of risks/factors that typically impact the reliability of fixed and/or mobile services
• Good understanding of the factors impacting quality of experience and reliability of fixed or mobile services
• Reasonable understanding of assessing or diagnosing network/service failures
• Experience with evaluating technical risks and identifying reasonable and appropriate control measures
• Maintaining an ongoing awareness and understanding of emerging telecoms technologies, including via: ongoing training, industry liaison & participation in industry bodies, and identifying, commissioning, and managing specific external technical research projects
• Articulating Ideas: Ability to demonstrate strong written and verbal communication abilities, writing quality documentation for a variety of different audiences, including technical and non-technical, with the ability to clearly convey key information.
• Forming Relationship: Experience of building and maintaining strong and effective stakeholder relationships and building consensus among colleagues from own and other organisations
• Harmonising Work: Experience of building and maintaining strong and effective stakeholder relationships and building consensus among colleagues from own and other organisations.

Desirable Skills/Experience

• Basic understanding of IP/MPLS, MPLS VPNs, QoS/prioritisation principles, transmission technologies
• Worked in a communications provider, technology-based consultancy or vendor

Qualifications and Accreditation's

• Relevant professional qualifications associated with the technical skills referenced above

At Ofcom we prioritise inclusive and diverse recruitment in order to truly reflect the society we represent.

Where positions are listed as full time, we remain open to reduced hours, part-time arrangements, job shares and other flexible working options from day one of employment. We warmly welcome applications from candidate returning to work after a break – for whatever reason.

As a disability confident employer, we offer interviews to any disabled applicant who meet essential criteria for advertised roles. Learn more about the scheme here.

If you need information in an alternative format or have specific preferences, please contact our recruitment team.