Who are we?

Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

Role Summary

• This role forms part of a distributed, global infrastructure team that is responsible for the continued availability and support of a hybrid on-premises and cloud infrastructure
• This is a hands-on role. The successful candidate will be expected to:

• Operate varying appliance and VM based vendor technologies at the CLI or through a web interface to design, implement, install, diagnose, troubleshoot, upgrade, decommission and support all areas of the network
• Work on incidents, requests, assigned project work and raise/discuss change requests as required

• Work within the wider IT infrastructure teams, providing support for Cloud, Data Centre and office network environments
• Work within a fast-paced environment, supporting the business throughout UK, Europe and Asia
   

Job Specific Skills Profile

Technical skills required for the role:

• Demonstrate experience working in a network infrastructure team as a hands-on network engineer
• Demonstrate operational and project engineering support for all aspects of enterprise IT networks
• 2-5 years’ experience working with Juniper, Cisco, Meraki, Forescout NAC, Forcepoint Web Proxy, AV systems such as MS Teams, and Palo Alto technologies
• 2-5 years’ experience assisting design builds including network hardware, IP addressing, firewall rule-sets, testing and roll-out
• 2-5 years’ experience working with wired and WiFi LANs
• 2-5 years’ experience supporting environments using Active Directory, DHCP, DNS and 2FA
• 2-5 years’ experience working with peer infrastructure teams supporting an Azure cloud hosted environment
• 2-5 years’ experience working with global WAN providers
• 2-5 years’ experience working as part of network team responsible for an international enterprise network
• Good knowledge of diagnosing, troubleshooting and resolving all types of cabling, LAN/WAN, routing, WiFi and firewall related faults
• Good knowledge of networking including Layer2/3, dynamic routing, MPLS, BGP, OSPF, VPN, ANS, certificate management, remote user (VPN/Citrix) and firewall management
• Good knowledge of IT security practices
• Good knowledge of ServiceNow and LogicMonitor
• Certifications – ITIL Foundation, CCNA & CCNP
   

Desirable Experience

• Good knowledge of Microsoft server technologies (Windows 2019, 2016 & 2012)
• Good knowledge of VMware & Citrix
• Good knowledge of SD-WAN

The role requires the candidate to

• Demonstrate examples of similar successful positions in the past
• Be highly collaborative within the team, with peer teams and management
• Demonstrate a very high level of customer service and empathy to the customer issues
• Have worked in the insurance or financial services sector previously
• Demonstrate a ‘Can-Do’ attitude

Core Responsibilities for all Staff

Achieve Results through Relationships with All Parties

• Delivering a personal performance that contributes towards Group and/or Company achieving their objectives
• Achieving lasting relationships with all parties (internal clients, suppliers, third parties and other staff)

Delivery of Service

• Consistently deliver an excellent and comprehensive service

Conduct and Integrity

• Ensure all dealings are carried out with integrity and professionalism
• Act in utmost good faith, in accordance with Group and/or Company policies and never risk the Company’s or the Group’s reputation

Development and Professionalism

• Continuously develop skills and knowledge
• Must possess a passion for quality and continuous improvement
• Able to multi-task and prioritise appropriately

General Responsibilities

Clients

• Develop strong relationships with the Business Units
• Respond to the Business Units’ requirements as appropriate
• Support the business units with their use of the IT systems
• Behave with all clients (both internal and external) fairly and ethically with excellent customer service
• Take ownership of issues and provide updates to users on outstanding issues.

Administration

• Ensure up to date records are maintained at all times on the Group and Company systems
• Interpret instructions and issues arising, and then implement actions according to policies and procedures

Support

• Providing escalation support to the Group IT Service Desk
• Ensuring all changes to production services are subject to change control
• Producing and update documentation to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of systems
• Conducting root cause analysis following unplanned disruptions to improve system availability
• Conduct Problem Management of repeat incidents affecting business services
• Experience with incident management systems, identify incident trends and gather relevant information systematically to troubleshoot and resolve issues
• Strong analytical, problem solving and decision making skills

Compliance

• Ensure compliance with all applicable Group and /or Company policies and procedures
• Ensure correct authorisation is obtained and processes followed when required by the Group and/or Company policies and procedures
• Ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements
• Ensure that own performance, HR and T&C records are up to date and meet the Group’s requirements
• Maintain accurate records and deal with correspondence appropriately
• Ensure compliance with Anti Bribery and Corruption policy and procedures

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity – there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new

• We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges

• We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond

Reasonable adjustments

We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs.  Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.

If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.

*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.