Director Network Engineering

Job description

Director Network Engineering Why Us! At GSK, we unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We are a global biopharma company with a special purpose – to unite science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. We’re proud to be leading a healthcare revolution, and we’re looking for people who can help us deliver on our ambition Job Purpose The Director Network Engineering sets, monitors and governs engineering practices and standards for GSK's network engineering platform, spanning local and wide area networking, wireless and network security. The role owns the engineering management system for the platform, including quality engineering, DevSecOps, platform-specific observability, automation, release discipline, technical debt governance, secure-by-design controls and continuous improvement across the engineering teams delivering the platform. The role also promotes the responsible adoption of AI-enabled engineering capabilities to improve productivity, quality, automation and knowledge reuse while ensuring appropriate governance, security and compliance controls. The role ensures network engineering outcomes are measurable, compliant, resilient and aligned to GSK's strategy, operating model and business priorities. Key Responsibilities: Set and govern platform engineering standards Define and maintain platform-specific engineering principles, golden paths, coding/configuration standards, quality gates and reusable patterns. Embed secure-by-design, regulatory, privacy, resilience and GxP-aware controls into engineering practices where applicable. Define guardrails for the appropriate use of AI-assisted engineering tools, ensuring code, configuration, documentation and operational outputs remain secure, explainable, compliant and subject to appropriate human review. Ensure standards are practical, adopted and evidenced through delivery pipelines, governance forums and supplier ways of working. Govern delivery quality across the platform's engineering teams Hold suppliers and internal engineering teams accountable for consistent engineering discipline, quality evidence and adherence to agreed patterns. Operate engineering governance using clear metrics, including deployment frequency, lead time, change failure rate, test coverage, defect escape rate, SLO attainment and technical debt trends. Provide escalation, challenge and assurance when engineering quality, resilience, security or operability standards are not met. Drive modern engineering capability, automation and continuous improvement Improve engineering productivity through DevEx, AI-assisted engineering, automation, reusable assets, inner sourcing and reduction of manual toil, including practical use cases such as code generation, documentation, test automation, incident analysis and engineering knowledge management. Partner with Platform Management, Platform Architecture, Reliability Engineering, Operations Excellence, Cyber Security, Enterprise Architecture and the Automation Acceleration team to ensure engineering practices support end-to-end platform outcomes. Build engineering capability across internal teams and suppliers through coaching, communities of practice, standards adoption and structured knowledge transfer. Why You! We are seeking professionals with the following required skills and qualifications to help us achieve our goals: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, Software Engineering or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience gained in a senior technology engineering role. Significant experience leading network engineering in a large enterprise environment. Proven experience setting engineering standards, governance mechanisms, technical controls and quality expectations across multiple teams or suppliers. Experience governing delivery quality across suppliers and partner engineering teams without duplicating supplier management accountability. Experience applying DevSecOps, CI/CD, test automation, observability, SLOs, release governance, incident learnings and reliability practices to improve delivery outcomes. Experience influencing senior technology stakeholders and translating engineering health, risk and performance data into clear decisions and improvement actions. Strong engineering knowledge across local and wide area networks, wireless, security, automation and observability. Desirable Requirements: Master’s degree, MBA or equivalent postgraduate qualification is desirable, particularly where it demonstrates technology leadership, enterprise transformation, platform delivery or business management capability. Professional certifications or demonstrable equivalent knowledge in modern engineering, DevSecOps, cloud/platform engineering, agile delivery, architecture, service management, cyber security or quality/compliance. Relevant examples may include certifications such as SAFe, Scrum/Agile, ITIL, TOGAF, cloud provider certifications, DevOps/DevSecOps, cyber security, reliability engineering or quality management where relevant to the platform domain. For regulated or GxP-impacting platforms, awareness of applicable quality, validation and compliance expectations. Expert level enterprise networking certification, such as CCIE or JNCIE. Experience with Network/infrastructure as code and automated testing. Experience leading engineering in regulated, manufacturing or operational technology environments. Other Job-Related Skills/Background Ability to balance engineering autonomy with enterprise guardrails, compliance obligations and platform-wide consistency. Strong supplier governance skills, including setting expectations, reviewing evidence, challenging quality and driving corrective action. Ability to interpret engineering, service and platform metrics and convert insight into improvement plans. Strong documentation, standards definition, governance design and policy-writing capability. Commitment to continuous learning, AI fluency and adoption of modern engineering practices across the platform community Ready to apply? If this role excites you and matches your experience, we would love to hear from you. Please submit your application and a short note telling us why you want to join and what you would bring to this role. We look forward to hearing from you. If you need adjustments during the process, tell us and we will support you. (Please take a personal copy of the Job Description, as this will not be available online post closure of the advert) Closing Date:  4th November 2026 Working Pattern This is a hybrid role, with a min of 2/3 days a week onsite at our central London HQ. Fully remote working is not available. #AGTech #LI-Hybrid What we value You are practical, inclusive and open to feedback. You bring technical understanding and strong empathy for users. You work in active voice and keep communication simple. You support colleagues and help teams make confident, evidence-based decisions. You want to grow your product and security skills while delivering outcomes that matter. What you will gain You will join a supportive team that values clear communication and practical problem solving. You will have access to learning and development to grow both technical and leadership skills. Your work will support technology that enables critical work across the company and helps improve healthcare outcomes. Skills Automation Technology, Cloud Based Services, Computer Programming, Configuration Management (CM), IP Address Management (IPAM), Load Balancers, Network Design, Operational Technology (OT), Packet Switching, Security Engineering, Software-Defined Networking Wide Area Network (SD-WAN), System Monitors, Wireless System Design, Zero Trust Architecture Why GSK? Uniting science, technology and talent to get ahead of disease together. GSK is a global biopharma company w