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Explore our vision: Incredible, effortless recruitment
£35k-£60k
Typical base salary
12 wks
Replacement guarantee
Troubleshooting under pressure
Ask about a serious network issue they diagnosed and fixed.
Relevant certifications and kit
Match experience with your vendors and technologies.
Security mindset
Networks are a security frontline. Probe how they think about it.
How to run the hire
1. Define the environment
Be clear on the kit, scale and whether it's design, run or both.
2. Score for troubleshooting
Weight real diagnostic ability over certifications alone.
3. Source and screen
Approach candidates with relevant vendor experience.
4. Test with a fault scenario
Give a network problem and hear how they'd isolate it.
5. Reference reliability
Confirm they kept the network stable and secure.
Fees typically run 15-20% of first-year salary, capped and agreed upfront.
Nothing is due until your hire starts.
Usually 4-8 weeks.
Vendor and certification requirements are the main variables.
A Network Engineer designs, builds and maintains the networks that carry a business's data - switches, routers, firewalls, connectivity and security.
They keep everything connected and are central to diagnosing and fixing outages.
They help, especially vendor certifications matched to your kit, but real troubleshooting ability matters more.
We weight both, and won't let a certification list mask weak hands-on skill.
Try: Walk me through diagnosing a network that's slow but not down.
How do you approach network security?
Tell me about a change that went wrong. and How do you document your network?
Yes, across the common vendors and technologies.
We match experience to your kit while valuing engineers whose fundamentals transfer.
Tell us about your role and a specialist IT recruiter will call you. No fee until your hire starts.
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