{"id":2120516,"url":"https://alion.io/job/national-grid-principal-wireless-network-engineer","title":"Principal Wireless Network Engineer","company":{"id":1754610,"name":"National Grid","domain":"nationalgrid.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/national-grid","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"SuccessFactors","truth_index":null},"role":"Networking","role_family":"Networking","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Warwick, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":65000,"max":75000,"currency":"GBP","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":99120},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":false},{"name":"Wi-Fi","optional":false},{"name":"SharePoint","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-08T23:57:30Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-08","last_verified_at":"2026-10-12T23:15:24Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":4,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":4},"description":"About us\nEvery day we deliver safe and secure energy to homes, communities, and businesses. We are there when people need us the most. We connect people to the energy they need for the lives they live. The pace of change in society and our industry is accelerating and our expertise and track record puts us in an unparalleled position to shape the sustainable future of our industry.\nTo be successful we must anticipate the needs of our customers, reducing the cost of energy delivery today and pioneering the flexible energy systems of tomorrow. This requires us to deliver on our promises and always look for new opportunities to grow, both ourselves and our business.\nIT and Digital works in a harmonised partnership with the National Grid group of diverse energy businesses to deliver technology which revolutionises the way we operate. As we lead the charge towards a carbon-free future, our teams are embracing disruptive changes in our industry by working with Agile methodologies and adopting Digital mindsets to drive efficiency and bring new capabilities for our internal and external customers.\nOur work here is critical. National Grid moves energy to millions of homes and businesses in the UK and US and the technology we utilise to complete that task is down to us. The successful applicant for this position will be an integral contributor towards this goal and we will support your professional development as part of our multi-cultural, customer-centric global team.\nThis role operates under a hybrid working model and is based out of the Warwick, UK office. Hybrid work expectations are subject to business needs and company policy.\nAbout the Role\nOur vision is to be recognised as a world leading Information Technology and Digital function in the energy sector and a trusted partner across National Grid businesses.\nIn the Principal Network Engineer - Wireless role, you act as the senior technical authority for enterprise wireless services, with expert understanding of RF design, site surveys, spectrum analysis, and protocols; focused on improving reliability, security, user experience, and operational resilience across National Grid sites.\nThe role will lead the design, deployment, optimisation, and lifecycle management and technical assurance of enterprise WLAN services across office, operational, and industrial environments. A significant part of the engagement will involve predictive and onsite wireless surveys, RF analysis, low-level design production, Bill of Materials creation, and post-deployment validation using Ekahau and/or Hamina tools.\nYou will support key initiatives including replacement of end-of-life network hardware, enhanced Wi-Fi deployments, high-speed internet connectivity services overlayed with SD-WAN technology, and alternative connectivity options such as satellite and 5G solutions for disaster recovery, rapid deployment, and facility expansion projects.\nYou will work closely with stakeholders across IT, operations, platform teams, vendors, managed service providers, architects, and other engineers to define requirements, produce robust designs, support implementation, and transition solutions into support.\nYou will lead on the creation and adoption of network engineering standards, with a view to adopting and leading an automation first mindset whilst ensuring alignment to relevant technical roadmaps, working closely with Technical Leads, Architects and other engineers.\nBringing a calm, measured approach to incident response, even in challenging situations, you’ll provide clear technical direction grounded in integrity and aligned with National Grid’s values.\nYou’ll also have the presence and credibility to engage senior stakeholders, provide authoritative technical leadership, and communicate complex concepts in a clear and meaningful way aligned to project outcomes.\nAdditional Ad-hoc travel to National Grid locations will be required to conduct physical Wi-Fi surveys, pre-deployment validation, troubleshooting work and post-deployment assurance activities.\nSuccess in this role will be measured not only by the delivery of individual wireless solutions, but by the quality, consistency, resilience, security, and supportability of wireless engineering across the organisation. The role is expected to raise engineering standards, reduce systemic risk, improve service performance, and strengthen wireless capability across the team.\nWhat You'll Do\nDesign, deploy, and optimise enterprise wireless LAN solutions across office, operational, and industrial environments, ensuring reliable, secure, and scalable connectivity.\nOwn and assure the engineering of enterprise wireless solutions, establishing the design principles, standards, and technical controls required to deliver secure, resilient, scalable, and supportable services.\nProvide technical expertise and strategic guidance on network architecture, upgrades, lifecycle management, and emerging technologies to meet evolving business needs.\nLead network projects and complex technical workstreams, acting as both a team leader and an individual contributor to deliver outcomes on time and within budget.\nConduct predictive and onsite wireless surveys, RF analysis, coverage assessments, and post-deployment validation using Ekahau, Hamina, or equivalent wireless survey tooling.\nLead troubleshooting for complex Wi-Fi issues including authentication, roaming, interference, coverage gaps, capacity constraints, and performance degradation.\nCreate and update low-level designs for Wi-Fi, NAC, wireless authentication, role-based access, and related network services.\nProvide design authority for complex wireless and NAC solutions, producing critical designs where necessary and assuring designs created by engineers, suppliers, and delivery partners.\nProduce accurate Bills of Materials for new wireless deployments, refresh programmes, hardware upgrades, and wider network modernisation initiatives.\nSupport Wi-Fi lifecycle management including hardware refresh, software updates, capacity planning, standards alignment, and operational readiness.\nProvide specialist support for Aruba ClearPass and CISCO ISE network access control capabilities including 802.1X, RADIUS, profiling, policy enforcement, and role-based access.\nSupport enhanced Wi-Fi deployments alongside high-speed internet connectivity services overlayed with SD-WAN technology where required.\nEvaluate and define engineering patterns for alternative connectivity, determining where 5G, satellite, or rapid-deployment solutions are technically appropriate.\nCreate and maintain high-quality documentation including wireless standards, RF designs, low-level designs, implementation records, as-built documents, survey reports, BoMs, support runbooks, and handover materials.\nSet documentation and engineering-evidence standards, assuring the quality and completeness of designs, surveys, implementation records, and operational handovers.\nInterpret network analytics, wireless performance data, and incident trends to identify structural improvements and improve service reliability.\nStay current with industry trends and innovations, recommending practical improvements that enhance capability, standardisation, automation, and service quality.\nProvide authoritative technical leadership during major incidents, directing diagnosis, challenging assumptions, and ensuring permanent corrective action is identified.\nSupport planned network changes and maintenance activities outside normal business hours where required\nParticipate in an on-call rota for critical network incidents and service restoration.\nLead peer reviews, technical governance, best practices, automation opportunities, and knowledge sharing across the Network Engineering Chapter.\nIdentify systemic technical risks and technical debt, developing evidence-based recommendations for remediation, investment, or roadmap change\nProvide technical leadership, coaching, and mentoring to engineers, raising wireless engineering capability and promoting consistent application of standards.\nAbout You\nBachelor's degree in a relevant discipline, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.\n10+ years of related experience in enterprise network engineering, with strong hands-on experience in wireless LAN design, deployment, optimisation, and troubleshooting.\nDemonstrable experience acting as a technical authority or Principal-level subject-matter expert for enterprise wireless services.\nStrong hands-on experience with enterprise WLAN technologies including Cisco and Aruba.\nMust have strong experience with Aruba ClearPass for 802.1X, RADIUS, profiling, policy enforcement, and role-based access.\nProficiency with wireless survey and design tools such as Ekahau, Hamina, or equivalent platforms.\nExperience supporting large-scale Wi-Fi environments in complex organisations, including office, operational, and industrial environments.\nExperience with Cradlepoint or similar 5G cellular-enabled networking platforms is required.\nExperience producing high-quality technical documentation, wireless survey outputs, low-level designs, Bills of Materials, implementation plans, change artefacts, and operational support handoff material.\nExperience using network automation tooling or analytics platforms to support enterprise network changes, performance analysis, and operational improvement is desirable.\nStrong stakeholder engagement, vendor coordination, and peer collaboration skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences.\nTechnical skills and domain expertise:\nDeep understanding of RF fundamentals including channel planning, transmit power, interference mitigation, coverage design, capacity planning, roaming behaviour, and spectrum considerations.\nStrong knowledge of 802.11 standards including Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, and Wi-Fi 7.\nStrong knowledge of WLAN authentication including EAP methods, RADIUS, role-based access, profiling, policy engines, and integration with NAC platforms.\nExperience with enterprise wireless controllers, cloud-managed Wi-Fi platforms, access points, policy engines, and wireless analytics tools.\nStrong practical knowledge of Cisco WLAN, Aruba WLAN, Aruba ClearPass, and related access network technologies.\nKnowledge of SD-WAN, internet connectivity, LAN switching, NAC integration, segmentation, secure configuration, and network security best practices as they relate to wireless services.\nOperational readiness mindset, including creation of standards, runbooks, as-built documentation, support handoff artefacts, and SharePoint-based documentation repositories.\nAble to travel ad-hoc to National Grid locations for onsite pre-deployment and post-deployment Wi-Fi surveys.\nCertifications:\nMinimum Wireless certifications such as CWDP, CWSP / ECSE; CWNE strongly preferred.\nCisco certifications such as CCNP Wireless or CCIE Wireless.\nAruba certifications such as ACMP, ACDP, or ACCX.\nCisco DevNet & SAFe Agilist or similar certifications are also desirable.\nWhat You'll Get\nCompetitive Salary: circa £65,000 - £75,000 per annum (based on capability, and experience)\nWe value diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive workplace for all. We welcome applications from all suitably qualified candidates - we make appointments purely on merit, assessed against objective selection criteria. We support flexible working and will make reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process should you have any physical or mental impairment which may affect your ability to participate in the process.\nPlease note that in most cases, National Grid is unable to offer sponsorship for employment under the UK points-based immigration system. As such, applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK without requiring sponsorship now or in the future under the UK points-based immigration system. 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