Principal Wireless Network Engineer

About us

Every 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.

To 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.

IT 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.

Our 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.

This role operates under a hybrid working model and is based out of the Brooklyn, NY office. Hybrid work expectations are subject to business needs and company policy.

Job Purpose

Our 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.

In 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.

The 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.

You 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.

You 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.

You 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.

Bringing 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.

You’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.

Additional 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.

Success 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.

Key Accountabilities

• Design, deploy, and optimise enterprise wireless LAN solutions across office, operational, and industrial environments, ensuring reliable, secure, and scalable connectivity.
• Own 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.
• Provide technical expertise and strategic guidance on network architecture, upgrades, lifecycle management, and emerging technologies to meet evolving business needs.
• Lead network projects and complex technical workstreams, acting as both a team leader and an individual contributor to deliver outcomes on time and within budget.
• Conduct predictive and onsite wireless surveys, RF analysis, coverage assessments, and post-deployment validation using Ekahau, Hamina, or equivalent wireless survey tooling.
• Lead troubleshooting for complex Wi-Fi issues including authentication, roaming, interference, coverage gaps, capacity constraints, and performance degradation.
• Create and update low-level designs for Wi-Fi, NAC, wireless authentication, role-based access, and related network services.
• Provide design authority for complex wireless and NAC solutions, producing critical designs where necessary and assuring designs created by engineers, suppliers, and delivery partners.
• Produce accurate Bills of Materials for new wireless deployments, refresh programmes, hardware upgrades, and wider network modernisation initiatives.
• Support Wi-Fi lifecycle management including hardware refresh, software updates, capacity planning, standards alignment, and operational readiness.
• Provide specialist support for Aruba ClearPass and CISCO ISE network access control capabilities including 802.1X, RADIUS, profiling, policy enforcement, and role-based access.
• Support enhanced Wi-Fi deployments alongside high-speed internet connectivity services overlayed with SD-WAN technology where required.
• Evaluate and define engineering patterns for alternative connectivity, determining where 5G, satellite, or rapid-deployment solutions are technically appropriate.
• Create 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.
• Set documentation and engineering-evidence standards, assuring the quality and completeness of designs, surveys, implementation records, and operational handovers.
• Interpret network analytics, wireless performance data, and incident trends to identify structural improvements and improve service reliability.
• Stay current with industry trends and innovations, recommending practical improvements that enhance capability, standardisation, automation, and service quality.
• Provide authoritative technical leadership during major incidents, directing diagnosis, challenging assumptions, and ensuring permanent corrective action is identified.
• Support planned network changes and maintenance activities outside normal business hours where required
• Participate in an on-call rota for critical network incidents and service restoration.
• Lead peer reviews, technical governance, best practices, automation opportunities, and knowledge sharing across the Network Engineering Chapter.
• Identify systemic technical risks and technical debt, developing evidence-based recommendations for remediation, investment, or roadmap change
• Provide technical leadership, coaching, and mentoring to engineers, raising wireless engineering capability and promoting consistent application of standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
• 10+ years of related experience in enterprise network engineering, with strong hands-on experience in wireless LAN design, deployment, optimisation, and troubleshooting.
• Demonstrable experience acting as a technical authority or Principal-level subject-matter expert for enterprise wireless services.
• Strong hands-on experience with enterprise WLAN technologies including Cisco and Aruba.
• Must have strong experience with Aruba ClearPass for 802.1X, RADIUS, profiling, policy enforcement, and role-based access.
• Proficiency with wireless survey and design tools such as Ekahau, Hamina, or equivalent platforms.
• Experience supporting large-scale Wi-Fi environments in complex organisations, including office, operational, and industrial environments.
• Experience with Cradlepoint or similar 5G cellular-enabled networking platforms is required.
• Experience producing high-quality technical documentation, wireless survey outputs, low-level designs, Bills of Materials, implementation plans, change artefacts, and operational support handoff material.
• Experience using network automation tooling or analytics platforms to support enterprise network changes, performance analysis, and operational improvement is desirable.
• Strong stakeholder engagement, vendor coordination, and peer collaboration skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences.
Technical skills and domain expertise:
• Deep understanding of RF fundamentals including channel planning, transmit power, interference mitigation, coverage design, capacity planning, roaming behaviour, and spectrum considerations.
• Strong knowledge of 802.11 standards including Wi-Fi 5, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, and Wi-Fi 7.
• Strong knowledge of WLAN authentication including EAP methods, RADIUS, role-based access, profiling, policy engines, and integration with NAC platforms.
• Experience with enterprise wireless controllers, cloud-managed Wi-Fi platforms, access points, policy engines, and wireless analytics tools.
• Strong practical knowledge of Cisco WLAN, Aruba WLAN, Aruba ClearPass, and related access network technologies.
• Knowledge of SD-WAN, internet connectivity, LAN switching, NAC integration, segmentation, secure configuration, and network security best practices as they relate to wireless services.
• Operational readiness mindset, including creation of standards, runbooks, as-built documentation, support handoff artefacts, and SharePoint-based documentation repositories.
• Able to travel ad-hoc to National Grid locations for onsite pre-deployment and post-deployment Wi-Fi surveys.
Certifications:
• Minimum Wireless certifications such as CWDP, CWSP / ECSE; CWNE strongly preferred.
• Cisco certifications such as CCNP Wireless or CCIE Wireless.
• Aruba certifications such as ACMP, ACDP, or ACCX.
• Cisco DevNet & SAFe Agilist or similar certifications are also desirable.