Network & Telephony Lead

About us

Halfords is on a journey - building the future of motoring and cycling and looking for people who want to help shape what comes next. We’re a place for cocreators: people who want to make a real impact, take ownership and be part of something that’s still evolving.

Technology at Halfords is at a turning point. We’re modernising our foundations, sharpening our delivery, and ensuring every technology decision is connected to real commercial and customer outcomes.

We're looking for people who act as trusted advisors to the business, take end-to-end accountability for outcomes, and can balance pace with long-term architectural integrity. Innovation here means practical, scalable solutions, not ideas that stay on whiteboards.

Halfords operates a hybrid working policy – this position will be based 3 days per week at our support centre in Redditch, West Midlands.

About the role

As Network & Telephony Lead within our Technology Infrastructure function, you'll take full ownership of the network and telephony estate across a group of over 1,000 sites spanning corporate offices, retail stores, garages, and data centres. With an SD-WAN deployment in its final stages and a telephony function that needs standardising and building out further, there's plenty of substance from day one and a clear opportunity to put your own stamp on how this function operates.

Day to day, you'll manage the network and telephony platforms as products, owning the roadmap, lifecycle management, and requirements gathering for both. Telephony is a significant focus here, with hosted voice and contact centre platforms that need to be standardised across the group. You'll work closely with TCS as the primary delivery partner, holding them to account and giving them the right direction to deliver against your requirements, and you'll collaborate across security, cloud, and hosting to ensure the network estate supports the wider technology strategy. Some travel to sites around the country will be required as things settle into a rhythm.

This is a role for someone who combines solid enterprise networking expertise with the product mindset and stakeholder skills to build a function properly. If you can translate technical performance into meaningful business insight, manage a large third-party delivery partner with confidence, and are energised by the idea of creating consistency and structure across a complex, distributed estate, this is a strong opportunity to do exactly that.

Key responsibilities

Complete the global SD-WAN deployment, driving it to a controlled close and transitioning the platform into a stable BAU model with appropriate runbooks, monitoring, and support processes
Own and operate the full network estate across all corporate, retail, and garage locations, managing WAN, LAN, SD-WAN, WiFi, and site connectivity across over 1,000 sites
Build and own the roadmap for networking and telephony, covering lifecycle management, requirements gathering, and the continued development and standardisation of the telephony function across the group
Own hosted voice and contact centre platforms, focusing on how voice is applied and experienced across the business rather than deep infrastructure design, and managing outsourced provider relationships
Direct and hold TCS and other delivery partners accountable, providing clear technical direction and ensuring delivery quality meets agreed standards
Co-own network security with the Head of Information Security, implementing and maintaining firewall policy, network segmentation, VLAN design, and remote access controls
Provide meaningful insight to the Head of Infrastructure, translating network and telephony KPIs into clear business language that supports justified investment and prioritisation decisions
Travel to sites across the country as required, maintaining a hands-on understanding of the estate and ensuring infrastructure standards are being met in practice

About you

Strong enterprise network experience across WAN, LAN, WiFi, and SD-WAN, gained in an enterprise, consultancy, or MSP environment with exposure to large, distributed site estates
Familiarity with HPE, Juniper, or Mist platforms is a strong advantage, though experience with other enterprise vendors such as Cisco is equally welcome
Comfortable managing platforms with a product and DevOps mindset, owning the roadmap and lifecycle rather than purely reacting to issues
Experience managing hosted voice and contact centre platforms, with a practical understanding of how telephony is applied across a business rather than deep voice architecture
Proven ability to manage large third-party delivery partners, providing clear direction, holding them to account, and driving continuous improvement
Able to translate technical performance and KPIs into clear business insight, supporting investment decisions and communicating effectively with non-technical stakeholders
Experience in a UK enterprise environment with a complex, multi-site operational estate is essential, and retail or similarly distributed environments are a particular advantage

Reward & benefits

A fair and competitive salary evaluated against market data, car allowance, annual discretionary bonus scheme, pension, life assurance, 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays and enhanced family leave.
Commitment and dedication to your ongoing personal and professional development. We help you to own and grow your potential so you can be at your best in your current role and to support your future career aspirations.
We offer hybrid working with a blend of working in our Support Centre and from home.  
You will have access to a wealth of employee discounts across the Halfords suite of products and services.
Wellbeing and inclusion are at the heart of our colleague experience. We offer resources and ongoing support to enhance your wellbeing at work and active Colleague Networks supporting inclusion initiatives across Halfords.

Not sure you meet all the criteria? We'd encourage you to take the wheel and apply anyway! At Halfords we are committed to creating an inclusive workplace for our colleagues. We're an equal opportunities employer and proud to welcome applications from all backgrounds and embrace diversity within our one Halfords Family.

Note: Halfords operates a hybrid working policy – this position will be based 3 days per week at our support centre in Redditch, West Midlands.