Satellite links behave nothing like the rest of a network: the latency is fixed by physics, the bandwidth is expensive, and the failure modes are their own discipline. This post provides the engineering behind those links and their integration into the wider IP estate — architecture and design at one end, and end-to-end fault diagnosis at the other.

The environment covers mobile and deployable communications as well as fixed infrastructure, so the work reaches operational deployments and exercises rather than staying in a data centre.

What you would be doing

• Provide technical expertise in the design, integration, operation and optimisation of satellite network architectures — hub-and-spoke, mesh, point-to-point and point-to-multipoint.
• Support the integration and management of hybrid satellite services, military and commercial.
• Design end-to-end IP services across satellite and terrestrial infrastructure.
• Design and implement layer two and layer three services: VLAN tagging, Q-in-Q, VLAN translation, trunking and traffic segmentation.
• Configure, operate, optimise and troubleshoot SCPC, MCPC, TDMA and other satellite access schemes.
• Diagnose end-to-end connectivity problems — routing faults, tunnel failures, packet loss, high latency, asymmetric routing.
• Support operational deployments, exercises and mission-related activity.
• Work within the service management processes and contribute to service performance reporting.

What you would bring

• A degree or higher vocational training in telecommunications, electronics, IT, network engineering or a related field.
• At least five years in IP networking — routing, switching, WAN technologies and troubleshooting complex environments.
• Experience supporting satellite, WAN or deployed communication systems where it mattered operationally.
• Solid fundamentals: TCP/IP, addressing and subnetting, TCP and UDP, MTU and MSS, layer two and three networking.
• Routing and switching in practice — static routing, OSPF, IS-IS, VLANs — and the ability to read a routing table and explain a traffic path.
• Tunnelling in practice: GRE, IPSec, GRE over IPSec and L2TP, including diagnosing encapsulation and MTU problems.
• A real understanding of satellite architectures and what latency and bandwidth constraints do to applications.
• Cisco routing and switching platforms; CCNA or equivalent practical experience is required, CCNP Enterprise preferred.

Experience in a multinational military environment is strongly desirable. The primary place of work is Mons, during standard working hours.