Network Test Engineer - Contract Outside IR35 - England at Cactus IT Solutions UK Ltd, England, 6 Months, £Contract Rate

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• SD-WAN/LAN/Wi-Fi/SIP/VoIP
• Data Centre Testing
• Network & Connectivity Testing
• LAN/WAN Testing
• Network Protocols: TCP/IP, DHCP, DNS, NAT, BGP, OSPF
• Routing & Switching
• SD-WAN validation and troubleshooting
• Network performance testing using iPerf, Spirent, IxNetwork, or any similar tools

TECHNICAL SCOPE & DOMAIN COVERAGE

Testing services are delivered across the full VBTS UK product and service estate: Hosting; LAN & WiFi; Data Centre; Service Transition; SD-WAN; Telephony; UC & Unity; MPN & Cloud; IoT; Fixed Connectivity; Mobility; Cloud & Security.

Test phases in scope: Unit Testing, System Integration Testing (SIT), Functional Testing, Non-Functional Testing, Disaster Recovery Testing and Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT).

Deep hands-on telecom/network infrastructure testing: Routers, Switches, Firewalls, Cisco console competence.

Strong technical understanding across hosting, data centre, SD-WAN, LAN/WiFi, UC, mobility, cloud & security and service transition.

Ability to interpret complex infrastructure designs and translate them into structured, traceable test scenarios.

Advanced ALM usage: coverage modelling, traceability, defect analytics and management reporting.

Performance and conformance testing: RFC 2544, network test equipment, service management toolsets (eg StableNet).

MANDATORY SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

Minimum 5 years' relevant experience, with demonstrably deeper hands-on telecom/network testing than the Test Engineer band.

Strong QA and test industry knowledge of standards and methodologies.

Proven test design ownership on complex infrastructure or service transition programmes.

Strong defect management, root-cause analysis and test evidence discipline.

Excellent organizational, coordination and stakeholder management skills, comfortable in customer-facing settings.

Proficient Excel and strong Microsoft Office, Teams and SharePoint skills.