Infrastructure Specialist

Company logo
Great Places Housing Group
Affordable housing provider and community developer in North West England and Yorkshire.
Manage and improve IT network infrastructure, cloud services, and security for Great Places Housing Group.
18 days ago ago
£43,000 - £43,000
Expert & Leadership (13+ years), Intermediate (4-7 years), Experienced (8-12 years)
Full Time
Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Hybrid
Company Size
668 Employees
Service Specialisms
Property Development
Housing Management
Affordable Housing
Design
Construction
Tenant Services
Community Engagement
Sustainability
Sector Specialisms
Residential
Affordable Housing
Shared Ownership
Leasehold Management
Market Sale Housing
Market-Rented Housing
Marina Management
Role
What you would be doing
cloud administration
issue escalation
disaster recovery
cloud strategy
network improvement
system monitoring
  • Work with the internal teams, external partners and the project management team to deliver new applications and system projects.
  • Work with colleagues, engineers and consultants to resolve complex on going technical issues and provide input into root cause analysis reports as requested.
  • Day to day monitoring and administration Cloud based systems such as Azure and Office 365, Intune as well some on premises virtualisation.
  • Take ownership of any system issues escalated from the service desk. Help mentor service desk colleagues and document solutions to help improve responses across the support function.
  • Assist with the development and implementation of disaster recovery (DR) plans including testing and documentation of the network infrastructure.
  • Contribute and develop GPHG’s cloud first strategy working towards the delivery of all key business functions via cloud services.
  • Help drive continuous system improvements across the infrastructure space including continuously improve performance and the delivery of SD-WAN, ZTNA networking , Teams Telephony, and network design and topology.
What you bring
azure
network security
ccna
powershell
crowdstrike
cisco

As our Infrastructure (Network) Specialist, you will be responsible for monitoring, maintaining and improving IT systems within Great Places Housing Group. Working as part of the Infrastructure team, the role will require strong technical skills with a focus on networks to enable the delivery of new infrastructure projects alongside proven diagnostic skills to enable prompt investigation and resolution of any system issues.

  • Understanding of Network Security particularly in regards to preventing lateral movement
  • Understanding and experience of Azure Services such as Virtual Machines, VNETs/subnets, Route Tables, Virtual network gateways, WAF Application load balancers, NDRs and PaaS services.
  • A commitment to understand the challenges and opportunities that exist in the communities in which we work. We particularly value lived experience in social housing
  • Ability to work flexibly and when needed outside normal working hours to ensure service continuity
  • A strong security mindset ensuring any delivered solution is fully remediated.
  • Educated to degree level or equivalent or work experience demonstrating graduate level ability.
  • Experience of the following or similar, CrowdStrike, Netskope, Mimecast, Veeam,
  • Familiarise yourself with GPHG systems and structure to proactively develop system improvements, resiliency and work withing GPHG’s security framework to deliver security improvement and mitigation.
  • Driving licence and access to a vehicle.
  • Strong Understanding and experience of networking, including DNS, DHCP, Network Switches (Cisco preferred), Firewalls (FortiGate preferred) and WAN connectivity using VPN’s, SD-WAN, Meraki and ZTNA remote access solutions such as Netskope private access
  • Professional certifications such as CCNA, AZ-700, AZ-104 or relevant experience
  • A strong diagnostic mindset and the ability to work within the ITL framework.
  • Strong diagnostic skills from basic IT principals using tools such as PowerShell and Wireshark.
Benefits

What we give you in return for your hard work and commitment

Salary: Circa £43,000

  • Professional fees ¦ The business pays the cost of one professional role related membership fee for each colleague
  • Pension ¦ DC scheme (up to 10% contribution from both colleagues and Great Places)
  • WPA ¦ Healthcare scheme starts at no contribution level with £1250 of savings available per year (option to increase & add family members)
  • The Market Place ¦high street, restaurant & supermarket discounts, gym memberships, cycle to work, smart tech loans and much more
  • Health and Wellbeing Initiatives ¦ Our colleagues enjoy wellbeing campaigns throughout the year, with activities designed around our four pillars of wellbeing, these include career wellbeing, mental wellbeing, physical wellbeing and financial wellbeing
  • Wage Stream ¦ You can access savings opportunities and early access to wages
  • Reward & Recognition ¦ You Count Rewards are individual reward’s for going ‘above & beyond’
  • Ways of Working¦ We offer some hybrid and flexible working
  • Annual leave ¦Start at 26 days annual leave, increasing up to 30 days within 5 years + Bank Holidays
Training + Development
Information not given or found
Company
Overview
Founded in 2006
Company Origins
Traces its roots back to 1972 as Manchester Methodist Housing Association.
25,000 homes
PropertiesManaged
Manages around 25,000 homes across North West England and Yorkshire.
60,000 residents
ResidentsServed
Serves over 60,000 residents through its housing and community services.
Revenue ~$340–370M
AnnualRevenue
Estimate of annual revenue supports large-scale regeneration projects.
  • Operates a profit-for-purpose model, reinvesting surplus into affordable housing, new developments, and community services.
  • Its Plumlife arm supports affordable home ownership via shared‑ownership and Help to Buy schemes.
  • Cube division delivers quality homes for market sale and private rent alongside its social housing operations.
  • Typical projects include affordable housing builds, area regeneration, resident training, green advice, and community events.
  • Standout traits include an award‑winning affordable home ownership service and commissioning distinctive architecture.
  • Unusual fact: a significant private donor supports the group, and it has led pilot home‑zone street redesigns.
Culture + Values
  • We are fair, open and accountable
  • We know, respect and care about our customers
  • We appreciate the effort of everyone who works here
  • We promote partnerships, efficiency and value for money
  • We passionately embrace creativity, change and innovation
Environment + Sustainability
82% homes meet EPC C+
Energy Efficiency Standard
Currently, 82% of homes meet or exceed EPC C rating, with a target to reach all homes by 2030.
>900 solar panels installed
Retrofit Solar Energy
Installed solar panels on over 900 homes, generating over £150 per year per home in savings.
80% colleagues certified
Carbon Literacy
Achieved Platinum Carbon Literacy status, with 80% of colleagues trained.
£3 million heat upgrade
Richmond Park Project
Invested £3 million in upgrading heat networks for 299 homes, with 50% government funding.
  • Published a Carbon Management Strategy 2021–2024 outlining actions toward becoming a net zero carbon business.
  • Target: improve as many homes as possible to EPC C by 2028.
  • Target: become a zero-carbon business by 2038 (Scope 1, 2 baseline established for 2019/20; Scope 3 to follow).
  • EPC retrofit programme reduced homes below EPC C from 3,386 to 3,071.
  • As at 2023/24: Scope 1 emissions 2,643 tCO₂e; Scope 2 123 tCO₂e; Scope 3 80,514 tCO₂e; total 83,280.9 tCO₂e.
  • Net zero strategy updated to net zero by 2050.
  • Leading heat-network upgrades: new metering, billing, and smart meter roll-out.
  • Tested battery storage saving ~£100/year per household.
Inclusion & Diversity
4.3/5 Rating
Diversity & Inclusion
The company has a Diversity & Inclusion rating of 4.3 out of 5, based on 73 reviews.
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