Join Our Team as a Technical Director 

Role Overview:

The Technical Director is the senior technical authority in the business and a key member of the technology leadership team. The role provides architecture ownership, technical governance and assurance across all Ekiva programmes and opportunities – from publicly funded innovation projects through to commercial network deployments, enterprise private networks and operator solutions.

The Technical Director reports to the Chief Executive Officer and leads the technology function, including the Head of Orchestration & Network Intelligence and the wider engineering, architecture and integration team.

This is a builder’s role. Ekiva’s technology function is being reshaped, and the Technical Director will recruit, mentor and lead the team from the ground up, establishing the standards, processes and technical culture on which the business will scale. The role combines strategic and architectural leadership with sufficient hands-on credibility to review, challenge and validate the work of internal teams, subcontractors and consortium partners.

The role is positioned to grow. It carries a clear development path towards executive technology leadership within Ekiva as the technology function, portfolio and commercial footprint expand.

Key Areas of Responsibilities:

1. Technical Strategy and Architecture Authority

• Own the end-to-end technical architecture of Ekiva’s platform and solutions across private 5G / SNPN, Open RAN, 5G Core, orchestration, FWA and operator networks.
• Define and maintain the technology roadmap, aligning technical direction with business strategy, market opportunity and funding commitments.
• Act as design authority: review, challenge and approve architectures, designs, interfaces and technical decisions before commitment.
• Own the boundary between Ekiva-developed intellectual property and licensed or third-party technology, protecting the Company’s technical and commercial independence.
• Set technical standards, engineering practices and quality gates across all projects.
• Technology Business Planning & Financial Governance – Strengthen ownership of CAPEX/OPEX planning, technology investment decisions, market feasibility assessments and ROI evaluation to support business growth and investment decisions.
• Regulatory, Spectrum & Market Deployment Strategy – Enhance focus on international market deployment requirements, telecom regulatory alignment and spectrum planning considerations across different regions.

2. Innovate UK Programme Leadership

• Provide technical leadership across Ekiva’s Innovate UK collaborative R&D programmes, ensuring work package delivery to milestone, specification and evidence requirements.
• Represent Ekiva as the technical voice within consortia, working alongside catapults, universities, vendors and network operators.
• Ensure technical deliverables, test evidence and reporting meet the standards required for grant milestone claims and audit.
• Oversee technical due diligence, acceptance and assurance of subcontracted and partner-delivered work.
• Safeguard the Company’s foreground and background intellectual property position, supporting the IP register and exploitation planning.

3. Enterprise Private Networks (EPN)

• Lead the technical definition, architecture and feasibility assessment of Enterprise Private Network opportunities.
• Develop repeatable reference architectures and deployment models for target verticals, including industrial, utilities, transport and secure environments.
• Support bids, proposals and customer engagements with solution architecture, technical narrative and credible costing input.
• Translate innovation programme outputs into commercially deployable products and services.

4. Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and Mobile Network Operator (MNO) Business

• This is a distinct and growing area of Ekiva’s business, covering the design, deployment and operation of broadband FWA and MNO solutions in international markets.
• Own the technical strategy and end-to-end architecture for FWA and MNO solutions, from access network through core, transport and service platforms.
• Lead radio network design and planning – spectrum strategy, coverage and capacity modelling, RF planning, site selection and CPE selection – directly or through ecosystem partners.
• Approve the architecture of ISP and operator core infrastructure, including core network, transport, service delivery platforms and OSS/BSS interfaces.
• Direct deployment readiness and execution: installation standards, integration, acceptance testing, service activation and operational handover.
• Establish network operations capability and support models, including first and second line support, monitoring, KPI frameworks and service quality standards.
• Provide equipment, budget and resourcing recommendations; support vendor selection, technical evaluation and contract negotiation.
• Work with ecosystem and delivery partners to ensure alignment and effective delivery of jointly developed solutions from design through to market launch.
• Provide technical input to commercial models, business cases and investment decisions for network deployments.

5. Build and Lead the Technology Team

• Build Ekiva’s technology function from the ground up – define the structure, roles and capability required to deliver the current and future portfolio.
• Recruit, onboard and develop engineers, architects and specialists; act as the technical assessor in the hiring process.
• Lead, mentor and set direction for the Head of Orchestration & Network Intelligence and the wider technical team.
• Set clear objectives, KPIs and development plans; grow individual and collective technical capability.
• Establish knowledge management, documentation and technical training so capability is retained and transferred within the Company.
• Foster a culture of engineering rigour, innovation, continuous learning and constructive technical challenge.
• Manage the balance of in-house, outsourced and subcontracted resource to deliver efficiently and within budget.

6. Technical Governance, Assurance and Delivery

• Establish and chair design gates, architecture reviews and technical acceptance processes across all projects.
• Own technical risk identification, mitigation and escalation, and provide delivery-readiness assessment ahead of key milestones.
• Ensure security, resilience and regulatory considerations are designed in from the outset, including for critical national infrastructure environments.
• Work with the Programme Director and PMO to ensure technical delivery is aligned to schedule, budget and contractual commitments.
• Technology Portfolio & Resource Governance – Strengthen responsibility for prioritising technology initiatives across R&D programmes, commercial deployments and operational networks, ensuring alignment of technical resources with business objectives.

7. Partner, Vendor and Ecosystem Management

• Own the technical relationship with technology partners, licensors, subcontractors and ecosystem collaborators.
• Set specifications, review deliverables and hold partners to account for technical quality and scope.
• Represent Ekiva in industry forums, standards bodies and technical working groups where it advances the Company’s position.
• Maintain awareness of standards evolution, competitive developments and emerging technology relevant to Ekiva’s markets.

8. Stakeholder Engagement and Communication

• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to executive leadership, customers, funders, investors and policy stakeholders.
• Support the leadership team with technical input to strategy, commercial and investment decisions.
• Act as a credible external technical ambassador for Ekiva.

9. Additional Duties

• Support Executive Leadership Team with other relevant tasks.
• Support President and the ELT on an ad-hoc basis.

10. QHSE

• Eliminate or minimise your own exposure to risks by regularly reviewing the quality, health and safety risks, applying appropriate controls, communicating results of risk assessment and ensuring health and safety is considered in the planning and execution of all Ekiva activities.
• Manage your own and your team’s compliance with quality, health and safety rules, instructions, systems and legal requirements, ensuring employees are suitably trained and adequate resources are available to work safely.
• Monitor and review health and safety performance, observe safety behaviours in the workplace, taking appropriate corrective and preventative action as necessary and suggesting and implementing improvement activities.

What We’re Looking For:

• 15+ years in telecommunications or network technology, including at least 5 years in a senior technical leadership, architecture authority, principal engineering or technical consulting capacity.
• Deep expertise in mobile network architecture – 4G/LTE and 5G/5G-Advanced, Open RAN and O-RAN interfaces, 5G Core, private networks and SNPN deployments.
• Strong working knowledge of 3GPP specifications and standards evolution, with the ability to design and assure against them.
• Demonstrable experience of architecture ownership, technical due diligence, design review and programme or delivery assurance.
• Proven track record of building, leading and developing technical teams, including recruitment and mentoring.
• Experience managing vendors, subcontractors or delivery partners to technical specification and account.
• Sound commercial acumen – able to align technical decisions with cost, risk, funding and business outcomes.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical matters to executive, customer, funder and non-technical audiences.
• Strong sense of accountability, sound judgement under pressure, and the ability to manage multiple concurrent priorities.
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) and cloud-based platforms such as SharePoint or Google Workspace.
• Based in the UK with the right to work in the UK.
• Full-time on site in Egham, ability to commute.

Key Competencies:

• Technical authority and sound engineering judgement, with the credibility to review and challenge the work of others.
• Strategic thinking balanced with hands-on technical depth.
• Leadership, team building and capability development.
• Governance, assurance and quality discipline.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Commercial awareness and the ability to align technology strategy with business needs.
• Adaptability and resilience in a fast-growing, resource-constrained environment.
• Degree in Engineering, Telecommunications, Information Technology or a related discipline (Master’s degree preferred).

Desirable

• Experience of end-to-end FWA, ISP or MNO network deployment – including RF planning, core and transport infrastructure, service activation and operational handover.
• International deployment experience, including in emerging or developing markets.
• Experience of establishing or running network operations and support capability.
• Experience of publicly funded research and development programmes (for example Innovate UK / UKRI) and their governance, evidence and audit requirements.
• Exposure to critical national infrastructure or regulated sectors such as energy, utilities, transport or defence.
• Satellite / NTN, neutral host or spectrum-related experience.
• Contribution to standards bodies or industry groups (for example O-RAN Alliance, 3GPP, TIP, Small Cell Forum), or named inventor on relevant patents.
• Experience of cloud-native platforms, orchestration, automation and AI/ML applied to network operations.
• Experience of technical training, knowledge dissemination or thought leadership.
• Master’s degree (e.g. MSc or MBA) in a relevant engineering, technology or management discipline is desirable.
• Vendor and contract negotiation experience.
• High emotional intelligence, political awareness and collaborative working style.

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