Network engineer / Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education

Key information

Reference: OCC0127
Date updated: 18/03/2025
Level: 4
Route: Digital
Regulated occupation: No

This is not the latest approved version of this apprenticeship. View the latest version

Details of the occupational standard

Higher Technical Qualification

Higher Technical Qualifications (HTQs) are designed to be delivered within a course of education. Some Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours may be more safely and reliably delivered in workplace settings, so may not be fully covered by the HTQ. Some qualifications will deliver additional content or added depth and breadth through, for example, use of specialist learning environments, work placements or innovative teaching methods. Check with the qualification provider if you require further information on coverage.

Occupation summary

This occupation is found in large, medium and small businesses, across all sectors, and within public, private, and voluntary bodies. Network engineers are a key occupation in most organisations, which are increasingly dependent on their physical and virtual networks. Digital technologies are increasingly being applied across business functions, to maximise productivity. Organisations of all types are increasingly applying digital technologies across all their business functions to maximise productivity.

The demand for people who can manage, build, maintain on-site, cloud and hybrid networks are increasing. This is due to technological developments and emerging new technologies. The broad purpose of the occupation is to install networks, maintain them, and to offer technical support to users, where necessary.

Small organisations may require the network engineer to work alone or as part of a team to securely monitor performance, maintain functionality and to troubleshoot virtual, local area network or respective components which may include Wi-Fi configuration.

Within a medium sized organisation, the network engineer will typically be part of a team but may work individually on network tasks to securely monitor, troubleshoot and maintain a local or wide area network infrastructure or components (remotely or on site). This may include Wi-Fi configuration.

Within a large organisation, the network engineer will typically be part of a team and may be involved physically or remotely in the use of up-to-date technologies and techniques, whilst securely maintaining, troubleshooting, monitoring, and changing, complex networks, this may include Wi-Fi configuration.

A network engineer provides networks and systems to deliver the objectives of their organisation. They will make sure that systems are working at optimum capacity and problem solve where needed. To be able to do this effectively a network engineer must interpret technical information and understand organisational requirements and expectations. They support delivery of legislatively compliant solutions to challenges in network infrastructure.

Network engineers may deal with both hardware and software issues. They are a key part of resolving issues when networks fail, helping to troubleshoot and resolve identified problems and performance issues with the network, to ensure service is resumed and downtime minimised. Network engineers help customers, both technical and non-technical to install networks, maintain them, and offer technical support to users where necessary.

Network engineers can be both customers facing or internal. In their daily work, an employee in this occupation may interact with a wide variety of stakeholders, face to face or remotely, by using a range of technologies. They may be working independently or collaboratively as part of a team. They will be aware of their organisational escalation structure and understand their role in their team.

Typical job titles include:

Dynamic network engineer Field engineer Field service engineer Infrastructure engineer Installation engineer Network administrator Network and cloud engineer Network architect Network engineer Systems engineer

Occupation duties

Duty	KSBs
Duty 1 Install, configure, and test physical or virtual network components or devices securely to well-defined specifications.	K2 K4 K9 K10 K11 K12 K13 K14 K15 K16 K17 K18 K19 K20 S1 S2 S4 B1 B6
Duty 2 Monitor and analyse network performance data.	K1 K3 K4 K6 K14 K15 K16 K17 K19 S3 B1
Duty 3 Optimise, upgrade and maintain the performance of physical or virtual network systems, services or components in line with well-defined specification.	K2 K3 K4 K6 K9 K10 K11 K12 K13 K14 K15 K16 K17 K18 S4 S7 B1
Duty 4 Investigate and problem solve to address technical performance issues in networks to return the network to successful operation and escalate as necessary.	K1 K2 K3 K4 K5 K6 K7 K8 K9 K10 K11 K12 K13 K14 K15 K16 K17 K19 K20 K21 S5 B1 B2 B5
Duty 5 Interpret written requirements and technical specifications in relation to delivery of network systems or services.	K2 K5 K6 K7 K14 K16 K21 S8 S11
Duty 6 Use operational data to deliver and manage weekly work schedule in an efficient and cost-effective way whilst maintaining a high-quality service under pressure.	K1 K14 K15 K21 S9 S10 S12 S13 B2 B3
Duty 7 Consider the impact and risks when implementing network changes and maintain accurate logical records in line within organisational policy.	K5 K6 K16 S12 B3 B5
Duty 8 Communicate technical network requirements effectively and professionally with a range of stakeholders.	K5 K6 K16 S6 S8 S11 S12 B1 B4 B6
Duty 9 Take responsibility for continuous self-learning to ensure that network engineering activities are carried out effectively.	K1 K2 K5 K6 K7 K9 K16 B1 B2 B4
Duty 10 Ensure all network engineering activity complies with organisational policies, technical standards, Health and Safety legislation, data security requirements, professional ethics, privacy and confidentiality.	K5 K6 K16 K21 S10 S11 S12 S14 B1 B2 B4

KSBs

Knowledge

K1: Causes and consequences of network and IT infrastructure failures. Back to Duty

K2: The architecture, physical and virtual, of typical IT systems, including hardware, operating systems , server, virtualisation, voice and applications. Back to Duty

K3: The tools and techniques for optimising network performance. Back to Duty

K4: Diagnostic techniques and tools to interrogate and gather information regarding systems performance. Back to Duty

K5: Organisational policies and procedures to ensure accurate recording and management of information. Back to Duty

K6: Service level agreements, SLAs, contractual obligations and customer service when delivering network engineering activities. Back to Duty

K7: Business continuity and disaster recovery and their role within in, including preservation of system configurations. Back to Duty

K8: The purposes and uses of sockets pair and protocols. Back to Duty

K9: Devices, applications, protocols and services at their respective open systems interconnection or, transmission control protocol or internet protocol models or layers. Back to Duty

K10: The concepts and characteristics of routing and switching. Back to Duty

K11: The characteristics of network topologies, types, technologies and network modelling and or diagrams Back to Duty

K12: Wireless networks technologies and configurations. Back to Duty

K13: Concepts of cloud and cloud services. Back to Duty

K14: Functions of network services such as domain name system and dynamic host configuration protocol. Back to Duty

K15: Types of network maintenance. Back to Duty

K16: Legislation and standards in the workplace and the impact on their role including sustainability, e.g. energy-efficient networking, hardware longevity, and e-waste reduction. Back to Duty

K17: Troubleshooting methodologies and root cause analysis techniques for network issues. Back to Duty

K18: Approaches to integrate services into a network. Back to Duty

K19: Types of security threats to digital networks and risk mitigation. Back to Duty

K20: Approaches to network automation such as use of artificial intelligence. Back to Duty

K21: Approaches to change management, Secure Access Service Edge SASE and Zero-trust networking when operating in a network environment. Back to Duty

Skills

S1: Apply tools and techniques when securely operating and testing networks. Back to Duty

S2: Install and configure network components. Back to Duty

S3: Implement tools and techniques to monitor, identify, analyse and record systems performance in line with defined specifications. Back to Duty

S4: Maintain security of the network against potential threats. Back to Duty

S5: Apply tools and or techniques to gather information to troubleshoot issues and or isolate, repair or escalate faults. Back to Duty

S6: Communicate outcomes of tasks and record actions in line with organisational procedures. Back to Duty

S7: Upgrade, apply and test components to systems configurations ensuring that the system meets the organisation’s requirements and minimises downtime. Back to Duty

S8: Interpret information and or specifications received from a manager, customer or technical specialist and accurately implement the defined requirements. Back to Duty

S9: Implement techniques to optimise systems or component performance in line with defined specifications. Back to Duty

S10: Apply the required level of responsibility when organising and prioritising work tasks, clients’ or stakeholders’ requests in line with SLAs and organisation processes. Back to Duty

S11: Explain their job role within the business context to stakeholders to enable a clear understanding on both sides of what their remit is and convey technical constraints. Back to Duty

S12: Operate securely, and apply process, policies and legislation within their business responsibilities. Back to Duty

S13: Configure and maintain network addressing in line with customer requirements. Back to Duty

S14: Ensure compliance of network engineering outputs with change management processes including Secure Access Service Edge SASE or Zero-trust networking . Back to Duty

Behaviours

B1: Work independently and demonstrate initiative, being resourceful when faced with a problem and taking responsibility for solving complex problems within their own level of responsibility. Back to Duty

B2: Work within the goals, vision and values of the organisation. Back to Duty

B3: Work to meet or exceed customers’ requirements and expectations. Back to Duty

B4: Commit to continued professional development, in order to ensure growth in professional skill and knowledge. Back to Duty

B5: Work under pressure showing resilience. Back to Duty

B6: Work collaboratively with external stakeholders and others across the organisation. Back to Duty

FdSc Network Engineering (Systems Administration)

Awarding body: Lancaster University

Qualification type: HTQ Qualification level: 5 Qualification approved: 24/03/2021