Principal Operations Engineer, Network

Role overview

Serve as the senior technical authority for operational networking across a rapidly expanding portfolio of hyperscale AI data centers. The work spans live production operations and new-site readiness, combining network health, high-risk change execution, incident leadership, vendor accountability, and cross-functional coordination. The role is hands-on, high-autonomy, and requires travel of approximately 50–75%.

Responsibilities

- Own the operational health of a large network fleet, including switches, routers, copper and fiber cabling, and optical systems. - Lead site assessments, operational audits, and readiness reviews before new facilities transition into service. - Review network platforms, integration plans, and deployment designs from an operations perspective, feeding lessons back to engineering, deployment, and supply-chain teams. - Author, approve, and execute high-risk methods of procedure and production change records. - Lead fleet-wide root-cause investigations for significant network disruptions through corrective action and closure. - Set clear technical standards for equipment manufacturers, design partners, and service vendors while maintaining effective working relationships.

Requirements

- Career experience operating mission-critical network topologies at scale, with substantial time as the senior technical voice for a site, campus, or fleet. - Strong background in IP network operations and optical networking. - Practical knowledge of TCP/IP and routing protocols such as OSPF, IS-IS, BGP, and MPLS, together with physical network infrastructure. - Experience writing and executing high-risk operational procedures and leading major incident investigations to completion. - Ability to hold external partners to demanding quality and operational standards without damaging collaboration. - Clear technical writing skills for health assessments, root-cause analyses, and design feedback, along with a willingness to teach and raise team capability.

Nice to have

- Experience with hyperscale or large high-performance-computing fleets supporting thousands of endpoints. - Familiarity with Linux, hardware-management tooling, fleet-scale scripting, and bringing new sites from handover to steady state.

Benefits and work setup

The package includes salary and equity, retirement or pension support subject to local norms, health, dental, and vision coverage, and generous paid time off. The role operates in a fast-moving environment with substantial autonomy, urgency, and responsibility for building operational practices as the infrastructure scales.