Head of Network Engineering

Head of Network Engineering

About the Role

The company is building a next-generation service provider network designed to support large-scale infrastructure growth, operational scalability and long-term architectural evolution.

We are looking for a Head of Network Engineering to define the technical direction, architectural standards and engineering strategy of the company's service provider infrastructure.

This role is responsible for the architectural leadership across: IP/MPLS backbone infrastructure, Metro Ethernet and aggregation networks, Optical transport infrastructure (OTN / DWDM), Network security infrastructure, Data center interconnectivity and backbone integration.

The Head of Network Engineering ensures that all network domains evolve under a coherent architecture focused on: Scalability, Resiliency, Operational simplicity, Deterministic behavior, Infrastructure standardization.

This is not a reactive operations role. It is a systems-level engineering leadership role focused on designing infrastructure capable of scaling sustainably as the network grows in size, traffic and operational complexity.

The ideal candidate is someone with deep service provider engineering experience, capable of operating at CCIE/JNCIE-level depth while also defining organizational technical direction and engineering standards.

This role requires strong automation and operational scalability mindset. We are looking for leaders who understand that large-scale service provider environments cannot scale through manual operations alone.

Within this domain, the Head of Network Engineering:

• Defines the long-term architecture roadmap for the service provider network ecosystem

• Establishes technical standards and engineering principles across routing, transport, aggregation and security domains

• Ensures architectural consistency between backbone, access, transport and infrastructure security environments

• Defines scalability and resiliency strategies for infrastructure growth

• Guides technical decisions related to routing architecture, transport evolution and infrastructure expansion

• Drives engineering standardization across multi-vendor environments

• Promotes automation-first operational models to improve scalability, consistency and deployment velocity

• Collaborates closely with Automation, Operations, Expansion and Infrastructure teams

• Supports the evolution of provisioning, validation and infrastructure lifecycle methodologies

• Drives documentation, engineering discipline and operational reproducibility across the organization

• Mentors and develops senior engineering talent across multiple technical domains

This role is not focused on operating isolated technologies. It is focused on designing scalable and operationally sustainable service provider infrastructure systems.

About You

You are someone comfortable operating across complex service provider environments where routing scale, resiliency, convergence and operational scalability are critical.

You think beyond isolated technologies and understand how architectural decisions impact long-term operational sustainability, deployment velocity and business growth.

You are expected to operate with high autonomy and influence technical direction across multiple engineering domains.

You should demonstrate strong expertise across:

Service Provider Routing and Backbone Architecture

• BGP architecture and routing policy design

• IS-IS and OSPF in large-scale backbone environments

• MPLS and traffic engineering

• Route reflectors and control-plane scaling

• Interconnection and peering architectures

Access and Aggregation Networks

• Metro Ethernet environments

• Layer 2 and Layer 3 integration

• Subscriber edge and aggregation architectures

• Redundancy and deterministic forwarding models

Optical Transport Infrastructure

• DWDM and OTN architectures

• Transport resiliency and capacity scaling

• Backbone transport integration

Infrastructure Security

• Infrastructure firewall architectures

• Segmentation and policy enforcement

• Administrative access and AAA systems

• Secure infrastructure design principles

Automation and Operational Scalability

• Infrastructure automation mindset

• Python, APIs or infrastructure automation frameworks

• Standardization and deployment reproducibility

• Automation-first operational models

• Infrastructure lifecycle operationalization

Infrastructure Reliability and Scalability

• Large-scale multi-vendor network environments

• Deterministic infrastructure design

• Operational simplification and maintainability

• Troubleshooting complex multi-domain infrastructure issues

This role requires deep service provider expertise combined with strong systems thinking and operational engineering discipline.

Required Qualifications

• Strong experience designing and evolving large-scale service provider infrastructure environments

• CCIE/JNCIE-level expertise or equivalent real-world architectural depth

• Deep understanding of IP/MPLS backbone architectures and routing ecosystems

• Strong understanding of transport, aggregation and infrastructure networking domains

• Experience defining infrastructure standards and architectural principles

• Strong automation mindset focused on scaling network operations and infrastructure consistency

• Experience operating large-scale multi-vendor environments

• Strong troubleshooting and infrastructure problem-solving capabilities

• Experience guiding technical decisions across engineering organizations

• Strong documentation, standardization and operational rigor

• Ability to operate in fast-moving infrastructure growth environments

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with automation frameworks and infrastructure APIs

• Experience scaling operational models in large service provider networks

• Familiarity with CI/CD or infrastructure lifecycle automation practices

• Experience with optical transport scaling strategies

• Exposure to infrastructure security and segmentation architectures

• Experience supporting multi-site or multi-data-center service provider environments

• Familiarity with telemetry, observability or infrastructure monitoring systems

• Experience leading engineering standardization initiatives across organizations

What We Value

• Deep service provider engineering mindset

• Strong ownership and architectural accountability

• Pragmatic engineering and operational realism

• Builders who value operational scalability through automation

• Systems thinkers capable of connecting architecture with operational execution

• Engineering rigor, documentation discipline and standardization

• Curiosity and continuous learning

• Leaders who understand that operational simplicity is an architectural responsibility