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