About the Role
We are seeking a Principal Network Engineer to lead the architecture, design, and operation of high-performance network infrastructure across large-scale data center and cloud environments. This is a highly strategic technical leadership role focused on defining network architecture, driving long-term infrastructure direction, and ensuring the reliability, scalability, and efficiency of mission-critical networking systems at significant scale.
You will serve as a senior technical authority across networking domains, partnering closely with infrastructure, platform, systems, and hardware teams to solve complex networking challenges and influence the future evolution of our infrastructure platforms.
As a Principal Engineer, you will establish engineering standards, guide cross-functional technical strategy, mentor senior engineers, and lead critical architectural decisions across the organization.
This role requires approximately 50% travel to data centers, offices, partner locations, and other sites based on business and project needs.
What You’ll Do
- Lead the architecture, design, deployment, and operation of large-scale network infrastructure across data center and cloud environments
- Define and drive technical strategy for core networking systems and infrastructure platforms
- Own architectural decisions across routing, switching, transport, and overlay networking technologies (e.g., VXLAN, EVPN)
- Design highly available, scalable, and resilient network systems supporting mission-critical services
- Diagnose and resolve complex, cross-layer networking issues spanning hardware, software, systems, and infrastructure domains
- Drive network automation, observability, and operational tooling initiatives to improve reliability and efficiency
- Establish and evolve network architecture standards, operational best practices, and engineering processes
- Partner cross-functionally with platform, systems, hardware, and operations teams to deliver end-to-end infrastructure solutions
- Lead technical reviews and guide long-term network infrastructure roadmap planning
- Mentor senior and staff-level engineers while elevating technical standards across the organization
- Drive operational excellence and reliability initiatives, including continuous improvement of production support processes
- Travel approximately 50% to support infrastructure deployments, site assessments, technical reviews, incident response, and collaboration with internal and external partners
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)
- 10+ years of experience designing and operating large-scale network infrastructure in cloud, hyperscale, ISP, or enterprise environments
- Deep expertise in network architecture, operations, and production support at scale
- Expert-level understanding of networking protocols and technologies, including BGP, OSPF, IS-IS, MPLS, TCP/IP, and IPv4/IPv6
- Proven experience architecting and operating mission-critical network infrastructure
- Demonstrated technical leadership across complex, cross-functional engineering initiatives
- Strong troubleshooting, systems-thinking, and problem-solving skills
- Strong communication skills with the ability to influence technical direction across organizations
- Ability and willingness to travel approximately 50%, including travel to data centers and other infrastructure sites
- Willingness to participate in on-call rotations supporting production infrastructure
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with high-performance networking technologies such as InfiniBand and RoCE
- Deep knowledge of VXLAN, EVPN, and modern data center networking architectures
- Experience with network automation and scripting using Python or similar technologies
- Familiarity with network observability, telemetry, and monitoring platforms
- Experience with network modeling and programmability frameworks such as YANG, OpenConfig, and NETCONF
- Experience with cloud networking and hybrid infrastructure environments
- Familiarity with GPU cluster networking and AI/HPC infrastructure environments
- Experience designing low-latency, highly resilient networking systems at hyperscale
What We’re Looking For
- A highly technical networking leader who can define architecture and strategy for complex infrastructure environments
- A systems thinker who understands the interaction between networking, compute, storage, and distributed applications
- Someone who takes ownership of critical infrastructure systems and proactively drives continuous improvement
- A pragmatic engineer who balances reliability, scalability, performance, and operational simplicity
- A mentor and technical multiplier who raises the engineering bar across teams
- A collaborative leader capable of influencing cross-functional organizations and driving alignment on key technical decisions
The range below reflects the base salary for the position. Actual compensation may vary based on job-related factors such as skill set, experience, education, and location. In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for bonus, equity, and/or commission programs. Nscale may offer a competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, flexible paid time off, parental leave, and retirement plan participation.
Salary Range$220,000—$280,000 USDFor information on how Nscale handles candidate personal data, please see our Employee & Candidate Privacy Notice: Here.