Architect – Network Automation

CBTS•Cincinnati, OH

2d•Remote

About The Position

We are seeking a Senior Network Automation Architect — a software engineer first, with deep domain expertise in network infrastructure. This is not a traditional network engineering role with scripting. This position owns the design, development, and delivery of production‑grade automation software that operates across a large‑scale, multi‑vendor network environment for a Managed Service Provider (MSP). You will define the developer experience for the network organization: setting coding standards, designing extensible software architectures, building reusable Python libraries and internal platforms, implementing CI/CD pipelines, and mentoring engineers in modern software development practices. You think in design patterns, clean abstractions, testability, and long‑term maintainability — and you apply that mindset to infrastructure automation.

Requirements

7+ years of professional software development experience with Python as the primary language.
Advanced Python expertise: Type hints Dataclasses / Pydantic Async / await Context managers, decorators, generators
Experience building Python libraries, packages, and CLI tools (Click, Typer, argparse).
Strong testing background: pytest, mocking, fixtures, TDD.
Advanced Git skills (rebase, cherry‑pick, bisect, hooks).
Hands‑on experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
Solid grounding in SOLID principles, design patterns, and clean architecture.
Experience writing technical documentation and developer guidelines.
Strong understanding of: Routing (BGP, OSPF) Switching VPNs and firewalls SD‑WAN Network security fundamentals
Experience automating at least two or more of: NetBox Arista VeloCloud Cisco Meraki Juniper Mist Palo Alto Prisma SD‑WAN Fortinet SD‑WAN
Familiarity with Netmiko, NAPALM, Nornir, pyATS.
Experience with JSON, YAML, XML, and Jinja2 templating.

Nice To Haves

Terraform (including module or provider development)
AWS networking and architecture
Docker, Kubernetes, Linux
Observability stacks (Grafana, Prometheus, ELK)
Event-driven automation (Kafka, RabbitMQ, webhooks)
Database integration (PostgreSQL, Redis, SQLite)
Internal developer platforms, self‑service portals, or ChatOps
Open-source contributions or public automation portfolio
Relevant certifications (Cisco DevNet, CCNP/CCIE, AWS, Terraform)

Responsibilities

Architect and develop production-quality Python applications, libraries, and CLI tools for network automation, orchestration, and observability.
Design clean, extensible architectures using patterns such as factory, strategy, adapter, and plugin-based systems to abstract vendor differences.
Build and maintain API integrations (REST, GraphQL, gRPC, JSON‑RPC) with platforms including: Arista VeloCloud Palo Alto Prisma SD‑WAN Fortinet SD‑WAN Cisco Meraki Juniper Mist Traditional network OS platforms (IOS‑XE, NX‑OS, JunOS)
Develop internal Python packages with: Proper packaging (pyproject.toml) Semantic versioning Dependency management Internal PyPI distribution
Write comprehensive test suites: Unit tests (pytest) Integration tests Network validation tests using mocks and fixtures
Shape Git strategies and repository structure.
Leverage AI/LLM developer tooling responsibly to improve productivity and code quality.
Author and maintain coding standards, architectural decision records (ADRs), and development guidelines.
Establish and enforce code quality tooling: PEP8 Ruff / Pylint Black MyPy Pre‑commit hooks
Design and implement CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins) for: Linting Testing Security scanning Build and release automation
Define Git workflows: Branching strategies Pull request standards Code review expectations Release management
Create project templates, scaffolding, and cookiecutters to standardize automation development.
Identify manual workflows and operational pain points, then design automation solutions to eliminate them.
Prototype new tools, frameworks, and approaches from idea through production adoption.
Improve observability by integrating automation platforms with logging, monitoring, and alerting systems.
Contribute to technology roadmap and vendor evaluation from a software architecture and productivity perspective.
Mentor network engineers in: Python development Testing strategies Code structure Debugging Version control
Lead code reviews with a teaching mindset.
Facilitate workshops, knowledge-sharing sessions, and pair programming.
Partner with DevOps, Cloud, Security, and Application teams to align engineering practices.