Lead Network Engineer, Deployment & Integration

Fluidstack•Austin, TX

30d•$200,000 - $300,000•Remote

About The Position

Fluidstack is seeking a Senior Staff Network Engineer to lead our Network Deployment & Integration pillar. This role acts as the team lead, you'll be hands-on building our first AI datacenter fabrics while establishing the deployment playbook that scales to GW deployments across multiple regions. This role demands equal parts technical depth and operational leadership. You'll time in the field executing deployments while building the systems, processes, and team that enable repeatable, factory-line pod deployments. Success means handing over production-ready fabrics to operations on schedule while building a deployment organization that can run 3-4 parallel datacenter builds. You'll develop a team of deployment engineers, establish handover criteria with cross-functional partners (DC Ops, ICT, Validation).

Requirements

Proven Deployment Leadership: 8+ years in network engineering with significant datacenter deployment experience. You've built large-scale fabrics from the ground up - not just designed them, but physically turned them up in the field. You understand the gap between design and reality, and you know how to close it through detailed planning and relentless execution.
AI Fabric Expertise: Deep hands-on experience with modern datacenter fabrics - EVPN/VXLAN, BGP, CLOS topologies, high-radix switching. Ideally, you've deployed AI/ML fabrics with RDMA (RoCEv2), lossless Ethernet (PFC, ECN), or equivalent high-performance networking. You understand the precision required when every packet matters.
Player-Coach Mentality: You're equally comfortable getting hands on and building the team that scales beyond you. You've mentored, and developed engineers before. You know when to lead by example and when to delegate. You see building a team as part of the mission, not a distraction from technical work.
Operational Pragmatism: You thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous environments where perfection is the enemy of progress. You make pragmatic tradeoffs between speed and quality. You document as you go. You build processes that are good enough to scale, then iterate. You don't wait for perfect tooling - you ship with what you have and improve incrementally.
Cross-Team Influence: Exceptional at partnering across functions. You've coordinated complex projects involving hardware vendors, datacenter operators, cabling contractors, and internal engineering teams. You communicate clearly, escalate decisively, and earn trust through follow-through and accountability.
Travel Ready: Comfortable with 70-80% travel for extended onsite deployments during datacenter turn-ups. Remote-based but willing to be wherever the work is. You understand that deployment leadership means showing up when it's hard.

Nice To Haves

Hyperscale Background: Experience deploying networks at hyperscale companies (Meta, Google, Microsoft, AWS) or large AI infrastructure providers. You've seen what "good" looks like at scale and can adapt those lessons to a fast-growing startup.
Vendor Ecosystems: Deep familiarity with Arista, Juniper, or NVIDIA networking platforms. You know the quirks, the failure modes, and the workarounds. You have relationships with vendor TAC/SE teams and know how to escalate effectively.
Automation Mindset: Exposure to network automation tools (Ansible, Terraform, Python) and source-of-truth systems (Netbox, DCIM). You may not be writing automation yourself, but you understand how to design deployments that are automatable and you partner effectively with automation engineers.
Project/Program Management: Formal or informal experience with project coordination, Gantt charts, critical path management, and cross-functional program execution. You've been the person who keeps complex initiatives on track when everyone else is focused on their own domain.
Startup Experience: You've built something from scratch before - ideally in a high-growth infrastructure or cloud company. You're comfortable with rapid context switching, evolving requirements, and the intensity of early-stage company building.

Responsibilities

Deployment Execution: Own hands-on deployment of datacenter networks - front-end fabric, back-end fabric, BMS, management networks. Configure and validate switches, coordinate fiber/cabling remediation, manage hardware RMAs, and drive the first datacenter handover to production.
Deployment Playbook Development: Build the repeatable deployment process that scales from from double digit Megawatt to Gigawatt deployments. Define pre-deployment checklists, turn-up procedures, validation gates, and handover criteria. Document blockers, failure modes, and workarounds. Create the operations manual that allows future deployment engineers to execute independently with minimal guidance.
Cross-Functional Orchestration: Partner with DC Operations (rack/stack, power, structured cabling), ICT teams (fiber validation, insertion loss), Hardware (device staging, logistics), and Network Engineering (design review, config validation) to drive deployments to completion. Own the critical path - identify blockers within hours, escalate decisively, and ensure nothing stalls deployment timelines.
Field Execution Leadership: Lead deployment teams in the field - coordinate travel, assign work, provide technical guidance during complex turn-ups, and ensure quality standards. Build trust with datacenter partners through hands-on problem solving and accountability.
Handover Excellence: Define and enforce exit criteria for production handovers to Network Operations. Ensure every fabric meets standards for physical layer validation (OTDR traces, insertion loss), logical configuration (BGP/EVPN validation, reachability tests), observability (monitoring integration, alerting), and documentation (as-builts, cutsheets, runbooks). Own the relationship with Operations to ensure smooth transitions.