Principal AI Network Engineer

Highrise AI

About The Position

Highrise AI is seeking a principal-level, hands-on AI Network Engineer to bring large-scale GPU cluster networks from physical installation and cabling through configuration, validation, and commercial readiness. Working with senior compute, storage, and infrastructure engineers, this person will lead network fabric bring-up, advanced configuration, performance tuning, and technical acceptance for AI training and supporting infrastructure networks. After deployment, the engineer will serve as a Tier 3 escalation point for complex production networking issues, leading root-cause analysis, reliability improvements, and ongoing optimization of high-performance AI clusters. The role supports large-scale AI compute infrastructure across multiple sites. Travel to data centers for commissioning, acceptance, and complex troubleshooting is required. Flexibility to assist with critical incidents or maintenance outside regular business hours is expected. The position is hybrid or remote depending on location. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, networking, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
10+ years of hands-on data center or high-performance networking experience, including deep troubleshooting and technical leadership.
Demonstrated success deploying and operating large-scale, low-latency networks for AI, HPC, cloud, or similarly demanding distributed systems.
Strong expertise in Ethernet and/or InfiniBand fabrics, RDMA/RoCE, routing and switching, and multi-tier data center network architectures.
Experience with high-speed 200/400/800G networking, NICs, optical interconnects, performance testing, and network telemetry.
Proficiency with Linux networking and network automation using Python, Ansible, or equivalent tooling.
Expert-level problem solving across physical, link, transport, and application-facing network performance layers.
Strong ownership of deployment outcomes, acceptance criteria, operational reliability, and technical documentation.
Ability to make independent technical decisions while collaborating effectively with senior compute, storage, and systems engineers.
Clear communication with engineering leadership, customers, site teams, OEMs, and external network vendors.
Travel to data centers for cluster commissioning, acceptance, and complex troubleshooting is required.
Flexibility to assist with critical incidents or maintenance activities outside regular business hours is expected.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with NVIDIA networking and fabric-management tools is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

Lead network commissioning of materially complete AI clusters, including switch initialization, configuration validation, host connectivity, and production-readiness checks.
Configure and integrate high-speed Ethernet and/or InfiniBand compute fabrics, including RDMA/RoCE, as well as storage, management, and out-of-band networks.
Validate topology, routing, redundancy, addressing, port mappings, optics, cabling, and interoperability across switches, NICs, and supporting systems.
Implement and refine network automation, configuration management, firmware and operating-system baselines, and repeatable fabric deployment procedures.
Work with compute and storage engineers to resolve host-to-fabric integration issues and ensure end-to-end cluster readiness.
Execute fabric qualification and acceptance testing for link health, error rates, bandwidth, latency, congestion, resilience, and scaling behavior.
Troubleshoot and tune RDMA transport, congestion control, QoS, PFC/ECN, routing, and switch/NIC settings as appropriate to the deployed fabric.
Analyze NCCL and distributed workload results with compute engineers to isolate communication bottlenecks and improve multi-node performance.
Use telemetry, switch counters, fabric management platforms, and diagnostic tools to identify degraded links, optical issues, packet loss, or unexpected congestion.
Own networking acceptance evidence, defect remediation, configuration sign-off, and readiness recommendations for commercial service.
Provide senior technical escalation for production incidents involving fabric instability, host connectivity, network performance, routing, or persistent hardware faults.
Lead deep troubleshooting and root-cause analysis across switches, NICs, optics, cabling, and network operating systems; coordinate vendor engineering escalations.
Support network upgrades, expansions, failover testing, controlled configuration changes, and post-maintenance validation.
Develop diagnostic automation, monitoring standards, runbooks, and operational handoffs for NOC, SRE, and on-site technicians.
Collaborate with infrastructure engineering, OEMs, networking vendors, site operations, and customer-facing teams to meet deployment and service milestones.
Provide concise technical reporting on fabric health, acceptance results, outstanding defects, operational risks, and recommended improvements.