Principal Architect, Technology - Transport

Ziply Fiber

2d•$155,000 - $230,000•Remote

About The Position

Ziply Fiber's competitive advantage is fiber — and fiber starts with transport. The Principal Architect for Transport is the technical authority for Ziply's physical layer backbone: the dark fiber routes, long-haul rings, DWDM infrastructure, and data center interconnects that carry every bit we deliver. You will define transport topology, drive capacity planning, architect the infrastructure that enables Ziply's expansion into adjacent and edge-out markets and own the co-location strategy that positions us at the right interconnection points across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. This is a hands-on senior independent contributor role for a transport architect who thinks in fiber strands, route diversity, and wavelength economics — and who has the project management discipline to take a transport program from route survey through cutover.

Requirements

High school diploma or GED.
Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Telecommunications, Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and directly relevant transport architecture experience.
10+ years of transport network engineering, optical networking, backbone infrastructure, or carrier transport experience within an ISP, CLEC, fiber network operator, telecommunications provider, regional carrier, or similar network-intensive environment.
Demonstrated senior independent contributor experience setting transport architecture standards, influencing technical direction, mentoring engineers, and driving cross-functional architecture decisions without direct people-management responsibility.
Deep expertise in DWDM/ROADM platforms: Ciena, Infinera, Nokia, or equivalent — architecture, commissioning, and operations of coherent optical systems.
Strong dark fiber operations background: IRU agreements, fiber route management, OTDR testing, splice documentation, and fiber plant acceptance.
Experience with transport capacity planning and traffic engineering at regional or national scale: traffic matrix modeling, wavelength utilization, and fiber exhaust forecasting.
Solid OTN/FlexGrid architecture knowledge: framing, multiplexing, protection schemes, and optical performance monitoring.
Experience with co-location and DCI strategy: meet-me room operations, cross-connect management, and carrier interconnection.
Excellent technical documentation skills; able to maintain authoritative route and capacity records and communicate complex topology decisions to non-technical stakeholders.
Experience creating architecture decision records, reference designs, transport standards, route-diversity frameworks, operational runbooks, capacity planning frameworks, and governance processes for production transport, optical, dark fiber, DCI, or co-location infrastructure.

Nice To Haves

Experience with open line systems and disaggregated optical networking: OpenROADM, OpenConfig optical, or vendor-neutral DWDM deployments.
Background in fiber route acquisition: IRU negotiations, route survey, and technical due diligence for new fiber agreements.
Familiarity with GIS-based network documentation and fiber management systems.
Experience with transport network automation: NETCONF/YANG, gNMI, or optical controller platforms (Ciena MCP, Nokia NSP, or equivalent).
Prior experience supporting competitive market expansion or fiber overbuilder programs.
Experience presenting transport, optical, co-location, route-diversity, capacity, or expansion strategy to VP-level or executive audiences.
Experience with business continuity planning, facility resiliency, critical infrastructure risk assessment, or physical route-diversity governance for transport networks.

Responsibilities

Design and own Ziply's long-haul and regional dark fiber route architecture: ring topology, route diversity, redundancy standards, and failure domain analysis.
Define fiber route acquisition strategy: IRU evaluation criteria, route survey requirements, and technical due diligence for new fiber agreements.
Maintain authoritative transport network documentation: route inventories, fiber maps, strand assignments, splice records, and capacity databases.
Own OTDR testing standards, fiber acceptance criteria, and ongoing plant performance monitoring.
Architect DWDM and coherent optical infrastructure: platform selection (Ciena, Infinera, Nokia, or equivalent), ROADM degree planning, and wavelength engineering for long-haul and metro rings.
Define optical capacity planning: traffic forecasting, wavelength utilization thresholds, fiber exhaust modeling, and upgrade trigger criteria.
Own OTN/FlexGrid transport architecture: framing standards, multiplexing hierarchy, and protection switching (OLP, OSNCP, or equivalent).
Evaluate open line system and disaggregated optical architectures (OpenROADM, OpenConfig optical) for cost and operational fit.
Architect data center interconnect (DCI) strategy: wavelength engineering, low-latency path design, and capacity scaling between Ziply facilities and third-party co-location sites.
Define co-location strategy: meet-me room presence, cross-connect standards, and third-party peering and transit interconnect infrastructure.
Manage relationships with co-location providers: SLA governance, capacity planning, and commercial terms aligned to Ziply's network growth roadmap.
Architect transport infrastructure requirements for adjacent market expansion and edge-out programs: route planning, capacity dimensioning, and build sequencing.
Own transport capacity planning across the network: traffic matrix modeling, link utilization monitoring, and proactive upgrade planning to stay ahead of demand.
Partner with Network Planning on transport inputs for new market entry decisions: fiber availability, route cost, and build vs. lease analysis.
Collaborate with IP Core & Metro architects to ensure transport and IP layer integration is optimized for performance, resilience, and cost efficiency.
Performs other duties as required to support the business and evolving organization.