Principal Network Architect

Brightspeed•Charlotte, NC

About The Position

Brightspeed is seeking a Principal Network Architect for Transport to develop tactical and strategic solutions aligned with the company’s vision and establish architecture standards. The role is responsible for engineering, designing, deploying, optimizing, and supporting the lifecycle of Brightspeed’s optical and packet transport infrastructure. It works with Network Architecture, Lab, Planning, Operations, Field Engineering, vendors, and other technical teams to ensure the network has the capacity, resiliency, performance, and reliability needed for broadband, voice, Ethernet, enterprise, mobile backhaul, and network infrastructure services. The architect serves as a technical subject matter expert in optical and packet transport technologies, including DWDM, OTN, ROADM, Ethernet, and high-capacity wavelength services. The position develops detailed designs and engineering documentation, plans capacity and network augmentation, designs diversity and protection strategies, validates network designs, and supports deployment, commissioning, monitoring, troubleshooting, migrations, upgrades, and legacy platform retirement. It also contributes to engineering standards, evaluates new technologies through analysis and testing, identifies and mitigates technical risks, maintains accurate network records, and provides guidance to technical teams and leadership on network requirements and investment priorities.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Telecommunications, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline; equivalent telecommunications experience may be considered.
15 or more years of telecommunications network engineering experience, with significant experience in optical or packet transport networks.
Strong working knowledge of DWDM, CWDM, OTN, ROADM, Ethernet, MPLS, and carrier-grade transport technologies.
Experience engineering and supporting carrier-class optical platforms, preferably Ciena 6500, Nokia 1830 PSS/GX, Cisco NCS platforms, or comparable systems.
Experience with metro, regional, long-haul, and backbone transport network architectures.
Knowledge of Ethernet services and transport technologies, including VLANs, LAG, L2VPN, MEF services, QoS, and Ethernet OAM.
Experience with network capacity planning, traffic analysis, circuit grooming, network augmentation, and infrastructure forecasting.
Experience producing network engineering documentation, including diagrams, equipment requirements, port and fiber assignments, BOMs, implementation packages, and Methods of Procedure.
Experience with fiber characterization and optical test equipment such as OTDRs, optical power meters, spectrum analyzers, and Ethernet/transport test sets.
Familiarity with test platforms from VIAVI, EXFO, Spirent, or equivalent vendors.
Experience identifying design, capacity, performance, resiliency, interoperability, and support risks and developing mitigation strategies.
Strong troubleshooting and analytical skills to isolate complex issues across fiber, optical, transport, Ethernet, and packet layers.
Understanding of telecommunications facilities, including racks, power, grounding, fiber distribution, patch panels, DC power systems, and environmental requirements.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree.
Telecom, cable, or Internet Service Provider industry experience.

Responsibilities

Serve as a technical subject matter expert for optical and packet transport technologies, including DWDM, OTN, ROADM, Ethernet, and high-capacity wavelength services.
Engineer and support metro, regional, and backbone transport networks for broadband, voice, enterprise, mobile backhaul, and network infrastructure connectivity.
Develop detailed transport network designs based on capacity requirements, traffic forecasts, topology, resiliency requirements, and service growth.
Engineer 10G, 100G, 400G, and emerging higher-speed optical transport solutions, including wavelength assignments, optical paths, equipment requirements, and capacity planning.
Design DWDM/ROADM optical networks, including wavelength routing, amplification, dispersion considerations, optical power budgets, and fiber-loss requirements.
Support transport platforms and technologies from Brightspeed vendors and suppliers, including Ciena, Nokia, Cisco, Fujitsu, Infinera, and Ribbon.
Develop engineering packages, bills of material, equipment configurations, fiber and port assignments, rack requirements, and implementation documentation.
Translate network strategy and capacity requirements into executable transport engineering designs in collaboration with Network Planning and Architecture.
Partner with Operations, Field Engineering, and implementation teams to support successful deployment, commissioning, monitoring, and support of transport solutions.
Perform capacity analysis and identify network augmentations needed to address bandwidth growth, congestion, equipment limitations, and resiliency.
Engineer network diversity and protection strategies to reduce single points of failure and improve network availability.
Support fiber route analysis and identify route-diversity, fiber-exhaust, span-loss, capacity, and resiliency risks.
Review and validate transport designs, including optical paths, circuit routing, equipment configurations, fiber assignments, and protection schemes.
Provide technical support for complex transport incidents, chronic issues, performance degradation, and escalations.
Assist Operations in troubleshooting optical impairments, high loss, degraded wavelengths, equipment failures, fiber-related issues, and transport alarms.
Support network migrations, equipment replacements, capacity augments, technology upgrades, network grooming, and legacy-platform retirement initiatives.
Develop and maintain transport engineering standards, design guidelines, approved configurations, and operational best practices.
Evaluate transport technologies, platforms, optics, and software releases through technical analysis, lab testing, proof of concept, and field validation.
Work with Network Architecture and the Brightspeed lab to validate platforms, optics, configurations, and network designs before production deployment.
Participate in vendor technical reviews and evaluate solutions for compliance, interoperability, scalability, reliability, and lifecycle considerations.
Identify technical risks involving capacity, fiber availability, equipment lifecycle, interoperability, resiliency, and performance, and develop mitigation strategies.
Maintain accurate network engineering documentation and ensure records reflect deployed network configurations.
Provide technical guidance and recommendations to Network Planning, Architecture, Operations, Product, and leadership on transport requirements and investment priorities.
Assess the transport environment and identify opportunities to improve capacity, reliability, operational efficiency, scalability, and cost effectiveness.