Senior Principal Engineer, Network Software

Equinix•Redwood City, CA

20h

About The Position

Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company®, shortening the path to connectivity to enable the innovations that enrich our work, life and planet. A place where tech thinkers and future builders turn bold ideas into breakthrough experiences, we welcome your unique perspective. Help us challenge assumptions, uncover bias, and remove barriers—because progress starts with fresh ideas. You’ll find belonging, purpose, and a team that welcomes you—because when you feel valued, you’re empowered to do your best work. Job Summary Responsible for driving innovative architectures in line with the latest network technology trends, and completeness of architectural changes that meet Product Management and/or Network and Systems Engineering requirements Maintains relationships with senior leadership and collaborates with a broad range of stakeholders globally Establishes key performance metrics Drives a culture of innovation, excellence & collaboration with other business functions Provides strategic direction in planning/execution Within Equinix, the Network Platform Engineering (NPE) team is chartered with: Designing, implementing, deploying and operating the company’s global network infrastructure to deliver the best possible performance and experience to customers and internal users Evaluating next-generation networking technologies and developing an evolution roadmap and target architectures for the network technology stack (spanning optical, routing, switching, software networking) Delivering industry thought leadership and building closer engagement with the developer community in areas relevant to networking We are looking for a Senior Principal Engineer to help design, develop and evaluate next-generation networking capabilities and architectures that will help shape the evolution of Equinix's network and infrastructure stack. We are looking for someone with a passion for developing modern, world-class networking solutions that are scalable, reliable, and programmable through software. You will provide network design and engineering expertise and technical leadership across critical and pivotal initiatives focusing on scaling, modernizing, and automating Equinix’s global network infrastructure. You will have the flexibility to work on different projects to utilize new technologies as we continue to explore new areas and drive innovation across the infrastructure space. It presents a great opportunity for a passionate, technical leader to make a tangible impact to the future-state technology stack of Equinix’ global networks and infrastructure. If you believe in the power of technology to change the world, and if you value creativity, work comfortably in a fast-paced environment and are eager to learn new technologies, we would like to talk to you.

Requirements

15+ years of relevant experience
Demonstrable, extensive experience in developing next generation networking technologies and architectures implemented in large-scale, critically important deployments. Examples include: a proven background in network infrastructure design, engineering, DevOps/operations, security, tooling, networking products/solutions
Top-tier relevant network design or network engineering leadership with software-defined, cloud-native networking technologies and ecosystems is essential with detailed knowledge across layers 2-3 control and network data planes and ideally networking operating systems as well
Substantive knowledge of network (function) disaggregation, including merchant silicon and ODM solutions
Expert level knowledge with service provider networking technologies and protocols, including BGP, IS-IS, MPLS, Segment Routing, RSVP, QoS, EVPN, VXLAN, traffic engineering (backbone & edge)
Passionate about infrastructure automation through software, together with solid hands-on experience of network automation
Experience of engineering with programming languages (such as C, C++, Go, Python, Rust) for network automation
Experience with network configuration tools such as Netconf, yang
Experience with open networking technologies and ecosystems, such as Routing Daemons (FRR, Bird, GoBGP), Linux Networking (eBPF, VPP, XDP), and SONiC, or other Linux-based open Network Operating Systems
Involvement with modern observability platforms (Prometheus/PromQL, Grafana, gNMI, etc)
Experience with network flow export (Netflow, IPFIX, sFlow) and analysis
Solid understanding of full networking stack (routing, switching and optical networking), including key protocols & standards, Linux networking and open-source solutions, vendor ecosystems and implementation best practices
Excellent written and verbal communications skills, for interacting with both engineers and executive leadership
Excellent collaboration and people skills
Experience working on hybrid distributed teams
Experience recruiting and coaching/mentoring engineers at all levels

Responsibilities

Provide senior thought leadership and significant technical contributions to help develop target software defined network architectures and recommendations, for the evolution of the network technology stack at Equinix, in close collaboration with stakeholders
Drive cross-stakeholder alignment on network requirements and design trade-offs
Help identify technical debt and drive continual improvement by partnering with associate organizations
Provide in-depth technical expertise to identify and evaluate innovations in networking and assess their impact on the network infrastructure of future at Equinix
Contribute to next-generation networking proof-of-concept projects to deliver tangible outcomes that guide new technology investments and implementation decisions to evolve the network technology stack
Serve as an orchestrator of thinking internally and externally, including in interactions with customers, partners, forums, and open-source/developer communities

Benefits

Employee Assistance Program: An Employee Assistance program is available to all employees.
Insurance: You may enroll in health, life, disability and voluntary plans that are designed for you and your eligible family members.
Retirement: You and Equinix may contribute to a retirement plan to help you plan for your financial future.
Paid Time Off (PTO) and Paid Holidays: You will receive an accrued amount of PTO each pay period along with various paid holidays for you to rest and recharge.

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