Senior Staff Network Engineer, Deployment

Crusoe•Sunnyvale, CA

6d•$225,000 - $275,000

About The Position

Crusoe Cloud is seeking a Senior Staff Network Deployment Engineer to serve as the technical owner of how we deploy network infrastructure across our global fleet. As we rapidly scale our footprint of high-performance compute (HPC) and GPU-based AI infrastructure, you will define the deployment strategy, set the standards, and architect the automation platform that brings new data centers and edge sites online — at a pace and scale few companies have ever attempted. This is a senior technical leadership role at the intersection of Network Engineering, Data Center Operations, and Infrastructure Strategy. You will partner with Network Architecture to shape designs for deployability, mentor a team of Staff and Senior engineers executing your vision, and represent the deployment org in cross-functional planning with Supply Chain, Data Center Ops, and Site Reliability leadership. You're not refining a runbook — you're authoring the playbook that defines how the world's most innovative AI cloud comes online.

Requirements

12+ years of network engineering experience with a heavy focus on large-scale data center deployments and infrastructure programs, including significant time in hyperscale, large cloud, or ISP environments.
Demonstrated Technical Leadership: Proven track record of authoring standards, mentoring engineers, and driving multi-quarter technical initiatives that span teams. You've operated as a senior technical voice in an organization where decisions you've made are still in production.
Hyperscale Operational Experience: Comfort operating at scale — 10K+ network devices, multi-region fabric deployments, and the realities of building when the supply chain, the timeline, and the physics are all working against you.
Mastery of Physical Layer Standards: Deep expertise in structured cabling (SMF/MMF, MPO/MTP), optical transceivers (400G/800G and roadmap to 1.6T), and data center power/cooling for HPC workloads.
Routing and Switching Fluency: Expert hands-on experience with Arista (EOS), Juniper (Junos), and NVIDIA/Mellanox platforms in leaf-spine architectures. You can go as deep as the problem demands.
Protocol Proficiency: Strong working knowledge of BGP, EVPN-VXLAN, and LLDP as they relate to large-scale fabric provisioning and validation.
Automation Architect: Track record of designing and shipping deployment automation systems used by a broader engineering team — not just scripts you wrote, but platforms others build on. Strong Python and Ansible; familiarity with modern IaC and CI/CD patterns.
Program Leadership: Proven ability to lead multiple complex, concurrent deployment programs across time zones and physical locations, with executive-level communication and risk management.
Diagnostic Depth: Able to diagnose complex physical layer and link-layer issues using OTDRs, light meters, and packet captures — and able to teach others to do the same.
Education: Bachelor's degree in a technical field or equivalent practical experience in hyperscale or ISP environments.

Responsibilities

Own Global Deployment Strategy: Define the multi-quarter technical roadmap for how Crusoe deploys network infrastructure across new and existing data centers, edge sites, and backbone interconnects.
Set the Standards: Author and ratify internal RFCs and technical standards for physical and logical network deployment — cabling, optics, fabric provisioning, validation, and handoff — that the broader engineering org executes against.
Influence Architecture for Deployability: Partner closely with Network Architecture to shape designs that scale operationally; serve as the senior voice ensuring what gets designed can actually be built and validated at hyperscale pace.
Architect the Deployment Automation Platform: Set the technical direction for Crusoe's ZTP, IaC, and validation tooling stack. Drive the strategy for Python-, Ansible-, and CI/CD-based systems that stage and validate hundreds of devices simultaneously.
Define the Validation Framework: Establish the burn-in, site acceptance testing (SAT), and commissioning criteria used across the fleet to ensure zero-defect handovers to Operations.
Lead Vendor and Partner Strategy: Establish standards, SLAs, and qualification programs for structured cabling vendors, remote hands partners, and data center providers globally. Influence hardware vendor roadmaps (Arista, Juniper, NVIDIA/Mellanox) based on Crusoe's operational needs.
Drive Capacity and Asset Strategy: Partner with Supply Chain and Infrastructure leadership on capacity planning, hardware lifecycle, and the turn-up cadence for new backbone capacity and edge interconnects.
Mentor and Multiply: Provide technical guidance to Staff and Senior network deployment engineers. Lead design reviews, post-incident reviews, and drive systemic improvements to deployment quality across the org.