Staff Front-End Network Engineer

Nscale • Seattle, WA

23d

About The Position

Nscale is seeking a Staff Front-End Network Engineer to provide technical leadership in its front-end networking domain. The role focuses on the reliability, scalability, and operational excellence of high-performance Ethernet networks supporting inference traffic, cluster management, data ingress and egress, shared storage connectivity, long-haul circuits, and carrier handoffs for large-scale AI GPU clusters.

The engineer will influence network design direction and cross-team outcomes, lead architecture and operational improvements, serve as a domain expert and senior escalation point, and help resolve complex networking challenges. The role works with SRE, Compute Platform, Storage, and Network Architecture teams and contributes to technical standards, mentoring, and measurable improvements in network uptime, latency consistency, capacity efficiency, and incident reduction.

Requirements

• 10–12+ years of network engineering experience, focused on hyperscale data center, cloud, or AI infrastructure networking.
• Deep hands-on experience with large-scale Ethernet data center fabrics using leaf-spine/Clos topologies.
• Production expertise at scale with Nvidia (Cumulus), Arista EOS, and/or Nokia platforms.
• Solid understanding of data center routing and control planes, including BGP, OSPF, ECMP, and EVPN-VXLAN.
• Experience with long-haul circuits, DCI, and optical transport, including dark fiber, carrier Ethernet, coherent optics, and ZR/ZR+.
• Strong understanding of storage networking over Ethernet in large-scale environments.
• Ability to debug and resolve complex cross-layer issues involving hardware, optics, routing, and application layers.
• Proven ability to lead technical initiatives across teams and influence outcomes without formal authority.
• Strong systems thinking, balancing performance, reliability, scalability, and operational efficiency.

Nice To Haves

• Experience operating Arista, Nokia, or Nvidia networking platforms at hyperscale.
• Familiarity with AI infrastructure network design patterns, including inference, management, and storage tiers.
• Exposure to DCI/long-haul optical or carrier network design and operations.
• Strong automation experience with Python, Ansible, telemetry pipelines, or validation frameworks.
• Experience contributing to infrastructure strategy or large-scale platform improvements.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical direction and operational improvements for Nscale’s front-end AI infrastructure networks.
• Design, review, and evolve large-scale Ethernet leaf-spine/Clos fabric architectures using Arista and Nokia platforms.
• Act as a senior escalation point for complex front-end network incidents and drive technical root-cause analysis and remediation.
• Lead cross-team initiatives to improve fabric reliability, performance consistency, observability, and operational maturity.
• Define and evolve engineering standards for hardware configuration, routing, congestion management, firmware lifecycle, automation, and change safety across Nvidia Cumulus, Arista EOS, and Nokia platforms.
• Partner with SRE, Compute Platform, Storage, and Network Architecture teams on end-to-end system design, including DCI and storage networking integration.
• Mentor senior engineers and contribute to technical excellence across the organization.
• Deliver measurable improvements in uptime, latency consistency, capacity efficiency, and incident reduction for front-end services.

Benefits

• Highly competitive package including base pay and equity, with annual reviews.
• Flexible benefits including medical, dental, and vision coverage, PTO, parental leave, and retirement plans.
• A progression path tailored to growth, with opportunities to lead, innovate, and expand technical scope.
• Opportunity to work at a fast-growing AI infrastructure company on cutting-edge systems.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed