[Remote] Senior Principal Front-End Network Engineer, AI Infrastructure Operations
Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. Nscale is a GPU cloud engineered for AI, providing infrastructure for AI start-ups and large enterprises. They are seeking a Senior Principal Front-End Network Engineer to lead technical direction and operational strategy for high-performance Ethernet front-end networks supporting AI workloads.
Responsibilities
- Owning the technical direction and operational strategy for Nscale’s front-end AI infrastructure networks at the highest level
- Designing, reviewing, and evolving large-scale Ethernet leaf-spine / Clos fabric architectures (including Arista and Nokia platforms) to support future growth, inference workloads, and storage requirements
- Acting as the senior-most escalation point for the most complex front-end network incidents, guiding deep technical investigations and systemic fixes
- Driving cross-team and cross-functional initiatives to improve fabric reliability, performance predictability, observability, and operational maturity at scale
- Defining standards for hardware configuration, routing, congestion management, firmware lifecycle management, automation, and change safety across Arista EOS and Nokia platforms
- Partnering with SRE, Compute Platform, Storage, and Network Architecture teams to influence end-to-end system design, including long-haul/DCI circuits and storage network integration
- Mentoring senior and principal-level network engineers, raising the bar for operational rigor and technical excellence across the organization
- Driving measurable improvements in uptime, latency consistency, capacity efficiency, and incident reduction for front-end services
Skills
- 12+ years of experience in network engineering, with deep focus on hyperscale data centre, cloud, or AI infrastructure networking
- Expert-level operational and architectural experience with large-scale Ethernet data centre fabrics (leaf-spine / Clos topologies)
- Strong hands-on expertise with Arista (EOS / Etherlink) and/or Nokia (7220 IXR, 7250 IXR, 7750 SR series) platforms in production environments at scale
- Deep understanding of modern data centre routing and control planes (BGP, OSPF, ECMP, EVPN-VXLAN)
- Proven experience with long-haul circuits, DCI, and optical transport (dark fiber, carrier Ethernet, coherent optics, ZR/ZR+)
- Strong background in storage networking over Ethernet and shared storage connectivity at hyperscale
- Demonstrated ability to debug and resolve complex cross-layer issues spanning hardware, optics, routing, and application layers
- Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives across teams and influence strategy without direct authority
- A systems-level mindset, balancing performance, reliability, scalability, and operational cost at the highest level
- Extensive experience with Arista or Nokia platforms at hyperscale or large AI infrastructure scale
- Deep familiarity with front-end network design patterns for massive AI clusters (inference, management, and storage tiers)
- Experience designing or operating large-scale DCI / long-haul optical or carrier networks
- Strong automation and tooling experience (Python, Ansible, validation frameworks, telemetry pipelines)
- Prior experience influencing platform or infrastructure strategy at significant scale
Benefits
- Highly competitive package (base + equity) with reviews every 12 months.
- Join the fastest-growing tech startup, your chance to push boundaries, collaborate with brilliant minds, and make your mark on cutting-edge AI.
- Expect a dynamic progression plan tailored to your ambitions. Grow by trying new things, leading, challenging the status quo, and owning your impact, always with our full support.
- Human-First Flexibility: We treat you as humans first. 🫶🏽 Our flexible workplace trusts Nscalers to deliver, giving you the autonomy to shape your day around life's moments.
- Join our thriving remote-first team. Geography is no barrier to impact or connection. We build seamless virtual collaboration, empowering you, wherever you work.
- In addition to base salary, this role may be eligible for bonus, equity, and/or commission programs.
- Nscale may offer a competitive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, flexible paid time off, parental leave, and retirement plan participation.
Company Overview