Senior Staff Engineer, Product Software

Who are we?

Job Summary

We are seeking a highly experienced and technically accomplished Senior Staff Engineer to join our Network Platform Engineering (NPE) team. In this role, you will serve as the final gatekeeper of quality before Network Operating Systems (NOS), Fabric interconnection/IX features & new product features are deployed into our production environment. You will design rigorous test methodologies, build advanced staging topologies, and validate complex architectures to ensure the highest standards of reliability, scalability, and performance.

This is a senior individual contributor role at the intersection of Network infrastructure & software engineering. You will partner closely with cross-functional stakeholders across Product, Engineering, Operations, and Observability teams to deliver solutions that accelerate the velocity and reliability of network certification, testing, and deployment pipelines.

This is a high-impact, high-visibility position that requires strong engineering judgment, a bias for action, and the ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams and business units

Responsibilities

• NOS & Feature Certification: Design, execute, and document comprehensive test plans to certify new NOS releases, Fabric interconnection & new product features before production deployment

• Architecture Simulation: Build and maintain large-scale staging environments that replicate complex service provider and data center topologies

• Regression & Scale/Performance Testing: Conduct interoperability, scalability, and high-availability testing across multi-vendor environments

• Vendor Liaison: Collaborate directly with network vendors to track software bugs, validate hotfixes, and influence product roadmaps

• Production Readiness: Partner with production engineering teams to develop safe deployment playbooks and rollback strategies

• Architecture & Feature Research: Partner with architecture teams in researching research emerging network technologies, evaluate upcoming vendor roadmaps, and assess the feasibility of integrating new features, test and certify them before they are deployed into the production infrastructure

Network Engineering & Automation

• Contribute to the architecture and design of next-generation network infrastructure solutions spanning Layers 1-3, ensuring scalability, reliability, and alignment with long-term platform strategy

• Develop comprehensive test plans and certification strategies; lead hands-on technical deep-dives to verify that architectural designs, new NOS features, and customer use cases perform as expected in lab and production-equivalent environments

• Act as a subject matter expert for service provider & DC networking technologies including BGP (iBGP/eBGP, policy, route reflectors), MPLS (LDP, RSVP, segment routing), EVPN, ISIS, and OSPF, SR, QoS, in multi-vendor environments

• Excellent understanding of technologies such as VXLAN, EPL, EVPL, EPLAN, EVPLAN, EACCESS, ETREE in multi-vendor environments

• Support vendor evaluations and feature gap analyses, provide technical guidance on network hardware and NOS selection aligned to architectural requirements

• High proficiency in configuring, operating, and troubleshooting hardware and NOS platforms including Nokia, Juniper, Cisco, Arrcus etc.

• Strong skills in network automation tools and programmatic interfaces to optimize certification workflows

Qualifications

Required Expertise

• 7+ years of experience in Network Engineering and Automation

• Bachelor's in Electrical engineering, Electronics, Computer Engineering or Related Field preferred

• Excellent understanding of OSI layers, hands-on experience with routing and switching in multi-vendor, large-scale environments (Required)

• Deep proficiency in service provider and data center networking protocols

• Routing: BGP (iBGP/eBGP, route policies, communities, route reflectors), OSPF, IS-IS, Bird

• MPLS: LDP, RSVP-TE, Segment Routing (SR-MPLS, SRv6)

• Overlay/Underlay: VXLAN, EVPN, L3VPN, L2VPN

• Network virtualization: CNF, VNF, SR-IOV, DPDK

• Networking Vendor : Nokia, Juniper, Cisco, Arrucs

• Experience with network test equipment and traffic generators e.g Spirent, Keysight/Ixia, Spirent, Avalanche, IPerf, Trex etc.

• Good programming proficiency in network automation tools (e.g., Python, Ansible, PyATS, Netmiko, REST API) alongside programmatic Interfaces (NETCONF, RESTCONF,Gnmi)

• Familiarity with deploying, testing and troubleshooting network features within Docker container & Kubernetes (K8s) clusters

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub, GitHub Actions, Jenkins) and DevOps best practices

• Familiarity with Hybrid cloud architecture, Hands-on experience with AWS networking services (VPC, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect etc.

• Explore, evaluate, and integrate AI/ML tools and Large Language Models (LLMs) to streamline certification processes, including automated test case generation, log anomaly detection, and predictive root-cause analysis for lab failures

• Relevant industry certifications (e.g., Cisco CCIE, Juniper JNCIE,AWS SA etc.) is a plus

The targeted pay range for this position in the following location is / locations are:

United States - Dallas Infomart Office DAI : 136,000 - 204,000 USD / Annual

Our pay ranges reflect the minimum and maximum target for new hire pay for the full-time position determined by role, level, and location.The pay range shown is based on our compensation structure in place at the time of posting and may be updated periodically based on business needs. Individual pay is based on additional factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education and/or training.

The targeted pay range listed reflects the base pay only and does not include bonus, equity, or benefits. Employees are eligible for bonus, and equity may be offered depending on the position.

Equinix Benefits

As an employee, you become important to Equinix's success. We ensure all your benefits are in line with our core values: competitive, inclusive, sustainable, connected and efficient. We keep them competitive within the current marketplace to ensure we're providing you with the best package possible. So, wherever you are in your career and life, you'll be able to enhance your experience and bring your whole self to work.

Employee Assistance Program: An Employee Assistance program is available to all employees.

Equinix is committed to ensuring that our employment process is open to all individuals, including those with a disability. If you are a qualified candidate and need assistance or an accommodation, please let us know by completing this form.

Equinix is an Equal Employment Opportunity and, in the U.S., an Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to unlawful consideration of race, color, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, place of birth, citizenship, sex, pregnancy / childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or domestic partnership status, age, veteran or military status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, political / organizational affiliation, status as a victim or family member of a victim of crime or abuse, or any other status protected by applicable law.

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