Senior Network Software Engineer

Internet2 is a nonprofit technology community that operates a national research and education network and provides infrastructure, trust and identity, cloud, and research services. The Senior Network Software Engineer will develop network service automation, platform integrations, CI/CD pipelines, and infrastructure-as-code tooling while collaborating with network engineers and supporting operational reliability.

Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain network service automation packages and workflows using Python and related tooling, including service lifecycle management, collaborating with network engineers across multi-vendor environments
• Collaborate with ISS team members on Periscope and related platform initiatives, and with Network Services team members on infrastructure services that leverage the NSO automation framework, contributing to service design reviews, technical roadmaps, capability planning, documentation, and community presentations
• Build and maintain automation tooling, scripts, and CI/CD pipelines using Python, Docker, and Kubernetes to support infrastructure-as-code practices across network service delivery
• Contribute to platform engineering efforts including containerization (Docker/Kubernetes), API development, and integration of automation systems with orchestration and monitoring platforms
• Support operational activities including on-call rotation, incident response, root cause analysis, and continuous improvement of network reliability and automated service delivery
• Other duties as assigned

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical field, or equivalent professional experience
• 5+ years of progressive experience in software engineering, platform engineering, network automation, or equivalent experience, with demonstrated focus on building production-grade systems
• 2+ years of Python as a primary development language
• Hands-on work with CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar tools)
• Familiarity with containerization and orchestration platforms, particularly Kubernetes and Docker, in a production or near-production context
• Experience with version control (Git) and collaborative software development practices including code review, branching strategies, and documentation
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey complex technical concepts to both engineering and executive audiences
• Must be able to work in a remote environment and support a team distributed across multiple time zones
• Domestic travel 2-4 times per year
• A cover letter must be attached
• Experience with Cisco NSO or similar network orchestration platforms, including service package development or workflow automation
• Experience with Workflow Orchestrator (WFO) or comparable workflow automation platforms
• Experience with the Trusted Infrastructure Program
• Meaningful exposure to networking concepts and protocols, sufficient to collaborate effectively with network engineers and understand service delivery requirements. Working knowledge of BGP, MPLS, IP routing, or related technologies is a strong asset
• Background in a research and education (R&E) network environment, Internet exchange, large-scale carrier, or ISP context
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools such as Ansible, Terraform, Salt, or equivalent
• Knowledge of optical networking and multi-layer service provisioning concepts
• Experience with observability and monitoring toolchains such as Prometheus, Grafana, InfluxDB, or Elastic Stack in a network context
• Relevant certifications such as Cisco DevNet Professional, CCNP/CCIE, CKA/CKAD, or equivalent
• Experience contributing to or maintaining open-source automation tooling or technical publications