Role Type: Contract
Work Model: Middletown, NJ
The Senior Platform Network Architect/Engineer leads the architecture, detailed design, and hands-on infrastructure engineering for a global, multi-tenant cloud platform hosting virtualized network services. This role drives platform enhancements across geographically distributed colocation POPs (Equinix), high-speed leaf/spine fabrics (up to 400G), and parallel platform builds with zero tenant contention.
Infrastructure & Platform Design: Architect resilient platform infrastructure using Dell servers, Red Hat OpenStack, Red Hat OpenShift, and leaf/spine backplanes; enforce strict multi-tenant compute isolation (zero vCPU thread sharing).
VNF & CNF Engineering: Deploy, configure, and manage Virtualized Network Functions (routers, firewalls, SBCs) and Containerized Network Functions (Kubernetes/OpenShift) at scale.
Connectivity & Resiliency: Design redundant WAN access, out-of-band jump host management, carrier cross-connects (Zayo, Windstream, etc.), and high-speed interfaces (100G/400G, VXLAN overlays).
Parallel Build & Migration: Execute parallel environment builds, cross-connect interconnects, and compute repurposing strategies for platform transitions.
Hardening & Tier-4 Escalation: Implement security hardening aligned with enterprise accreditation baselines; author HLD/LLD runbooks; act as Tier-4 escalation for critical platform reachability issues.
8–12+ years of hands-on platform and network engineering experience across large-scale, multi-site enterprise or carrier environments.
Hands-on infrastructure layer experience in Red Hat OpenStack or Red Hat OpenShift hosting VNFs or CNFs (ideally both).
Demonstrated background in data center leaf/spine architecture and high-speed network interfaces (100G/400G).
Strong experience in redundant WAN routing, secure jump host management, and carrier transit/cross-connects.
Working knowledge of in-memory data stores (e.g., Redis) and container network orchestration (CNI, SR-IOV).
Proven ability to write end-to-end HLD/LLD artifacts and operational documentation.
Hands-on experience with SONiC Network Operating System fabrics.
Operational experience in Equinix colocation POPs and Equinix Fabric.
Working knowledge of AI/GPU cluster infrastructure connectivity and traffic patterns.