Distinguished Engineer – Data Center Networking & AI Switch Architect

Nokia; Ottawa; On-site; CAD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading telecommunications company in Ottawa is seeking a Distinguished Engineer to lead the strategy and architecture of next-generation networking solutions for the AI era. You will focus on creating high-performance and secure system solutions for AI workloads in data centers. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in HPC, routing architectures, and software/hardware co-design. This role demands visionary leadership and collaboration across R&D and the broader research community.

Qualifications

• Experience in software and hardware co-design for networking solutions.
• Demonstrated leadership across organizations and boundaries.
• Proven technical leadership in open-source communities.

Responsibilities

• Architect and design future generations of switches and networking platforms for AI.
• Collaborate to define strategic technology direction for networking solutions.
• Lead strategic direction in scalable and reliable networking.
• Analyze trends to provide product strategy for AI-centric networking.
• Engage with communities to drive industry solutions and standards.
• Benchmark and optimize HPC and AI application performance.

Skills

High availability designs

L2/L3 switching and routing system architectures

AI workload management

HPC

Technical leadership

Education

Graduate-level education in Engineering / Computer Science

Job description

Reporting directly to the CTO office, the Distinguished Engineer will lead the strategy and architecture of next-generation switches and networking solutions required for the artificial intelligence (AI) era. This role focuses on enabling high-performance, scalable, secure and reliable system solutions for both AI training and inferencing workloads in data centers and at the network edge. The position requires deep technical expertise in data center networking, HPC, and network security, switch/routing architecture as well as visionary leadership in software/hardware design and or co-design

Qualifications

Graduate-level education in Engineering / Computer Science is preferred, although not required

• Experienced in the field of HPC, AI workload management, High availability designs, L2/L3 switching and routing system architectures
• Demonstrated leadership across organizations and boundaries
• Proven technical leadership in open-source communities and standardization organizations.
• Experience in software and hardware co-design for networking solutions.

Responsibilities

• Architect and design future generations of switches and networking platforms to support AI training and inferencing in data centers and in networks.
• Collaborate with different business groups, R&D, research community to define strategic technology direction and innovation priorities for AI-driven networking solutions.
• Lead strategic direction in scalable, efficient, and reliable networking, including SDN, network verification, topology/routing/flow control, load balancing, scheduling, and congestion control.
• Analyze technical trends and competitive landscape to provide product and solution strategy / direction for AI-centric networking.
• Engage with open-source communities and standardization organizations (e.g., UEC, OpenDayLight) to drive industry-leading solutions and standards.
• Benchmark, evaluate, and optimize HPC and AI application performance.