Backbone and Peering Architect

NMC2; Dallas, Northern (TX, KY); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lunch stipend via GrubHub

Employer-Paid Medical, Dental, Vision

Paid Parental Leave (16 weeks)

401(k) match up to 6%

Job summary

NorthMark Compute & Cloud (NMC²) seeks a Backbone & Peering Network Architect to own the design of its HPC data center backbone, WAN connectivity, cloud service provider on-ramps, and customer peering. You will drive standards for multi-tenant security, routing, and telemetry, aligning with capacity forecasts and business growth.

The role requires deep expertise in data center fabrics, WAN/interconnect strategies, and high-bandwidth HPC workloads, with strong documentation and leadership skills

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent.
• 7+ years of experience in large-scale data center network design or architecture.
• Deep expertise in data center fabrics (leaf-spine, Clos, EVPN, VXLAN).
• Experience with WAN, peering, and interconnect strategies.
• Familiarity with HPC workloads and high-bandwidth, low-latency requirements.
• Strong documentation and stakeholder communication skills.
• Experience with hyperscale or GPU-accelerated environments, supporting AI/ML workloads, infrastructure monitoring, or simulation models.
• Strong communicator with leadership and project management experience.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture of the data center backbone interconnect (DCI), ensuring scalability, redundancy, and performance.
• Design and publish reference architectures for WAN connectivity, cloud service provider interconnects, and backbone extensions.
• Define architectural standards for routing, traffic engineering, failover, and telemetry across backbone networks.
• Align backbone design with capacity planning forecasts and long-term business growth.
• Collaborate with Solutions Architects to align network design with workload patterns.
• Ensure network security, compliance, and observability are embedded in architecture.
• Develop multi-tenant secure networking patterns to support customer isolation and SLA adherence.
• Contribute to digital twin models with network capacity and topology simulations.

Skills

Network architecture

WAN/interconnect design

HPC workloads

Documentation

Leadership & PM

Education

Bachelors/Masters in CS/EE

Tools

EVPN

VXLAN

Data center fabrics

Job description

NorthMark Compute & Cloud (NMC²)is backed by dedicated leadership and investment, with a clear mission as it operates at the bleeding edge of technology. Its goal is to scale and enhance the high-performance computing (HPC) and cloud infrastructure that supports its clients' research, production, and delivery, enabling breakthroughs that shape the industries of tomorrow. Its engineers build critical infrastructure to eliminate friction in scientific research, simulations, analysis, and decision-making, accelerating discovery and driving faster innovation.

The Position

We are seeking an experienced Backbone & Peering Network Architect to own the design and reference architecture of our HPC data center backbone, WAN connectivity, cloud service provider on-ramps, and customer peering. This role is critical to ensuring that our HPC facility delivers secure, scalable, and reliable connectivity at scale.

The ideal candidate will bring expertise in carrier networking, peering ecosystems, and multi-tenant network security, and will be responsible for defining the standards and architectures that ensure our backbone supports business growth, customer demand, and evolving digital services.

Responsibilities

Own the architecture of the data center backbone interconnect (DCI), ensuring scalability, redundancy, and performance

Design and publish reference architectures for WAN connectivity, cloud service provider interconnects, and backbone extensions

Define architectural standards for routing, traffic engineering, failover, and telemetry across backbone networks

Align backbone design with capacity planning forecasts and long-term business growth

Collaborate with Solutions Architects to align network design with workload patterns.

Ensure network security, compliance, and observability are embedded in architecture.

Develop multi-tenant secure networking patterns to support customer isolation and SLA adherence

Contribute to digital twin models with network capacity and topology simulations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent.

7+ years of experience in large-scale data center network design or architecture.

Deep expertise in data center fabrics (leaf-spine, Clos, EVPN, VXLAN).

Experience with WAN, peering, and interconnect strategies.

Familiarity with HPC workloads and high-bandwidth, low-latency requirements.

Strong documentation and stakeholder communication skills.

Experience with hyperscale or GPU-accelerated environments, supporting AI/ML workloads, infrastructure monitoring, or simulation models.

Strong communicator with leadership and project management experience.

It is impossible to list every requirement for, or responsibility of, any position. Similarly, we cannot identify all the skills a position may require since job responsibilities and the Company’s needs may change over time. Therefore, the above job description is not comprehensive or exhaustive. The Company reserves the right to adjust, add to or eliminate any aspect of the above description. The Company also retains the right to require all employees to undertake additional or different job responsibilities when necessary to meet business needs.

Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future.

Company-Paid Lunch Stipend

Lunch is provided via GrubHub

Company-Paid Benefits:

100% Employer-Paid Medical in our High Deductible Health Plan, Dental and Vision benefits for employees and their families, 16 weeks of Paid Parental Leave, Employee Assistance Program, Life insurance, Short-Term Disability and Long-Term Disability

401(k):

Company will match 100% of your contributions up to 6%

Optional Employee-Paid Benefits:

Medical insurance in our PPO plan and a variety of other benefits such as Health Savings Accounts (with Company Contribution!), Flexible Spending Accounts, Supplemental Life Insurance, Wellhub and more.

Time Off:

25 days of Paid Time Off plus 12 company holidays

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