Network Deployment and Maintenance Lead - Data Center Operations

EngineersOfAI; Northern (KY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Anthropic seeks a Network Deployment and Maintenance Lead within Data Center Operations to ensure data hall networks are deployed, validated, and maintained across a growing fleet of partner-operated data centers.

You will lead on-site deployment and repair efforts, drive vendor coordination, and manage RMA, spares, and escalation paths to meet SLAs. This role requires extensive travel and field presence across sites.

Qualifications

• Experience deploying and maintaining data center networks at scale.
• Ability to travel 50%+ across sites.
• On-site leadership for network delivery and repair programs.

Responsibilities

• Own network deployment outcomes for assigned sites and data-hall waves.
• Engage from construction kickoff and confirm network readiness ahead of each wave.
• Be on site during key deployment phases: delivery, cabling, turn-up, QA, close-out.
• Validate handover gates for network builds: cabling, link validation, documentation, spares, tickets.

Skills

Network deployment

Project leadership

Vendor management

On-site experience

Data center operations

Travel readiness

Team coordination

Tools

Ticketing systems

Job description

About Anthropic

Anthropic’s mission is to create reliable, interpretable, and steerable AI systems. We want AI to be safe and beneficial for our users and for society as a whole. Our team is a quickly growing group of committed researchers, engineers, policy experts, and business leaders working together to build beneficial AI systems.

About the role

As a Network Deployment and Maintenance Lead within Anthropic's Data Center Operations (DCO) organization, you will ensure the network inside our data halls is brought online and kept healthy across a growing fleet of partner-operated data centers. The scope is the network within and between data halls: the cluster network, management, telemetry, accelerator chip back-end networks, aggregation layer(s), as well as the cabling, optics, and switching around them. On the deployment side, you are engaged during planning and construction, and will be on site during late-stage construction through network delivery and receiving, cabling, integration, turn-up, validation, and acceptance. You will be the on site lead for structured handover of network delivery into production operations. On the maintenance side, you drive the network repair program including: break-fix and ticket flow, vendor RMA, sparing policies, and the SLAs which operations partners execute against. Finally, some of this work touches core networks, where you will partner with Anthropics WAN/Core network team to support campus/DC core network deployment and maintenance activities.

This is a program and execution role. You will work with the Global Capacity Delivery Program Leads, the Repairs Program Leads, and the broader Data Center Operations organization to extend network coverage across more sites and platforms as the fleet grows. Expect 50%+ travel: you get eyes on the floor at each site during network delivery, turn-up, QA, and close-out, and at sites where repair performance needs attention. Your authority comes from being on site where you foster strong relationships with on site teams. Working with third party vendors and partners, you set direction, priorities, and standards for execution. Success is defined against Anthropic-owned ticket and telemetry data you’ve built rather than self-reported status. If you have deployed and maintained data center networks at scale, are passionate about hyperscale data centers, & enjoy working in complex, fast-paced environments, we welcome you to apply.

Responsibilities Include:

• Own network deployment outcomes for your assigned sites and data-hall waves: DCN, management, telemetry, Accelerator chip back-end networks, aggregation layer(s) turned up and accepted on schedule, with exceptions closed out, or risk called early enough for leadership to act.

• Engage from construction kickoff and confirm network readiness ahead of each wave: pathways and fiber trays, cabling and optics on hand, receiving paths, and partner staffing, working the gaps with the site operations partner and facilities counterparts before gear arrives.

• Be on site at key points during network delivery, cabling, turn-up, QA, and close-out; verify the work with your own eyes rather than from a dashboard, and support the on-site teams with your direct expertise.

• Validate the handover gate for each network build: cabling and link validation complete, acceptance criteria met, documentation delivered, spares positioned, ticketing live, and a structured handover into production operations and the repair program.

• Own the network repair program across the fleet: repair SLAs, prioritization, and escalation paths for switches, optics, and cabling, with turnaround time and backlog tracked in Anthropic-owned ticket and telemetry dashboards.

• Manage RMA and spares for network gear with vendors and site operations partners, including warranty claims, return cycle times, and spares levels by site and part, so that parts availability never gates a repair SLA.

• Lead the operating cadence with partner site leads, including weekly deployment and repair reviews and scorecards; analyze failure patterns and drive corrective actions with network engineering, suppliers, and the WAN/Core teams when the core network/MMR is involved.

• Turn lessons from each deployment and repair into program standards (procedures, checklists, acceptance criteria, and metrics), and communicate status, dependencies, an