Network Engineer

Kaav Inc; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Kaav Inc in Austin, TX is seeking a senior network systems engineer to design and operate lab fabrics spanning global accelerator validation labs. You will own L2/L3 at depth, BGP peering, EVPN/VXLAN overlays, and precision timing while ensuring reliability across datacenter fabrics and optical infrastructure.

The role emphasizes automation, Linux networking, Python, Jinja2 templating, config-as-code, and multi-vendor operations (Arista, Cisco, Juniper, SONiC).

Qualifications

• L2/L3 at depth including VLANs, DHCP relay, IPv4/IPv6 addressing and RA/RS handling.
• BGP peering design, prefix policy and route origination control.
• Datacenter fabrics with EVPN/VXLAN overlays and L2/L3 boundary planning.
• IPv6 operations, first-hop security and DHCPv6 relay considerations.
• PTP timing design and troubleshooting with microsecond budgets.
• Fabrics for AI/HPC with lossless Ethernet tuning and skew management.
• Optical and physical plant concepts including fiber validation.
• Access security with 802.1X, RADIUS, and onboarding workflows.
• Multi-vendor NOS fluency and API-driven operations with rollback.
• Troubleshooting under pressure, packet analysis, and change control.

Responsibilities

• Lab and datacenter operations: on-call rotations, incident response, break/fix prioritization.
• Cost awareness: track circuit inventories and pursue chargeback optimization.
• Cross-functional delivery with platform teams for provisioning and observability.
• Lead method of procedure authorship, peer reviews, and risk-managed rollout.

Skills

L2/L3

BGP

Datacenter fabrics

EVPN/VXLAN

IPv6

PTP timing

Optical fiber

Access security

NOS fluency

Troubleshooting

Python

Jinja2

Config as code

Linux networking

Inventory hygiene

Lab ops

On-call

Change management

Cost awareness

Cross-functional delivery

Tools

Arista EOS

Cisco IOS

Juniper Junos

SONiC

EVPN/VXLAN tooling

Job description

You support the networks inside hardware validation labs around the world: the datacenter fabrics, timing, optical, and provisioning systems that let accelerator teams validate new platforms from first bring-up through production handoff. L2/L3 lab fabric design, precision timing as a service, intent based provisioning and automation, optical plus test infrastructure, lab operations and reliability, and cost takeout through decommissioning.

Required:

• L2/L3 at depth: VLANs, loop prevention, LAG, IPv4/IPv6 addressing, SLAAC and router advertisements, DHCP relay and helpers, PXE boot flows end to end.
• BGP: eBGP peering design, prefix policy, uplink preference tuning, per-rack or per-site route origination toward the border and aggregation layer.
• Datacenter fabrics: leaf/spine role design, EVPN/VXLAN overlays, migrating racks from L2 bridged to L3 routed boundaries.
• IPv6 operations: first-hop security (RA guard, address locking), DHCPv6 relay and MAC-stable allocation behavior including client identifier pitfalls, /64 per rack scale planning and fabric design
• Precision timing: PTP (IEEE 1588) design and troubleshooting, grandmaster placement, boundary and transparent clock concepts, sync quality monitoring against microsecond budgets.
• Fabrics for AI/HPC: PFC and lossless Ethernet tuning, link training, SerDes and optics basics (current generation high speed optics), awareness of how skew and tail latency hit collective communication.
• Optical and physical plant: fiber types and connectors, optical circuit switching concepts, commercial traffic generators, cable validation, fiber characterization from hardware timestamps.
• Access security: port ACLs, 802.1X/MAB flows, RADIUS, quarantine and remediation VLANs, device onboarding and registration.
• Multi-vendor fluency: deep on at least one datacenter NOS (Arista, Cisco, Juniper, SONiC) with demonstrated ability to pick up others, including API driven operation with rollback.
• Troubleshooting under pressure: packet level debugging, hardware timestamp analysis, method of procedure authorship, maintenance windows, rollback planning.

Required: Automation and software

• Python for network automation: device APIs, text templating, input validation, operator CLI tooling.
• Templating: Jinja2 template design (reuse across sites and roles, safe defaults, per-port rendering from inventory).
• Config as code: distributed revision control fluency (branch, review, land, revert), config review culture, CI gates on generated config (diff review, automated land criteria).
• Intent modeling: declarative source of truth thinking where inventory plus intent renders device config, and generated config is never hand edited.
• Linux networking: interfaces, routing tables, namespaces, capture tooling, service management, cookbook style config management (chef).
• Data hygiene: inventory accuracy (roles, port maps, serial to port bindings), drift detection, reconciliation loops.

Required: Operations and Delivery

• Lab or datacenter operations: on-call rotations, incident response, break/fix prioritization, vendor RMAs, multi-site coordination.
• Change discipline: method of procedure authorship and peer review, blast radius control, pilot then scale.
• Cost awareness: circuit inventories, carrier coordination for turn-down, tracking recurring spend to zero with chargeback confirmation.
• Cross-functional delivery: shared ownership with platform teams (provisioning, observability), hardware bring-up teams, and lab customers, including consultative support outside the plan of record.