Network Engineer

Cognition; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Cognition is seeking a Network Engineer in San Francisco to own the reliability, security, and evolution of our global office networks. You will design, deploy, and operate high-performance wired and wireless networks across multiple offices, with emphasis on scalability and security.

You’ll craft repeatable architectures and runbooks, monitor via telemetry, and automate with modern languages and IaC tools.

Qualifications

• Five+ years designing and operating enterprise or campus networks.
• Experience building networks in hypergrowth startups.
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience in a related field.

Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and operate high-performance wired and wireless networks across offices and campuses.
• Own network delivery for offices, expansions, and moves—including procurement and circuit turn-up.
• Create reference architectures, runbooks, and deployment playbooks for a growing global footprint.
• Monitor and observe network availability and performance using telemetry to detect degradation early.
• Develop scripts and tooling in Python, Go, or TypeScript to improve reliability.
• Apply IaC and CI/CD to automate network configuration and deployment.
• Use AI to improve network reliability, visibility, and engineering effectiveness.
• Implement identity-aware access and least-privilege admin, collaborating with Security.

Skills

Network design

Wireless RF

Routing protocols

TCP/IP

VPN / zero-trust

Automation scripting

IaC / CI/CD

Security controls

Vendor coordination

Observability

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/IT/Networks

Tools

NetBox

Terraform

Ansible

AWS/Azure/GCP networking

Job description

We are an applied AI lab building end-to-end software agents. We're the makers of Devin, the first AI software engineer. Our team is extremely talent-dense. Among our founding team, we have world-class competitive programmers, former founders, and leaders from companies at the cutting edge of AI including Scale AI, Palantir, Cursor, Waymo, Tesla, Lunchclub, Modal, Google DeepMind, and Nuro.

Building Devin is just the first step—our hardest challenges still lie ahead. If you’re excited to solve some of the world’s biggest problems and build AI that can reason on real-world tasks.

About The Role

We’re looking for a Network Engineer to own the reliability, security, and evolution of Cognition’s global office networks.

Strong candidates have operated networks in a hypergrowth startup and thrive amid rapid change, ambiguity, and high ownership. They will apply deep wireless and routing expertise and a builder mindset to deliver scalable wired, wireless, and cloud-connected networks, repeatable office infrastructure, and strong observability and automation. Working across internal teams, carriers, and partners, they will own outcomes end to end and continuously improve the network through stakeholder feedback and operational data.

This role is onsite five days a week. We value teamwork and in-person collaboration.

What you’ll do

Own scalable networks and office delivery

• Design, deploy, and operate high-performance wired and wireless networks across offices, branches, and large campus environments, including RF optimization and resilient architectures using technologies such as VLANs, LACP, OSPF, BGP, VRFs, QoS, and redundant internet and core paths.
• Own network delivery for offices, expansions, and moves—from procurement, circuit turn-up, and vendor coordination through cutover and handoff—and, as Cognition scales, build secure connectivity across offices, cloud infrastructure, and Devin environments using VPC peering, transit networking, IPsec, GRE, or SD-WAN.
• Create repeatable reference architectures, configuration and lifecycle standards, high-availability patterns, capacity models, inventories, diagrams, runbooks, and deployment playbooks for a growing global footprint.

Build observable and automated network operations

• Own network monitoring and observability across availability, performance, capacity, and employee experience, using telemetry and analytics to identify degradation before customers report it.
• Develop scripts, reusable tooling, and data pipelines in Python, Go, TypeScript, or another modern language to improve reliability and turn network data into actionable insight.
• Apply infrastructure-as-code, APIs, source control, and CI/CD to automate network configuration and deployment.
• Use Devin and AI to improve network reliability, building the skills, context, and runbooks needed for effective troubleshooting and automation.

Secure access and serve our stakeholders

• Implement secure, identity-aware network access, segmentation, certificate-based authentication, and least-privilege infrastructure administration.
• Partner with Security on firewalls, threat detection and prevention, secure remote access, and incident response.
• Troubleshoot systematically across the OSI model, using packet analysis and telemetry to isolate root causes across clients, RF, switching, routing, applications, and external providers.
• Build trusted relationships with stakeholders, listen to their experience, communicate clearly during incidents, and continuously improve rather than accepting that the network is “good enough.”

What we’re looking for

• 5+ years of hands-on experience designing, deploying, and operating enterprise or campus networks, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience building and operating networks in a hypergrowth startup, with a track record of thriving amid rapid change, ambiguity, and high ownership.
• A bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, network engineering, or a related discipline—or equivalent practical experience.
• Demonstrated depth in wireless RF engineering and enterprise switching and routing, including successful delivery of branch offices or large office environments.
• Strong knowledge of TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, Ethernet, Wi‑Fi, routing protocols, VPN and zero‑trust remote access technologies such as Cloudflare WARP, and structured troubleshooting across the OSI model.
• Experience designing for high availability, fault isolation, capacity, and scale across critical network services and connectivity paths.
• Experience with network performance monitoring, telemetry, alerting, and analytics, with a track record of using operational data to improve reliability or customer experience.
• Experience automating network operations with a modern programming or scripting language and applying APIs, infrastructure-as-code, Git, or CI/CD to configuration delivery.
• Working knowledge of network security and identity controls, including IEEE 802.1X, NAC, AAA, RBAC, segmentation, IDS/IPS, or related technologies.
• Experience coordinating carriers, contractors, and vendors while maintaining clear internal ownership of architecture, quality, documentation, and outcomes.
• Strong judgment, communication, and service orientation, with a track record of carrying ambiguous problems through design, implementation, and ongoing operation.

An ideal candidate will bring

• Ownership: Treats reliability and customer experience as personal responsibilities, drives ambiguous work through completion, and remains accountable across team and vendor boundaries.
• Customer focus: Seeks direct feedback, translates user experience into technical improvements, and recognizes that a technically operational network may still be failing its customers.
• Builder mindset: Solves immediate issues while improving architecture, automation, observability, documentation, and operating practices to prevent recurrence.
• Curiosity: Continually tests assumptions, learns new technologies, and explores practical ways to use AI to improve network reliability, visibility, and engineering effectiveness.

Bonus points

• High-density wireless, modern Wi‑Fi, or large multi-site campuses.
• IaaS cloud networking in AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure.
• Advanced routing, SD‑WAN, SASE, or hybrid-cloud connectivity.
• Network telemetry and analytics using NetFlow/IPFIX, gNMI, or similar tools.
• Automation using NetBox, Ansible, Terraform, or similar platforms.
• Applying AI or AIOps to reliability, capacity planning, or incident response.
• CCNP Enterprise, CWNP, or equivalent demonstrated technical depth.

Equal Opportunity

Cognition is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other protected characteristic under applicable law. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities throughout the hiring process - please let us know if you need any.