Principal Engineer

VeriSign, Inc.; Reston, Northern (VA, KY); Hybrid; USD 181,000 - 245,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discretionary bonus

Stock awards

Hybrid work schedule

Job summary

Verisign in Reston, VA is seeking a Principal Engineer to lead the global interconnection strategy, peering programs, and IP transit optimization. You will negotiate with ISPs, cloud providers, and IX operators to improve connectivity, reduce costs, and increase resiliency across our global network.

The role requires deep networking expertise, executive engagement, and a track record of managing large-scale interconnection initiatives.

Qualifications

• 15+ years related engineering experience.
• 7+ years of Internet networking experience.
• 5+ years of peering, transit, or interconnection experience.
• Experience managing relationships with ISPs, carriers, cloud providers, and IX operators.
• Proven experience negotiating peering and transit agreements.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the global peering and interconnection strategy.
• Identify opportunities to expand peering relationships and optimize transit utilization.
• Drive network growth through strategic partnerships with ISPs, cloud providers, content networks, CDNs, carriers, and hyperscalers.
• Evaluate IX opportunities and regional expansion initiatives.

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Telecommunications, or related field

Tools

AWS Direct Connect

Equinix Fabric

Megaport

Job description

Verisign helps enable the security, stability, and resiliency of the internet. We are a trusted provider of internet infrastructure services for the networked world and deliver unmatched performance in domain name system (DNS) services.

We are a mission focused, values driven company where each individual can contribute to building a stronger, more secure internet. We offer a dynamic and flexible work environment with competitive benefits and the ability to grow your career.

The Principal Engineer is responsible for developing, managing, and optimizing the organization’s global Internet interconnection strategy. This role oversees settlement-free peering, paid peering, IP transit, Internet Exchange (IX) participation, traffic engineering, routing policy, and strategic relationships with network operators, content providers, cloud providers, carriers, and Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).

The ideal candidate possesses strong technical networking expertise, business negotiation skills, and industry engagement experience to improve network performance, reduce transit costs, increase resiliency, and support the company’s global connectivity objectives.

Responsibilities

• Develop and execute the global peering and interconnection strategy
• Identify opportunities to expand peering relationships and optimize transit utilization
• Drive network growth through strategic partnerships with ISPs, cloud providers, content networks, CDNs, carriers, and hyperscalers
• Evaluate new IX opportunities and regional expansion initiatives
• Establish KPIs for traffic offload, cost reduction, latency improvements, and resiliency
• Negotiate and manage: Settlement-Free Peering
• Bilateral Peering
• Public Peering
• Maintain peering policies and qualification requirements
• Manage relationships through: IX communities
• Industry forums
• Network operator groups
• Coordinate onboarding and operational support for new peers
• Resolve peering disputes, routing issues, and traffic imbalances

Internet Exchange (IX) Operations

• Manage participation across global Internet Exchanges
• Evaluate IX performance and ROI
• Coordinate provisioning of: Cross-connects
• Develop business cases for new IX expansion
• Maintain relationships with IX operators and executive leadership

IP Transit Management

• Manage global transit providers and carrier relationships
• Conduct transit capacity planning
• Negotiate contracts and pricing
• Evaluate transit performance and redundancy requirements
• Develop strategies to reduce transit costs through increased peering
• Monitor traffic shifts between transit and peering environments

Routing & Traffic Engineering

• Define and maintain routing policies
• Optimize traffic flows across: Transit
• IX fabrics
• Private interconnections
• Manage traffic engineering initiatives using: BGP communities
• Local Preference
• MED
• AS Path Prepending
• Analyze traffic patterns and forecast growth
• Improve latency, packet loss, and path optimization

Industry Engagement

• Represent the company at: NANOG
• RIPE
• APRICOT
• LACNIC
• ARIN
• APNIC
• Build executive-level relationships across the Internet ecosystem
• Participate in policy discussions and industry working groups
• Monitor industry trends affecting interconnection and Internet governance

Cross-Functional Leaderships

• Partner with: Infrastructure Operations
• Security
• Product Management
• Legal
• Procurement
• Finance
• Develop executive reporting and dashboards
• Present interconnection strategy and performance metrics to senior leadership

Required Technical Expertise

Routing Protocols

• BGP-4 (Border Gateway Protocol)
• eBGP
• iBGP
• Route Reflectors
• Confederations
• BGP Communities
• Large Communities
• Flowspec

Core Internet Protocols

• IPv4
• IPv6
• ICMP
• TCP/IP
• UDP
• MPLS

Routing Technologies

• OSPF
• IS-IS
• Segment Routing
• EVPN
• VXLAN

Internet Infrastructure

• Internet Exchanges (IX)
• Route Servers
• Route Collectors
• DNS Infrastructure
• Content Delivery Networks

Routing Security

• RPKI
• ROA Validation
• ASPA
• BGPsec
• MANRS
• IRR Databases
• Route Filtering
• Prefix Filtering

Monitoring & Analytics

• NetFlow
• sFlow
• IPFIX
• SNMP
• Telemetry
• Traffic Analytics Platforms
• Capacity Planning Tools
• AWS Direct Connect
• Oracle FastConnect
• Equinix Fabric
• Megaport

Business & Commercial Responsibilities

• Peering negotiations
• Capacity planning and budgeting
• SLA management
• Risk assessment and mitigation
• Executive reporting and forecasting

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Telecommunications, or related field
• 15+ years related engineering experience
• 7+ years of Internet networking experience
• 5+ years of peering, transit, or interconnection experience
• Experience managing relationships with ISPs, carriers, cloud providers, and IX operators
• Proven experience negotiating peering and transit agreements

Preferred Certifications

• CCNP Service Provider
• CCIE Service Provider
• JNCIP-SP
• JNCIE-SP
• AWS Advanced Networking Specialty
• MANRS Certification Knowledge
• RPKI Deployment Experience

This position is based in our Reston, VA office and offers a hybrid work schedule.

The pay range is $180,700 - $244,500.

The anticipated annual base salary range for this position is noted above, however, base pay offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience. Verisign offers a discretionary bonus which is based on individual and company performance, and certain roles may be eligible for discretionary stock awards.

Verisign is an equal opportunity employer. That means we recruit, hire, compensate, train, promote, transfer, and administer all terms and conditions of employment without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, protected veteran status, disability, or other protected categories under applicable law.