Principal Network Engineer

Socket.dev; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 270,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Competitive base package

Career growth opportunities

Job summary

Nscale is seeking a Principal Network Engineer – AI Infrastructure to own the reliability, scalability, and long-term evolution of AI interconnect networks. You will shape architecture, standards, and operational practices for Infiniband and RoCE fabrics across the platform.

You will mentor engineers, lead complex investigations, and drive measurable improvements in uptime and latency while partnering with SRE and compute teams to optimize end-to-end design.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in network engineering with HPC/AI focus
• Expert-level experience with Infiniband and large-scale RoCE fabrics
• Deep RDMA internals, congestion management knowledge
• Strong routing knowledge: BGP, OSPF, ECMP
• Ability to debug cross-layer issues across hardware, firmware, kernel, libraries
• Proven cross-team leadership without direct authority
• Systems-level mindset balancing performance, reliability, scalability, cost

Responsibilities

• Own the technical direction and operational strategy for AI interconnect networks
• Design and evolve Infiniband and RoCE fabric architectures for scale
• Lead escalation on complex network incidents and drive fixes
• Drive cross-team initiatives to improve fabric reliability and latency
• Define standards for hardware configuration, routing, firmware lifecycle, change safety
• Partner with SRE, Compute Platform, and Network Architecture to influence designs
• Mentor senior and mid-level network engineers
• Improve uptime, latency consistency, capacity efficiency, and incident reduction

Skills

HPC networking

AI infrastructure

RoCE fabric design

RDMA internals

BGP/OSPF/ECMP

Cross-team leadership

Systems thinking

Tools

NVIDIA Mellanox networking platforms

Job description

About Nscale

Nscale is the GPU cloud engineered for AI. We provide cost-effective, high-performance infrastructure for AI start-ups and large enterprise customers. Nscale enables AI-focused companies to achieve superior results by reducing the complexity of AI development. Our GPU cloud bolsters technical capabilities and directly supports strategic business outcomes, including cost management, rapid innovation, and environmental responsibility.

We thrive on a culture of relentless innovation, ownership, and accountability, where every team member takes pride in their work and drives it with excellence and urgency. As an Nscaler, you’ll build trust through openness and transparency, where everyone is inspired to do their best work. If you join our team, you’ll be contributing to building the technology that powers the future.

About The Role

The Network Operations and Engineering teams at Nscale operate some of the most demanding networking environments in the industry, supporting tightly coupled GPU clusters where network performance directly impacts customer outcomes.

We’re looking for a Principal Network Engineer – AI Infrastructure to provide technical leadership across Nscale’s high-speed networking domain.

This role is focused on owning the reliability, scalability, and long-term evolution of our Infiniband and RDMA-based network fabrics. You will operate as a technical authority, influencing architecture, standards, and operational practices across teams while tackling the most complex network challenges in the platform.

What You'll Be Doing

• Owning the technical direction and operational strategy for Nscale’s AI interconnect networks
• Designing, reviewing, and evolving large-scale Infiniband and RoCE fabric architectures to support future growth and workload demands
• Acting as the senior escalation point for the most complex network incidents, guiding deep technical investigations and systemic fixes
• Driving cross-team initiatives to improve fabric reliability, performance predictability, and operational maturity
• Defining standards for hardware configuration, congestion control, routing, firmware lifecycle management, and change safety
• Partnering with SRE, Compute Platform, and Network Architecture teams to influence end-to-end system design
• Mentoring senior and mid-level network engineers, raising the bar for operational rigor and technical excellence
• Driving measurable improvements in uptime, latency consistency, capacity efficiency, and incident reduction

About You (Skills / Qualifications)

• 10+ years of experience in network engineering, with deep focus on HPC, AI, or hyperscale data centre networking
• Expert-level operational and architectural experience with Infiniband and/or large-scale RoCE fabrics
• Deep understanding of RDMA internals, congestion management, and fabric-level failure modes
• Strong expertise in modern data centre routing and control planes (BGP, OSPF, ECMP)
• Proven ability to debug and resolve cross-layer issues spanning hardware, firmware, kernel, and application communication libraries
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical initiatives across teams without direct authority
• A systems-level mindset, balancing performance, reliability, scalability, and operational cost

Nice to Have

• Extensive experience with NVIDIA/Mellanox networking platforms in production AI or HPC environments
• Deep familiarity with distributed training frameworks and GPU communication patterns
• Experience designing network observability systems for high-cardinality, high-throughput environments
• Prior experience influencing platform or infrastructure strategy at scale

  What We Can Offer You

  At Nscale, you'll find a collaborative, supportive, and innovative environment where your contributions spark real impact. We're building something extraordinary, and we want you at the core.

  • Highly competitive package (base + equity) with reviews every 12 months.
  • Join the fastest-growing tech startup, your chance to push boundaries, collaborate with brilliant minds, and make your mark on cutting-edge AI.
  • Expect a dynamic progression plan tailored to your ambitions. Grow by trying new things, leading, challenging the status quo, and owning your impact, always with our full support.

  Equal Opportunities Statement

  We strongly encourage applications from people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, parents, carers, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

  If there’s anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation, please let us know.

  The responsibilities outlined in this job description are not exhaustive and are intended to provide a general overview of the position. The employee may be required to perform additional duties, tasks, and responsibilities as assigned by management, consistent with the skills and qualifications required for the role.

  For information on how Nscale handles candidate personal data, please see our Employee & Candidate Privacy Notice: Here.