Principal Network Engineer (Transport Engineering)

MKS Instruments, Inc.; Northern (KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) with company match

Life and disability insurance

12 paid holidays

15 paid vacation days

6 weeks parental leave

Tuition reimbursement

Job summary

MKS Instruments, Inc. seeks a Principal Network Engineer to lead global transport engineering strategy, standards, and architecture for enterprise WAN, internet, cloud, and inter-site connectivity.

You will define circuit ordering, carrier diversity, and redundancy requirements while ensuring robust testing and lifecycle governance across the organization. You will collaborate with carriers, sourcing, facilities, security, cloud, and infrastructure teams to deliver reliable global connectivity

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in IT/CS/Engineering/Telecom or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of progressive experience in transport engineering, telecom, or circuit lifecycle management.
• Deep experience with DIA, MPLS, Ethernet, broadband, wavelength services, cross-connects, cloud on-ramps, and private connectivity.
• Strong understanding of carrier ordering processes, LOA/CFA workflows, demarcation, circuit acceptance, and provider escalation.
• Advanced troubleshooting for transport-layer issues including latency, jitter, packet loss, and failover behavior.
• Experience with WAN routing concepts and enterprise connectivity design for transport services.

Responsibilities

• Lead global transport engineering strategy, standards, and architecture for enterprise WAN and inter-site connectivity.
• Define and enforce carrier diversity, redundancy, and service delivery milestones.
• Develop testing standards and acceptance criteria for circuits and resiliency checks.
• Provide technical oversight across lifecycle from design to decommissioning and handoff.

Skills

8+ years exp

Circuit diversity & transport

Carrier ordering & LOA workflows

Redundancy & path diversity

Test plans & resiliency

Lifecycle management oversight

Cross-team collaboration

Documentation standards

Escalation lead

Education

Bachelor’s degree (IT/CS/Engineering/Telecom)

Tools

DIA

MPLS

Ethernet

Broadband

Wavelength services

Cross-connects

Cloud on-ramps

Private connectivity

Job description

## Principal Network Engineer (Transport Engineering)Apply: United States of America: Full time: Posted Yesterday: R21856**A Day in Your Life at MKS:**As a Principal Network Engineer at MKS Inc, you will serve as a global technical leader for transport engineering, circuit architecture, carrier connectivity, and transport standards across the enterprise. In this role, you will define and govern standards for circuit ordering, carrier diversity, path redundancy, WAN resilience, acceptance testing, and ongoing validation to ensure reliable, scalable, and operationally resilient network connectivity across global operations. You will report to the Senior Manager, Network Engineering.**You Will Make an Impact By:*** Leading global transport engineering strategy, standards, and architecture for enterprise WAN, internet, cloud, and inter-site connectivity* Owning standards for circuit ordering, carrier selection, bandwidth sizing, service types, demarcation requirements, and handoff expectations* Defining and enforcing carrier diversity, last-mile diversity, POP diversity, path diversity, and redundancy requirements for critical sites and services* Developing transport testing standards, including circuit acceptance testing, failover validation, redundancy testing, performance baselining, and recurring resiliency checks* Providing technical oversight for circuit lifecycle management from business requirements and design through ordering, implementation, turn-up, documentation, support, and decommissioning* Partnering with carriers, managed service providers, sourcing, facilities, security, cloud, and infrastructure teams to deliver reliable global connectivity solutions* Driving standardization of transport documentation, topology diagrams, circuit inventories, escalation paths, and operational handoff requirements* Serving as a senior escalation point for complex transport, carrier, routing, latency, packet loss, diversity, and resiliency issues* Travel Requirements: Up to 10% of travel may be required to support critical site deployments, carrier turn-ups, and transport resiliency reviews**Skills You Bring:*** Bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Engineering, Telecommunications, or equivalent practical experience* 8+ years of progressive experience in transport engineering, telecommunications, carrier connectivity, WAN services, or circuit lifecycle management* Deep experience with circuit technologies such as DIA, MPLS, Ethernet, broadband, wavelength services, cross-connects, cloud on-ramps, and private connectivity* Strong understanding of carrier ordering processes, service delivery milestones, LOA/CFA workflows, demarcation coordination, circuit acceptance, and provider escalation models* Expertise in designing resilient transport solutions using diverse carriers, diverse physical paths, redundant access models, and validated failover requirements* Experience developing engineering standards, implementation templates, test plans, acceptance criteria, operational runbooks, and lifecycle management processes* Advanced troubleshooting skills for transport-layer issues including latency, jitter, packet loss, asymmetric routing, MTU, carrier handoff, and failover behavior* Working knowledge of WAN routing concepts, carrier handoffs, redundancy models, QoS considerations, and enterprise connectivity design as they relate to transport services* Ability to influence technical direction, mentor engineers, lead design reviews, and drive alignment across global infrastructure and operations teams* Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to translate technical transport requirements into business risk, resiliency, and cost considerations**Preferred Skills: (Optional)*** Experience with global transport transformation, carrier migrations, circuit refresh programs, SD-WAN underlay readiness, and WAN service modernization initiatives* Experience supporting transport requirements for cloud connectivity solutions such as AWS Direct Connect, Azure ExpressRoute, private cloud interconnects, and internet egress design* Experience managing global carriers, telecom vendors, managed network providers, and escalation processes for critical circuit and transport issues* Familiarity with circuit inventory management, cost optimization, contract lifecycle awareness, decommission tracking, and telecom expense management processes* Experience with monitoring and performance tools used to validate circuit availability, utilization, latency, jitter, packet loss, route stability, and failover performance* Relevant certifications or training in telecommunications, carrier Ethernet, MEF, cloud connectivity, WAN services, or equivalent transport engineering disciplines**Supervisory Scope: (Optional)*** Reporting Relationships: Individual contributor role with no direct reports; expected to provide technical leadership, mentorship, and architectural guidance across engineering and operations teams* Financial Responsibilities: Provides technical input into circuit ordering, carrier selection, cost optimization, lifecycle planning, and budgetary recommendations for transport services**Physical Demands and Working Conditions:*** Perform activities such as sitting, standing, or typing for extended periods of time* Experience maintaining and supporting network infrastructure in a 24/7, On-Call model* Must be able to communicate information and ideas so others will understand* Must be able to exchange accurate information* Operates in a professional office environment* Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity machineryIn addition to the above responsibilities, the following are considered material job duties of the position: * Ability to take and follow directions and instructions.* Ability to interact with other employees, customers, suppliers, vendors, or the public, in a safe, professional, and respectful manner.* Access to sensitive and confidential business systems and software, personally identifying information, the company’s financial information, and/or the ability to maintain physical security and safety.* Because this position involves the above material job duties, trustworthiness, reliability, and good judgment also are material job duties. MKS will consider qualified applicants with a criminal history pursuant to the California Fair Chance Act and the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers. MKS is an equal opportunity employer, including disability, veteran status and all categories protected by law. Please review our EOE statements for additional details. MKS is generally only hiring candidates who reside in states where we are registered to do business. **Compensation and Benefits:****Salary Pay Range**: $120,000.00 - 170,000.00 per year. This range is a good faith estimate of the expected salary range for this position, based on a wide range of factors including qualifications, experience and training, operational and business needs and other considerations permitted by law.**Bonus**: This position is eligible for a discretionary annual bonus, in an amount to be determined by MKS [or as applicable].**Benefits**: MKS offers a comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance coverage (medical, dental and vision), 401(k) with company match, life and disability insurance, 12 paid holidays, sick time, 15 paid vacation days, [6 weeks fully paid] parental leave, adoption assistance and tuition reimbursement [and for participation in any stock programs, signing bonus, etc.