Principal Site Reliability Engineer

Akamai; Cambridge (MA); Hybrid; USD 169,000 - 305,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Healthcare

401K

Paid time off

Parental leave

Employee assistance program

Job summary

Akamai Cambridge is seeking a Principal Site Reliability Engineer - Network to lead architecture and reliability for Akamai Connected Cloud. You will drive scalable network tooling, establish standards, and mentor teams across development and operations.

You will design automation with Python, Bash, Go, and work with Linux networking (FRR/BIRD/goBGP). Expect collaboration on CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, Github Actions, ArgoCD) to ensure high availability and performance.

Qualifications

• 12 years of relevant experience in SRE/Network roles.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent.
• Experience with large-scale distributed systems.
• Deep understanding of TCP/IP, BGP, load balancing and firewall concepts.
• Experience with configuration management tools such as Ansible, Salt Stack, Chef, or Puppet.
• Experience with Linux networking and FRR/Bird/goBGP.
• Experience developing with Python, Bash, Go, or Rust.
• Experience with CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, Github Actions, ArgoCD.

Responsibilities

• Architecting, building and supporting solutions that foster efficient processes.
• Mentor to team members, drive code quality standards and leadership.
• Collaborating on deployment standards and updating documentation.
• Building and testing automation tools ( Bash, Python, Slack bots ) with network developers.
• Defining SLOs for network infrastructure to ensure high availability and performance.
• Partnering with support, operations, and engineering to troubleshoot complex network issues including on-call rotations.

Skills

TCP/IP

BGP

Load balancing

Firewall concepts

Python

Bash

Go

Rust

Linux networking

CI/CD tools

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

Ansible

SaltStack

Chef

Puppet

FRR

goBGP

Bird

Jenkins

Github Actions

ArgoCD

Job description

Are you passionate about cutting edge technology?

Are you looking for the freedom to innovate and help shape the next generation of the network?

Join our Network Infrastructure SRE team!

Our team designs, develops, and manages applications and infrastructure that support Akamai's Compute products and services. We specialize in building and maintaining fast, efficient, scalable, and reliable routing software and infrastructure that is responsible for all network delivery to Akamai Connected Cloud customers.

Partner with the best

In this role, you will collaborate across software development, operations teams and Akamai Compute stakeholders. You'll be instrumental in developing organizational standards and tooling to ensure the growth and stability of our global platform.

As a Principal Site Reliability Engineer - Network, you will be responsible for:

• Architecting, building and supporting solutions that foster efficient and streamlined processes.
• Serving as a subject matter expert and mentor to team members, driving code quality standards and providing thought leadership on architectural decisions.
• Collaborating with the cross-functional teams on standards and processes for deployments and updating documentation accordingly
• Building/testing/designing automation tools (including Bash scripts, Python programs, Slack bots) and working closely with network developers
• Defining SLOs for network infrastructure within the Akamai Connected Cloud to ensure high availability and performance.
• Collaborating with our support, operations, and engineering teams to investigate and troubleshoot complex network-related problems including participation in on-call rotations.

Do what you love

To be successful in this role you will:

• Have 12 years relevant experience and a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or its equivalent experience
• Have experience in a Site or Network Reliability Engineering, Network Engineering, Software Engineering, or DevOps role working with large-scale distributed systems
• Have a deep understanding of TCP/IP, BGP, load balancing and firewall concepts.
• Have advanced proficiency with configuration management tools such as Ansible, Salt Stack, Chef, Puppet, or similar
• Have experience with Linux networking at the userspace level and open source networking software such as FRR, Bird, or goBGP
• Have experience developing applications, contributing to codebases, conducting code reviews, and writing scripts using Python, Bash, Go, or Rust
• Have experience with continuous integration / continuous deployment tools such as Jenkins, Github Actions, ArgoCD, or similar

About us

At Akamai, we make life better for billions of people, trillions of times a day.

Whether you're streaming live events, scrolling social media, watching your favorite series, or managing your savings, we’re the engine behind the scenes. We provide the world’s most distributed platform from Cloud to Edge to help the giants of the digital world work faster and stay more secure, making the internet a better experience for everyone.

Our focus is simple:

• Cloud and Edge: Running apps closer to users for instant performance.
• Security: Neutralizing threats before they ever reach your data.
• Content Delivery: Scaling the world’s biggest moments without a glitch.
• AI: Enabling our customers to build, secure, and scale AI apps on the world’s most distributed cloud platform.

At Akamai, we don’t just support the internet; we power and protect it, because behind every great digital experience is a massive hidden challenge. And we’re the ones who solve it. When millions of people hit play or pay, Akamai ensures it just works.

Benefits at Akamai: We support your health, well-being, finances, and life beyond work. See our benefits.

FlexBase adapts to your job's needs

Akamai's FlexBase program is yet another way we show our commitment to providing employees with an exceptional workplace experience. It's not about telling employees where to work; it's about supporting employees to do their best work.

We trust our incredible employees to work in ways that suit them best: at home, in an office, or a combination of both.

Connect with us on social and see what life at Akamai is like!

Compensation

Akamai is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. For US based candidates only - the base salary for this position ranges from $169,300 - $304,700/year; a candidate’s salary is determined by various factors including, but not limited to, relevant work experience, skills, certifications and location. Compensation for candidates outside the US will vary. The compensation package may also include incentive compensation opportunities in the form of annual bonus or incentives, equity awards and an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). Akamai provides industry-leading benefits including healthcare, 401K savings plan, company holidays, vacation (in the form of PTO), sick time, family friendly benefits including parental leave and an employee assistance program including a focus on mental and financial wellness; Eligibility requirements apply.

Job Info

• Job Identification 3795
• Posting Date 09/16/2026, 05:45 PM
• Locations 145 Broadway, Cambridge, MA, 02142, US (Remote)