Remote Principal Architect, AI-Ready Networking R&D

Lumen; Providence (RI); Remote; USD 160,000 - 213,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Life insurance

Voluntary Lifestyle benefits

Job summary

Lumen is seeking a Principal Architect, Network Research & Development, to lead architectural direction for emerging network technologies. This individual contributor role requires deep technical credibility and the ability to shape strategy across vendors, labs, and internal teams.

You will design reference architectures, run experiments, and translate findings into actionable roadmaps, collaborating with Security, Product, Finance, Legal, and other stakeholders. Remote within the U.S.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, telecommunications, applied science, or related technical field.
• 12+ years of experience in network architecture, network engineering, advanced technology strategy, R&D, product engineering, platform engineering, security architecture, or related technical discipline.
• Deep technical expertise in optical/transport systems, IP networking, programmable networks, cloud-native infrastructure, automation, AI-enabled infrastructure, edge/distributed compute, security architecture, or next‑generation access technologies.
• Demonstrated ability to evaluate emerging technologies and convert technical uncertainty into structured experiments, architectural options, decision points, and business‑relevant recommendations.
• Ability to operate in ambiguity, quickly learn new technical domains, separate signal from noise, and make sound recommendations with incomplete or evolving information.
• Strong executive and technical communication skills, including the ability to explain highly complex concepts to senior leaders, peer architects, engineering teams, vendors, and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Proven ability to influence without direct authority and work effectively across matrixed teams, technical SMEs, external partners, and leadership stakeholders.
• Commitment to disciplined experimentation, including defining hypotheses, success measures, learning milestones, technical constraints, and kill criteria.
• Ability to mentor other technical contributors and help elevate architectural thinking, documentation quality, and technical decision‑making across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a senior technical authority for Network R&D initiatives, providing architectural direction across emerging network technologies, advanced infrastructure concepts, and future capability exploration.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and develop reference architectures, technical design patterns, proof-of-concept approaches, and decision frameworks.
• Lead deep technical analysis of vendor, startup, academic, national lab, open-source, and consortium-led innovation opportunities.
• Design and guide experiments, pilots, lab validations, simulations, and technical assessments that test feasibility, interoperability, scalability, resiliency, security, cost, and operational fit.
• Translate ambiguous technical findings into clear architecture implications, risk assessments, trade-off analyses, and recommendations for senior technical and business stakeholders.
• Collaborate with Network Engineering, Architecture, Product, Security, Operations, Finance, Legal, Procurement, and external partners to connect R&D work to enterprise priorities and future customer needs.
• Identify technical dependencies, integration considerations, standards implications, operating model impacts, and commercialization pathways for validated capabilities.
• Provide thought leadership on future network evolution and how emerging technologies may influence network architecture, product enablement, automation, resilience, security, and customer differentiation.
• Help establish disciplined technical governance for R&D work, including architecture reviews, documentation standards, learning milestones, technical exit criteria, and stop/continue/scale recommendations.
• Represent Network R&D in technical forums, partner discussions, internal architecture reviews, standards conversations, and executive-level technical briefings.
• Maintain a strong external view of technology shifts, market signals, standards activity, partner ecosystems, and competitive innovation.

Skills

Executive communication

Technical leadership

Strategic thinking

Mentoring others

Experimentation mindset

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field

Advanced degree preferred

Job description

Lumen is seeking a Principal Architect, Network Research & Development, to lead architectural direction for emerging network technologies. This individual contributor role requires deep technical credibility and the ability to shape strategy across vendors, labs, and internal teams.

You will design reference architectures, run experiments, and translate findings into actionable roadmaps, collaborating with Security, Product, Finance, Legal, and other stakeholders. Remote within the U.S.