Senior Data Center Network Planning & Design Lead

Frontdoor Defense; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 196,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision coverage

401k Plan with 2% company match (USA)

Wellness and commuter stipends

Flexible paid time off

Job summary

Lambda is seeking a Network Planning & Design Manager in San Francisco/Bellevue to design connectivity for data centers and interconnects. You will translate requirements into routes, coordinate with carriers and suppliers, and drive designs through delivery and acceptance.

This role blends network engineering with delivery execution to build scalable infrastructure for AI workloads. The ideal candidate has experience in carrier/cloud connectivity, optical transport, and collaboration with

Qualifications

• Experience designing or developing carrier, cloud or data center connectivity.
• Practical knowledge of dark fiber, wavelength services, optical transport and internet interconnection.
• Ability to assess physical route diversity, equipment dependencies and capacity needs beyond what a route map shows.
• Experience working directly with carrier engineers, colocation providers or equipment suppliers to solve design constraints.
• Ability to compare supplier options on technical fit, delivery risk and total cost, and explain your recommendation.
• Clear design documentation that engineering reviewers and delivery teams can use.

Responsibilities

• Design the Network: Develop physical and optical connectivity designs for data centers, points of presence, backbone routes and customer interconnects.
• Develop Solutions with Suppliers: Work with carrier engineering teams to develop routes, extend reach and resolve coverage, site access or capacity constraints.
• Take Designs into Delivery: Produce a complete design package for Network Engineering approval, then work with Delivery on the build schedule, dependencies and acceptance requirements.
• You: Experience designing or developing carrier, cloud or data center connectivity, with designs that have progressed from requirements into delivery.
• Nice To Have: Experience designing long-haul optical networks or DWDM systems.

Job description

Lambda is seeking a Network Planning & Design Manager in San Francisco/Bellevue to design connectivity for data centers and interconnects. You will translate requirements into routes, coordinate with carriers and suppliers, and drive designs through delivery and acceptance.

This role blends network engineering with delivery execution to build scalable infrastructure for AI workloads. The ideal candidate has experience in carrier/cloud connectivity, optical transport, and collaboration with