Senior Network Automation Engineer

Equinix, Inc.; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 136,000 - 204,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee Assistance Program

US Benefits: Insurance, Retirement, PT

PTO and Paid Holidays

Job summary

Equinix, Inc. is seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to join the Network Platform Engineering team.

You will design, build, and scale the Environment‑as‑a‑Service platform while advancing the Network Automation suite, partnering with Product, Engineering, Operations, and Observability teams to accelerate certification, testing, and deployment pipelines. The role demands strong engineering judgment, bias for action, and the ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in Network Engineering and Automation.
• Bachelor’s in Electrical engineering, Electronics, Computer Engineering or Related Field preferred.
• Excellent understanding of OSI layers, hands‑on experience with routing and switching in multi‑vendor, large‑scale environments.
• Deep proficiency in service provider and data center networking protocols: Routing: BGP, OSPF, IS‑IS; MPLS: LDP, RSVP‑TE, Segment Routing; Overlay/Underlay: VXLAN, EVPN, L3VPN, L2VPN.
• Network virtualization: CNF, VNF, SR‑IOV, DPDK.
• Strong programming proficiency in Python (required) including test frameworks (pytest); Go and Elixir preferred.
• REST API design, GraphQL, gRPC, and OpenConfig/YANG‑based network management interfaces (NETCONF, RESTCONF, gNMI).
• Hands‑on experience with containerization and orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes (K8s), Helm, ArgoCD, and cloud‑native application patterns.
• Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code tooling: Terraform, Ansible etc. for environment provisioning and configuration management.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub, GitHub Actions, Jenkins) and DevOps practices including trunk‑based development and automated testing gates.
• Hands‑on experience with AWS Bedrock, including networking services (VPC, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect).
• Deep familiarity with observability stacks: Prometheus, Grafana, Tempo, OTEL.

Responsibilities

• Design and build automation frameworks to validate network operating systems and real‑world use cases.
• Lead the EaaS platform design, migrating to scalable containerized test environments.
• Define provisioning roadmaps for on‑demand, self‑service virtual topologies.
• Translate stakeholder requirements into engineering tasks and automated tests.
• Develop platform tooling in Python/Go/Elixir emphasizing maintainability and reuse.
• Manage Kubernetes clusters and deployment with ArgoCD.
• Contribute to front‑ and back‑end development of internal web apps for visibility and control of EaaS.
• Contribute to code reviews and CI/CD pipelines.
• Develop network architecture for scalable, multi‑vendor environments.
• Lead test plans and certification strategies for NOS features and customer use cases.

Skills

Python

Go

Elixir

REST API

GraphQL

gRPC

OpenConfig/YANG

Kubernetes

Docker

Helm

ArgoCD

AWS Bedrock

Prometheus

Grafana

Tempo

OTEL

Terraform

Ansible

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

CI/CD

Education

Bachelor’s in Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Computer Engineering or Related Field

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Helm

ArgoCD

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

Terraform

Ansible

Job description

Who are we?

Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company®, shortening the path to connectivity to enable the innovations that enrich our work, life and planet.

A place where tech thinkers and future builders turn bold ideas into breakthrough experiences, we welcome your unique perspective.Help us challenge assumptions, uncover bias, and remove barriers—because progress starts with fresh ideas. You’ll find belonging, purpose, and a team that welcomes you—because when you feel valued, you’re empowered to do your best work.

Job Summary

We are seeking a highly experienced and technically accomplished Senior Staff Software Engineer to join Network Platform Engineering (NPE) team. This is a senior individual contributor role at the intersection of software engineering and network infrastructure, designed for engineers who thrive on building platforms that other engineers depend on at scale.

In this role, you will be a hands‑on contributor responsible for designing, building, and scaling our Environment-as-a-Service (EaaS) platform, while also advancing our existing Network Automation platform with new capabilities. You will partner closely with cross-functional stakeholders across Product, Engineering, Operations, and Observability teams to deliver solutions that accelerate the velocity and reliability of network certification, testing, and deployment pipelines.

This is a high-impact, high-visibility position that requires strong engineering judgment, a bias for action, and the ability to influence technical direction across multiple teams and business units

Responsibilities

Network Automation

• Design, and develop comprehensive automation frameworks to validate and certify vendor agnostic Network Operating Systems (NOS), including feature validation, traffic profiling, regression testing, and real-world customer use case simulation
• Lead the design and implementation of the Environment-as-a-Service (EaaS) platform, driving the strategic migration from physical lab infrastructure to scalable, containerized, and software-defined test environments leveraging Containerized Network Functions (CNF)
• Define and implement a roadmap for test environment provisioning, enabling on-demand, self-service access to virtualized network topologies for development and QA teams
• Gather, refine, and translate complex testing requirements from multiple stakeholders into well-scoped engineering tasks and automated test case implementations
• Build and maintain platform tooling and automation frameworks using Python, Go, and Elixir, with a focus on code quality, maintainability, and reusability across teams
• Managing and implementing Kubernetes(K8) clusters, debugging at scale and deployment using ArgoCD
• Design and development of cloud-native applications
• Define and enforce monitoring standards, create operational dashboards, implement intelligent alerting strategies, and establish SLI/SLO frameworks aligned to platform reliability goals
• Contribute to front-end and back-end development of internal Web applications that provide visibility and control over the EaaS and automation platform, collaborating with UX and product partners as needed
• Contribute in code reviews and implement CI/CD pipelines

Network Engineering

• Contribute to the architecture and design of next-generation network infrastructure solutions spanning Layers 1–3, ensuring scalability, reliability, and alignment with long-term platform strategy
• Develop comprehensive test plans and certification strategies; lead hands-on technical deep-dives to verify that architectural designs, new NOS features, and customer use cases perform as expected in lab and production-equivalent environments
• Act as a subject matter expert for service provider networking protocols including BGP (iBGP/eBGP, policy, route reflectors), MPLS (LDP, RSVP, segment routing), VXLAN, EVPN, ISIS, and OSPF in multi-vendor environments
• Support vendor evaluations and feature gap analyses, provide technical guidance on network hardware and NOS selection aligned to architectural requirements

AI-Assisted Engineering

• Design & Develop MCP Server and implement AI Chatbot interface for EAAS
• Understand current Agentic workflows & contribute to improving and designing more workflows
• Execute AI-assisted development practices within the team, including prompt engineering, structured code review of AI-generated output
• Adopt AI/ML-powered developer tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude code, code generation assistants, AI-driven static analysis) to measurably improve team productivity and code quality
• Establish guardrails and review processes to ensure AI-generated code meets the same standards for correctness, security, and maintainability as hand‑authored code

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in Network Engineering and Automation
• Bachelor’s in Electrical engineering, Electronics, Computer Engineering or Related Field preferred
• Excellent understanding of OSI layers, hands‑on experience with routing and switching in multi‑vendor, large‑scale environments
• Deep proficiency in service provider and data center networking protocols:
• Routing: BGP (iBGP/eBGP, route policies, communities, route reflectors), OSPF, IS‑IS
• MPLS: LDP, RSVP‑TE, Segment Routing (SR‑MPLS, SRv6)
• Overlay/Underlay: VXLAN, EVPN, L3VPN, L2VPN
• Network virtualization: CNF, VNF, SR‑IOV, DPDK
• Strong programming proficiency in Python (required) including test frameworks (pytest), async programming, and familiarity with Go and Elixir is preferred
• Solid understanding of REST API design,GraphQL, gRPC, and OpenConfig/YANG‑based network management interfaces (NETCONF, RESTCONF, gNMI)
• Hands‑on experience with containerization and orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes (K8s), Helm, ArgoCD, and cloud‑native application patterns
• Proficiency with Infrastructure as Code tooling: Terraform, Ansible etc. for environment provisioning and configuration management
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitHub, GitHub Actions, Jenkins) and DevOps best practices including trunk‑based development and automated testing gates
• Hands‑on experience with AWS Bedrock , including networking services (VPC, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect etc.
• Deep familiarity with observability stacks: Prometheus, Grafana,Tempo, OTEL

The targeted pay range for this position in the following location is / locations are:

United States - Dallas Infomart Office DAI : 136,000 - 204,000 USD / Annual

Our pay ranges reflect the minimum and maximum target for new hire pay for the full‑time position determined by role, level, and location.The pay range shown is based on our compensation structure in place at the time of posting and may be updated periodically based on business needs. Individual pay is based on additional factors including job‑related skills, experience, and relevant education and/or training.

The targeted pay range listed reflects the base pay only and does not include bonus, equity, or benefits. Employees are eligible for bonus, and equity may be offered depending on the position.

Equinix Benefits

As an employee, you become important to Equinix’s success. We ensure all your benefits are in line with our core values: competitive, inclusive, sustainable, connected and efficient. We keep them competitive within the current marketplace to ensure we’re providing you with the best package possible. So, wherever you are in your career and life, you’ll be able to enhance your experience and bring your whole self to work.

Employee Assistance Program: An Employee Assistance program is available to all employees.

US Benefits: - Insurance: You may enroll in health, life, disability and voluntary plans that are designed for you and your eligible family members. - Retirement: You and Equinix may contribute to a retirement plan to help you plan for your financial future. - Paid Time Off (PTO) and Paid Holidays: You will receive an accrued amount of PTO each pay period along with various paid holidays for you to rest and recharge. Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to specific plan or program terms.

Equinix is committed to ensuring that our employment process is open to all individuals, including those with a disability. If you are a qualified candidate and need assistance or an accommodation, please let us know by completing this form.

Equinix is an Equal Employment Opportunity and, in the U.S., an Affiantive Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to unlawful consideration of race, color, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, place of birth, citizenship, sex, pregnancy / childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or domestic partnership status, age, veteran or military status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, political / organizational affiliation, status as a victim or family member of a victim of crime or abuse, or any other status protected by applicable law.

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This posting is a new position within our organization.