Senior Network R&D Architect (Remote)

Lumen; Pierre (SD); Remote; USD 170,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Life insurance

Wellbeing programs

Job summary

Lumen is seeking a Principal Architect, Network Research & Development to shape the company’s future network capabilities through architectural leadership and disciplined experimentation. You will define hypotheses, evaluate technologies, and provide actionable guidance on adoption, with a focus on enterprise-grade performance, security, and scalability.

The role centers on delivering reference architectures, design patterns, and decision frameworks, while collaborating with cross‑functional

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, telecommunications, applied science, or a related technical field; advanced degree preferred.
• 12+ years of experience in network architecture, network engineering, advanced technology strategy, R&D, product engineering, platform engineering, security architecture, or a related technical discipline.
• Deep technical expertise in one or more advanced network domains such as optical and 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 such as quantum networking, post-quantum cryptography, next-generation optical and fiber systems, autonomous networks, AI infrastructure, programmable networks, edge and distributed compute, digital twins, and advanced security capabilities.
• Develop reference architectures, technical design patterns, proof-of-concept approaches, and decision frameworks that help determine whether emerging capabilities have relevance for Lumen’s future network strategy.
• Lead deep technical analysis of vendor, startup, academic, national lab, open-source, and consortium-led innovation opportunities, ensuring external partnerships produce actionable insight and usable learning.
• 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, including 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 that may create future strategic advantage for Lumen.

Skills

Technical leadership

Architectural design

Emerging tech evaluation

Executive communication

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering or related field

Advanced degree preferred

Job description

Lumen is seeking a Principal Architect, Network Research & Development to shape the company’s future network capabilities through architectural leadership and disciplined experimentation. You will define hypotheses, evaluate technologies, and provide actionable guidance on adoption, with a focus on enterprise-grade performance, security, and scalability.

The role centers on delivering reference architectures, design patterns, and decision frameworks, while collaborating with cross‑functional