Senior Network R&D Architect (Remote) — Innovation Focus

Lumen; Lansing (MI); Remote; USD 128,000 - 213,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

Life and voluntary benefits

Remote-friendly

Job summary

Lumen is seeking a Principal Architect, Network Research & Development, to lead architectural direction across emerging network technologies and enterprise strategy. You will design experiments, develop reference architectures, and guide decisions on which capabilities to stop, continue, or scale.

The role requires deep expertise, strong communication with senior leaders, and the ability to mentor others while operating across a matrix of teams and external partners.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, CS, or related field; advanced degree preferred.
• 12+ years of experience in network architecture, engineering, or related discipline.
• Deep technical expertise in advanced network domains such as optical/transport, IP networking, cloud-native infra.
• Ability to convert uncertainties into structured experiments and architectural options.
• Strong executive and technical communication skills for senior stakeholders.
• Proven ability to influence across matrixed teams and external partners.
• Commitment to disciplined experimentation with hypotheses, milestones, and kill criteria.
• Ability to mentor technical contributors and elevate architectural thinking.

Responsibilities

• Serve as a senior technical authority for Network R&D initiatives across emerging technologies.
• Evaluate technologies like quantum networking, post-quantum cryptography, AI infra, autonomous networks, and more.
• Develop reference architectures, design patterns, and decision frameworks for future roadmaps.
• Lead in-depth analyses of vendor, startup, academic, and partner opportunities for actionable insights.
• Design experiments, pilots, labs, simulations, and assessments testing feasibility, scalability, and security.
• Translate findings into architecture implications, risk assessments, and actionable recommendations.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to connect R&D to enterprise priorities and customer needs.
• Identify dependencies, standards implications, and commercialization pathways for validated work.
• Provide thought leadership on future network evolution and governance for R&D work.

Skills

Architectural leadership

Executive communication

Mentoring

Influence without authority

Experimentation discipline

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering or CS

Advanced degree preferred

Job description

Lumen is seeking a Principal Architect, Network Research & Development, to lead architectural direction across emerging network technologies and enterprise strategy. You will design experiments, develop reference architectures, and guide decisions on which capabilities to stop, continue, or scale.

The role requires deep expertise, strong communication with senior leaders, and the ability to mentor others while operating across a matrix of teams and external partners.