Telco Architect - Remote US

Benchstack Ai; United States; On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Benchstack Ai is looking for a Telco Architect to join their early-stage Silicon Valley startup. This role involves working closely with the CEO and Chief Architect to build the workflow intelligence layer for AI compute, owning a Tier-1 carrier POC, and developing it into a repeatable product. Your engineering experience and telco infrastructure knowledge are crucial, as you'll be hands-on in the code alongside the engineering team.

The position is ideal for someone with strong systems skills and the instinct to thrive in an ambiguous environment. A hands-on IC role awaits you!

Qualifications

• 5+ years engineering experience, with real customer-facing time.
• Hands-on experience with telco infrastructure (Ericsson EIAP, Nokia MantaRay).
• Shipped into a Tier-1 carrier (AT&T, Verizon, etc.).

Responsibilities

• Own the carrier POC end-to-end.
• Work hands-on in the code alongside the engineering team.
• Convert the deployment into a repeatable product.

Skills

Engineering experience

Customer-facing experience

Telco infrastructure knowledge

Systems skills (Python, Kubernetes)

Job description

Overview

Hiring a Telco Architect for an early-stage Silicon Valley startup building the workflow intelligence layer for AI compute. They have a live POC with a Tier-1 US carrier, and we're hiring the person who'll own it end-to-end.

This is employee #4. You'll work directly with the CEO and Chief Architect, embed with the carrier, and turn a single deployment into a repeatable product — with a real path to running the telco vertical as its own business unit.

Responsibilities

• Own the carrier POC end-to-end — discovery, telemetry extraction, and adapting the platform for telco
• Work hands-on in the code alongside the engineering team
• Convert the deployment into a repeatable product, then expand the account
• Use it as a reference customer to open the next telco conversations

Qualifications

• 5+ years engineering experience, with real customer-facing time (Forward Deployed Engineer, Solutions Architect/Engineer, or equivalent)
• Hands-on experience with telco infrastructure (Ericsson EIAP, Nokia MantaRay, Samsung vRAN, rApps, etc.)
• Shipped into a Tier-1 carrier (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, Vodafone, DT)
• Strong systems skills: Python, Kubernetes, containers, distributed systems, observability (Grafana, Prometheus)
• Comfort with server-level telemetry and real-time streaming data
• The instinct to thrive in ambiguous, early-stage, customer-facing work

Nice to have

Nice to have: commercial instincts, relationships into Tier-1/2 carriers or OEMs (Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung).

This is a hands-on IC role — you'll be in the code, not managing a team (at least to start).