Principal Engineer, Network (Network Services)

You’ll work closely with Network Operations, Security, Program Management, external partners, and senior leadership to turn long-term business and infrastructure goals into practical technical solutions. This is a senior-level individual contributor role for an engineer who enjoys solving complex networking challenges, shaping architecture, evaluating emerging technologies, and mentoring other engineers.

About Eleven Recruiting 
We are a specialized technology staffing agency supporting professional and financial services companies. Why do we stand out in technology staffing? We listen and act as advisors for our candidates on how they can best add value, find interesting projects, and pave a path for career advancement. We advocate for the best pay, diversity in tech, and the best job fit for every candidate we place.

Our client, a non-profit technology and networking organization, is seeking a Principal Network Engineer to join their team in La Mirada, CA!
This is a senior-level individual contributor role for an engineer who enjoys solving complex networking challenges, shaping architecture, evaluating emerging technologies, and mentoring other engineers. You’ll have a direct impact on the reliability, scalability, performance, and future direction of critical backbone and member-facing infrastructure. You’ll work closely with Network Operations, Security, Program Management, external partners, and senior leadership to turn long-term business and infrastructure goals into practical technical solutions.
  Responsibilities:Network Architecture & Design

• Lead the design and evolution of large-scale optical, Layer 2, and Layer 3 backbone and access networks.
• Develop strategic and tactical network roadmaps, standards, architecture guidelines, and project plans.
• Evaluate emerging networking technologies, protocols, and services to support future growth.
• Perform traffic, capacity, and performance analysis to guide infrastructure investments.
• Establish engineering standards, design templates, and configuration policies.
• Help plan for increased bandwidth, resiliency, scalability, and network performance.

Technical Leadership

• Serve as a senior technical authority and architectural decision-maker for backbone and member-facing networks.
• Translate organizational goals into long-term technical strategies and network roadmaps.
• Lead the evaluation and adoption of new technologies.
• Identify complex or systemic network challenges and drive solutions across teams.
• Partner with Network Operations, Security, and Program Management on network design, deployment, and troubleshooting.
• Represent the organization in technical partnerships, industry initiatives, conferences, and other external engagements.

Mentorship & Collaboration

• Serve as a senior technical resource for network engineers.
• Mentor engineers and promote strong engineering and operational practices.
• Participate in technical design reviews, training, and knowledge-sharing initiatives.
• Collaborate effectively with engineers, leadership, vendors, and external technical partners.

Automation & Network Visibility

• Identify opportunities to automate network provisioning, configuration, monitoring, and testing.
• Help select and improve tools that provide greater network visibility and performance insight.
• Support the development of more efficient and scalable engineering workflows.

Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, with 10+ years of advanced network engineering experience; equivalent education and experience may be considered.
• Deep expertise in IP networking, including BGP, OSPF, and IS-IS.
• Strong knowledge of MPLS, Segment Routing, L2VPN, IPVPN, and traffic engineering.
• Proven experience designing and operating large-scale IP and optical networks, including 100G+ environments.
• Experience with major networking platforms such as Cisco, Juniper, Arista, and/or Nokia.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers, lead technical reviews, and establish networking best practices.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to work effectively with technical teams, senior leadership, and external stakeholders.
• Experience with large-scale backbone networks, preferably within research & education, public sector, nonprofit, ISP, or similar environments.
• Experience with capital planning, vendor evaluation, or major network deployments.

Preferred Qualifications:

• 12+ years of network engineering experience.
• Experience with DWDM, including Cisco NCS 2006 and/or NCS 1010 platforms.
• Experience with network automation and tools such as Python, Cisco NSO, and NetBox.
• Experience designing and implementing IP peering with cloud, content, and service providers.
• Experience developing scalable network architectures and long-term infrastructure strategies.

Salary: $170,000 - $190,000

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