Optical Switch Engineer - Onsite

Job Title:
Optical Switch Engineer

Location: Menlo Park, CA
Work Model: 100% Onsite (Client Site)
Company: Industry‑leading global technology company operating hyperscale networks

We are seeking a highly skilled Optical Switch Engineer to support optical switching platforms, automation workflows, and data center network operations for a global hyperscale technology organization. The ideal candidate has strong hands-on experience with optical hardware, switching platforms, automation tooling, and troubleshooting complex network/optical environments at scale.

This role requires close partnership with hardware, software, operations, and capacity planning teams, along with a strong desire to learn proprietary platforms, tools, and automation systems.

Candidates with experience designing or operating environments with tens of thousands of devices or massive-scale optical systems are strongly encouraged to apply.

• 5+ years experience in optical networking or transport engineering
• 2+ years automating network operations and workflows (mandatory)
• 1+ year Data Center Network (DCN) Engineering experience (mandatory)
• Hands-on experience with Fiber spool, PDUs, switches, and related core network hardware
• Experience with IXIA, Calient, and/or Telescent optical switching platforms
• Repository management experience (Git or equivalent tools)
• Deployment automation experience (Ansible or similar)
• Strong programming/scripting skills in Python (OOP) or Go/Bash
• Knowledge of data center fabric architectures and telemetry systems
• Experience with gNMI-based monitoring technologies
• Bachelor’s degree in EE, CE, Telecommunications, or equivalent experience
• Vendor certifications or formal optical training (Ciena, Infinera, Nokia, Juniper, Cisco)

• Hands-on expertise with IXIA, Calient, and/or Telescent optical switch platforms
• Multi-vendor cabling and optics expertise
• Strong foundation in physical layer components:
  • Fiber cleaning/inspection
  • Cabling standards (TIA/EIA, ISO/IEC)
  • OTDR, power meters, light meters
  • Transceiver compatibility & diagnostics (DOM/DDM)

• Build, enhance, and maintain automation for optical switching and network workflows
• Develop API integrations, scripts, and configuration automation
• Use configuration management systems to automate provisioning, monitoring, and diagnostics
• Deploy automation at hyperscale across thousands of devices

• Diagnose issues in DWDM and PON systems
• Use OTDR and related tools for fault isolation
• Analyze optical signal loss, BER issues, and transceiver telemetry
• Resolve high-capacity optical link performance issues

• Configure network devices for IPv4, IPv6, DHCP, DHCPv6, DNS
• Implement firewalls (stateful/stateless) based on security requirements
• Perform physical and logical installation of network and optical equipment

• Monitor network performance using SNMP, Net Flow, sFlow, ICMP, IPSLA, RPM probes, syslog
• Update firewall rules and network configurations
• Provide pre‑ and post‑migration support
• Conduct root cause analysis and resolve complex incidents

• Apply QoS for optimized traffic prioritization
• Implement NAT/NAT
  64 as needed
• Optimize bandwidth usage and network efficiency

• Implement ECMP and redundancy strategies
• Configure backup and failover mechanisms
• Ensure rapid recovery through monitoring and automated fallback

• Use IXIA for throughput, latency, resiliency, and failover validation
• Perform lab and production acceptance testing for:
  • Optical transport systems
  • PON OLT/ONT platforms
  • Fiber automation workflows
• Conduct pre‑production and regression testing

• Ability to design & implement spine‑leaf architectures
• Familiarity with SLAAC, IPFIX/Net Flow
• Strong understanding of server and switch architecture
• Experience planning and designing IPv4/IPv6 address architectures
• Knowledge of routing protocols: BGP/MP‑BGP, EVPN‑VXLAN, OSPF
• Experience with network migrations, documentation, dependency mapping
• Security experience: MACsec, IPSec, RADIUS/PI servers
• Familiarity with NIST framework and industry security standards
• Understanding of compliance standards (IEEE 802.1X/MAB)

• Final deliverables will be determined (TBD) based on project scope, migration plans, and operational requirements.