Network Engineer

Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions. We thrive on finding and cultivating talented people who are passionate about what they do. Join us and be a part of the diverse Caltech community.

IPAC at Caltech is seeking a Network Engineer to support the design, optimization, and operation of the high-performance network infrastructure powering world‑class NASA, NSF, and privately funded ground and spaceborne observatories. As a member of the IPAC Support Group (ISG) Data Center Engineering team, you will work alongside other network, systems, and database engineers to build and maintain the vital pipelines that connect the global astronomical community to invaluable scientific data.

IPAC, situated within the Division of Physics, Mathematics, and Astronomy at Caltech ((Use the "Apply for this Job" box below).), provides science operations, pipeline processing, user support, and data services for high-profile missions including the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, SPHEREx, Euclid, the Near‑Earth Object Surveyor, and the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). Our diverse portfolio of research archives includes multi‑petabyte datasets like the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA), alongside highly curated reference repositories like the NASA Extragalactic Database (NED) and the NASA Exoplanet Archive, which are key research references for modern astrophysics and exoplanet science.

This role offers a rare combination of mission‑driven work, technical variety, and collaborative engineering. As part of a close‑knit team of about ten engineers, you will have broad visibility across IPAC's infrastructure, contribute directly to project architecture and design, and advance the technologies that support IPAC's scientific mission.

As an IPAC Network Engineer, your role will be to:

• Collaborate on Architecture & Automation:
  Partner with team members and project engineers to develop and maintain the overall IPAC network architecture, helping to introduce and expand modern network automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) methodologies.
• Streamline Data Movement:
  Design and implement improvements to internal network and software architectures to optimize both massive, bursty data transfers and frequent updates to our curated science archives‑spanning environments within IPAC, external global mission partners, and the general science community.
• Optimize Performance:
  Conduct proactive network performance analysis, optimization, and capacity planning to support high-performance computing (HPC) and research archive workloads.
• Consult & Coordinate:
  Evaluate upcoming scientific project networking requirements in tandem with project engineers, IPAC systems staff, and peer research institutions.
• Share Infrastructure & Security Duties:
  Co‑manage firewalls and security policies in close collaboration with infrastructure and security staff, implement network monitoring tools, and share responsibility for data center physical layout and cabling plant operations.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field, plus 5+ years of relevant experience (or equivalent combination of education and experience).
• Extensive experience with Arista, Cisco, or similar networking hardware (switches, routers).
• Core data center and wide‑area networking (WAN) experience, with strong proficiency with LAN/WAN configuration and routing protocols, including IPv4, IPv6, dynamic routing, port aggregation.
• Strong Linux systems experience (Red Hat or Debian preferred).
• Experience managing enterprise security perimeters using Palo Alto or comparable enterprise firewalls, with practical experience in security zoning, VPN configuration, and application control and threat prevention.
• Experience with enterprise network and data center management platforms (e.g. Arista Cloud Vision or similar).
• Qualify as a US PERSON as defined by ITAR regulations: A US person is a citizen of the United States, a lawful permanent resident alien of the US…