Principal Network Engineer – HPC Deploy

This range is provided by Blue Signal Search. Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more.

$/yr - $/yr

A confidential, venture-backed hyperscale compute provider is building record-breaking high-performance-computing (HPC) data centers to power today’s most demanding AI/ML workloads. We are searching for a Principal Network Engineer – HPC Deploy to own end-to-end build-out of massive, low-latency fabrics across multiple greenfield sites. In this player-coach role, you will travel to key facilities, stand up cutting-edge EVPN/VXLAN networks at terabit scale, and craft the repeatable playbooks that let our deployment organization deliver gigawatt-class capacity—fast.

• Lead field turn-ups of front-end, back-end, out-of-band (OOB) and BMS fabrics, validating fibre, optics and LOS-critical cabling before first packet.
• Define the “factory line”: create pre-deployment checklists, staging templates, and hand-over gates so future teams can execute independently at multiple concurrent sites.
• Coordinate the critical path across data-center ops, structured-cabling vendors, hardware logistics and network engineering; elevate blockers within hours, not days.
• Mentor and scale a growing squad of deployment engineers—setting quality bars, rotating on-call coverage and embedding an automation-first mindset.
• Ensure production-ready handoff: physical-layer OTDR traces, logical validation (BGP/EVPN reachability), observability hooks and as-built documentation that keeps operations humming.

• 8+ years building or turning up hyperscale data-center networks; deep knowledge of EVPN/VXLAN, CLOS topologies, BGP and high-radix switching.
• Hands-on deployment of AI/ML fabrics—RoCEv2, PFC/ECN or similar lossless Ethernet.
• Proven player-coach leadership: you dig in with a console cable, then step back to architect process and grow people.
• Comfortable with 70–80 % travel for multi-week site work during peak build phases.
• Automation-friendly mindset (Ansible, Terraform, Python) and familiarity with platforms such as Arista, Juniper or NVIDIA.
• Thrives in high-urgency, ambiguous startup environments where decisions happen in hours, not quarters.
• Competitive base salary based on experience and location.
• Performance cash bonus plus equity valued at 2–4 × base salary, aligning you with long-term company growth.
• Generous PTO and flexible remote work when not on site.
• Direct impact: own the first wave of HPC fabrics that enable next-gen AI research and commercial breakthrough.

If launching hyperscale networks at lightning speed excites you, we’d love to connect. Apply today to join an award-winning recruiting partner representing this confidential innovator and take your career to the front lines of AI infrastructure.