Architect – Network Automation

We are seeking a Senior Network Automation Architect — a software engineer first, with deep domain expertise in network infrastructure.

This is not a traditional network engineering role with scripting. This position owns the design, development, and delivery of production‑grade automation software that operates across a large‑scale, multi‑vendor network environment for a Managed Service Provider (MSP).

You will define the developer experience for the network organization: setting coding standards, designing extensible software architectures, building reusable Python libraries and internal platforms, implementing CI/CD pipelines, and mentoring engineers in modern software development practices.

You think in design patterns, clean abstractions, testability, and long‑term maintainability — and you apply that mindset to infrastructure automation.

What You’ll Own

Software Architecture & Development

• Architect and develop production-quality Python applications, libraries, and CLI tools for network automation, orchestration, and observability.
• Design clean, extensible architectures using patterns such as factory, strategy, adapter, and plugin-based systems to abstract vendor differences.
• Build and maintain API integrations (REST, GraphQL, gRPC, JSON‑RPC) with platforms including:
• • Arista VeloCloud
  • Palo Alto Prisma SD‑WAN
  • Fortinet SD‑WAN
  • Cisco Meraki
  • Juniper Mist
  • Traditional network OS platforms (IOS‑XE, NX‑OS, JunOS)
• Develop internal Python packages with:
• • Proper packaging (pyproject.toml)
  • Semantic versioning
  • Dependency management
  • Internal PyPI distribution
• Write comprehensive test suites:
• • Unit tests (pytest)
  • Integration tests
  • Network validation tests using mocks and fixtures
• Shape Git strategies and repository structure.
• Leverage AI/LLM developer tooling responsibly to improve productivity and code quality.

Developer Experience & Engineering Standards

• Author and maintain coding standards, architectural decision records (ADRs), and development guidelines.
• Establish and enforce code quality tooling:
• • PEP8
  • Ruff / Pylint
  • Black
  • MyPy
  • Pre‑commit hooks
• Design and implement CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins) for:
• • Linting
  • Testing
  • Security scanning
  • Build and release automation
• Define Git workflows:
• • Branching strategies
  • Pull request standards
  • Code review expectations
  • Release management
• Create project templates, scaffolding, and cookiecutters to standardize automation development.

Innovation, Automation & Technical Leadership

• Identify manual workflows and operational pain points, then design automation solutions to eliminate them.
• Prototype new tools, frameworks, and approaches from idea through production adoption.
• Improve observability by integrating automation platforms with logging, monitoring, and alerting systems.
• Contribute to technology roadmap and vendor evaluation from a software architecture and productivity perspective.

Mentorship & Culture

• Mentor network engineers in:
• • Python development
  • Testing strategies
  • Code structure
  • Debugging
  • Version control
• Lead code reviews with a teaching mindset.
• Facilitate workshops, knowledge-sharing sessions, and pair programming.
• Partner with DevOps, Cloud, Security, and Application teams to align engineering practices.

Required Qualifications

Software Engineering (Primary)

• 7+ years of professional software development experience with Python as the primary language.
• Advanced Python expertise:
• • Type hints
  • Dataclasses / Pydantic
  • Async / await
  • Context managers, decorators, generators
• Experience building Python libraries, packages, and CLI tools (Click, Typer, argparse).
• Strong testing background: pytest, mocking, fixtures, TDD.
• Advanced Git skills (rebase, cherry‑pick, bisect, hooks).
• Hands‑on experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
• Solid grounding in SOLID principles, design patterns, and clean architecture.
• Experience writing technical documentation and developer guidelines.

Required Network Domain Expertise

• Strong understanding of:
• • Routing (BGP, OSPF)
  • Switching
  • VPNs and firewalls
  • SD‑WAN
  • Network security fundamentals
• Experience automating at least two or more of:
• • NetBox
  • Arista VeloCloud
  • Cisco Meraki
  • Juniper Mist
  • Palo Alto Prisma SD‑WAN
  • Fortinet SD‑WAN
• Familiarity with Netmiko, NAPALM, Nornir, pyATS.
• Experience with JSON, YAML, XML, and Jinja2 templating.

Preferred Qualifications

• Terraform (including module or provider development)
• AWS networking and architecture
• Docker, Kubernetes, Linux
• Observability stacks (Grafana, Prometheus, ELK)
• Event-driven automation (Kafka, RabbitMQ, webhooks)
• Database integration (PostgreSQL, Redis, SQLite)
• Internal developer platforms, self‑service portals, or ChatOps
• Open-source contributions or public automation portfolio
• Relevant certifications (Cisco DevNet, CCNP/CCIE, AWS, Terraform)

Why This Role

• Architect the automation backbone of a modern MSP
• Own standards, tooling, and culture — not just scripts
• Solve large‑scale, real‑world infrastructure problems
• High autonomy, high impact, long‑term technical ownership

#LI-Remote #LI-PK1 #LI-Ohio

Due to U.S. Government requirements applicable to foreign-owned telecommunications providers, non-US citizens may be required to submit to an extensive government agency background check which will necessitate disclosure of sensitive Personally Identifiable Information.