Senior Network Systems Engineer

Job Summary

We are seeking a Senior Data Centre Network Engineer to join our Global Network Services team, operating and modernising the data centre networks that underpin NetApp worldwide. Our data centre estate today runs a traditional, vPC-based architecture. The mission for this role is to take us to a modern Clos / spine-leaf fabric, and to help build out the AI/ML fabrics that NetApp's growth in AI and storage now demands. This is a deep technical role for a data centre networking expert who can keep the current environment reliable while leading its transformation end to end — from target design, through a phased brownfield-to-greenfield migration, to day-two operations of the new fabric. 

The ideal candidate pairs strong, hands-on data centre networking fundamentals with proven experience designing and migrating to spine-leaf fabrics (VXLAN / BGP EVPN), and brings — or is eager to build — the automation, infrastructure-as-code and AI-fabric skills that define where the field is heading. You will be a senior technical voice on the team, mentoring others and setting the standard for engineering quality as we shift from manual, repetitive operations toward codified, repeatable engineering. 

Job Responsibilites

• Operate and modernise the data centre estate — keep today's traditional, vPC-based data centre network reliable, secure and performant while leading its evolution toward a modern fabric. 
• Design and lead the migration to a Clos / spine-leaf fabric — own the target VXLAN / BGP EVPN design (distributed anycast gateway, symmetric/asymmetric IRB, multi-tenant VRFs) and drive a phased brownfield-to-greenfield migration, extensible to VXLAN multi-site / DCI across regions. 
• Build out AI/ML and storage back-end fabrics — design and deliver lossless Ethernet fabrics (RoCEv2, PFC, ECN/DCQCN) for GPU/compute and high-performance storage as NetApp scales its AI infrastructure. 
• Own routing and the control plane — operate enterprise routing today and engineer the BGP (eBGP/iBGP) underlay and EVPN overlay of the target fabric, with ECMP, data centre and internet edge, and inter-site connectivity. 
• Operate the switching estate — run Cisco Nexus (NX-OS) / ACI, Arista EOS or Juniper platforms — vPC/MLAG, VLANs, trunking, LACP and first-hop redundancy today, transitioning to leaf, spine and border-leaf roles. 
• Deliver builds, refreshes and migrations — produce designs, interconnect and cabling matrices and cutover plans; coordinate with vendors and installation partners through delivery, including high-radix 100G/400G optics. 
• Resolve escalated operational issues (Tier 3/4) — act as the senior escalation point for complex incidents across the control plane, data plane and physical layer, driving packet-level root-cause analysis and permanent resolution. 
• Drive change through structured change control — plan, risk-assess and execute changes with appropriate testing, validation and rollback, which is critical through the migration. 
• Maintain fabric health through observability — use fabric controllers (Cisco ND, Arista CloudVision, Juniper Apstra) and streaming telemetry to detect, diagnose and pre-empt issues before they impact users. 
• Codify operations — partner with automation/SRE colleagues to move recurring work from manual operations toward infrastructure as code and network as code. 
• Set the engineering standard — contribute standards, runbooks and documentation, and mentor junior engineers as a technical multiplier across the team. 

Job Requirements

Data Centre Networking (Foundations) 

Strong, hands-on expertise in enterprise data centre networking: Layer 2 / Layer 3 design, VLANs, trunking, vPC/MLAG, spanning tree and first-hop redundancy (HSRP/VRRP). 

Hands-on experience operating Cisco Nexus (NX-OS) and/or ACI, Arista EOS, or Juniper at enterprise scale. 

Proven troubleshooting across the control plane, data plane and physical infrastructure. 

Fabric Modernisation (the mission) 

Proven experience designing and/or migrating to Clos / spine-leaf fabrics with VXLAN and BGP EVPN (distributed anycast gateway, symmetric/asymmetric IRB, multi-tenant VRFs) — you do not need to have run our estate, but you should have taken an environment to a fabric before, or be ready to. 

Ability to plan and execute a phased brownfield-to-greenfield migration from a traditional architecture, with minimal disruption. 

Exposure to — or a strong appetite to build — AI/ML fabric design (lossless Ethernet, RoCEv2) and high-performance storage networking. 

Routing & Control Plane 

Expert BGP (eBGP/iBGP): route policy, path selection, redistribution and address-family design, for both traditional routing and an EVPN overlay. 

Strong grasp of ECMP, OSPF (underlay) and data centre / internet edge design, including working with service providers on connectivity and troubleshooting. 

General 

Significant hands-on experience (typically 8+ years) in enterprise network engineering and operations — including a senior or lead technical role — with substantial time in data centre environments. 

Demonstrated ownership of complex, high-impact infrastructure in a global environment, including delivery through planned maintenance windows and migration cutovers. 

Strong troubleshooting discipline and structured incident-resolution skills under pressure. 

Excellent communication skills, with the ability to work across regions and mentor others. 

Nice to Have 

The following are not required, but will distinguish a strong candidate — particularly the automation and AI-infrastructure capabilities that align with where the team and NetApp are heading. 

Scripting and automation — Python, Ansible or Arista AVD — applied to fabric configuration and operations, with a source of truth such as NetBox or Nautobot. 

Infrastructure as code and network as code — Terraform, Git-based workflows and CI/CD for network change. 

AI/ML fabric depth — rail-optimised / rail-only Clos topologies, InfiniBand vs Ethernet trade-offs, 800G, merchant silicon (e.g. Broadcom Tomahawk) and Ultra Ethernet (UEC). 

Storage and data-fabric networking — NVMe-oF, NFS/pNFS, iSCSI and RDMA transport, and GPU-to-storage back-end fabrics. 

Load balancing and GSLB — F5 or AVI 

AI-assisted operations and MCP — connecting AI assistants and agents to fabric controllers, telemetry and operational systems via the Model Context Protocol (MCP), and applying AIOps to reduce toil. 

Workflow automation and orchestration — platforms such as n8n to connect fabric tooling, APIs and operational processes. 

Network observability and telemetry — streaming telemetry (gNMI/OpenConfig), ThousandEyes or similar. 

Cloud data-centre networking across AWS, Azure or OCI — transit, peering and hybrid connectivity. 

SRE practices — SLOs, error budgets and toil reduction. 

Security and segmentation — micro/macro-segmentation (ACI or EVPN) and firewalls (Palo Alto). 

Open networking / white-box exposure (SONiC). 

Relevant certifications — CCNP / CCIE Data Center, Arista ACE, or JNCIP-DC.