Core Routing/IP Backbone Engineer

Summary

Berkeley Lab is seeking a Core Routing/IP Backbone Engineer to join its Scientific Networking Division and support Energy Sciences Network (ESnet). The role involves designing, deploying, and supporting network infrastructure to enable large-scale scientific collaboration and high-performance data movement.

Responsibilities

• Design, deploy, and support routing, switching, optical, and transport infrastructure across ESnet’s production and research networks
• Configure and troubleshoot advanced networking technologies including IPv4/IPv6, BGP, IS-IS, MPLS, Segment Routing, RSVP, QoS, and L2/L3 VPNs
• Support network operations, maintenance, upgrades, incident response, and service restoration
• Develop automation tools and operational workflows to improve scalability, reliability, and efficiency
• Collaborate with engineers, scientific stakeholders, vendors, carriers, and partner organizations to deliver and maintain network services
• Participate in project planning, procurement, testing, deployment, and operational readiness activities
• Create and maintain technical documentation, procedures, and network standards
• Contribute to process improvements, troubleshoot moderate-complexity issues, and provide trusted technical guidance to stakeholders
• Participate in an on-call rotation for business-hours and after-hours operational support
• Operate with strong technical ownership and independence across infrastructure and operational initiatives
• Lead projects, resolve complex technical issues, and contribute to network architecture and service design
• Mentor junior engineers and drive operational improvements through automation, process optimization, and cross-team collaboration

Skills

• Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 3 years and a Master's degree; or equivalent work experience
• Minimum of five years of relevant experience designing, deploying, operating, and troubleshooting network infrastructure and services
• Demonstrated experience working with enterprise, service provider, research, or large-scale WAN/LAN environments
• Demonstrated knowledge and hands-on experience with IP networking technologies and carrier-grade services including MPLS, QoS, traffic engineering, Layer 2/Layer 3 VPN technologies, and related service provider architectures
• Experience configuring, troubleshooting, and operating advanced routing protocols and technologies, preferably including BGP, IS-IS, OSPF, Segment Routing, IPv4/IPv6, and MPLS within large-scale WAN, backbone, or service provider networking environments
• Strong understanding of network troubleshooting methodologies with the ability to diagnose and resolve complex routing, transport, and end-to-end service issues across distributed wide-area infrastructures
• Experience administering and operating multi-vendor routing platforms, preferably Juniper and Nokia (Alcatel-Lucent), in production backbone or carrier-class environments
• Experience working in UNIX/Linux command-line environments, including remote systems administration, scripting fundamentals, and network automation workflows
• Experience contributing to technical projects involving backbone deployments, network service implementations, migration planning, testing, operational readiness, and production support
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills with the ability to manage operational and engineering issues of moderate to high complexity in large-scale network environments
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively across engineering teams, operations groups, vendors, carriers, and scientific stakeholders
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a highly collaborative, cross-functional technical environment supporting mission-critical network infrastructure
• Experience using collaboration, ticketing, documentation, monitoring, and operational support tools within network engineering or service provider operations environments
• Experience working in Research & Education (R&E), scientific computing, backbone, or service provider networking environments
• Experience with network automation, model-driven telemetry, APIs, YANG/NETCONF, or infrastructure-as-code methodologies
• Experience supporting optical transport systems, DWDM technologies, coherent optics, or long-haul backbone infrastructure
• Familiarity with large-scale peering ecosystems, interdomain routing, and high-capacity backbone operations
• Experience participating in on-call operational support rotations for production WAN or backbone network environments

Qualifications

Must Haves

• Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 3 years and a Master's degree; or equivalent work experience
• Minimum of five years of relevant experience designing, deploying, operating, and troubleshooting network infrastructure and services
• Demonstrated experience working with enterprise, service provider, research, or large-scale WAN/LAN environments
• Demonstrated knowledge and hands-on experience with IP networking technologies and carrier-grade services including MPLS, QoS, traffic engineering, Layer 2/Layer 3 VPN technologies, and related service provider architectures
• Experience configuring, troubleshooting, and operating advanced routing protocols and technologies, preferably including BGP, IS-IS, OSPF, Segment Routing, IPv4/IPv6, and MPLS within large-scale WAN, backbone, or service provider networking environments
• Strong understanding of network troubleshooting methodologies with the ability to diagnose and resolve complex routing, transport, and end-to-end service issues across distributed wide-area infrastructures
• Experience administering and operating multi-vendor routing platforms, preferably Juniper and Nokia (Alcatel-Lucent), in production backbone or carrier-class environments
• Experience working in UNIX/Linux command-line environments, including remote systems administration, scripting fundamentals, and network automation workflows
• Experience contributing to technical projects involving backbone deployments, network service implementations, migration planning, testing, operational readiness, and production support
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills with the ability to manage operational and engineering issues of moderate to high complexity in large-scale network environments
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively across engineering teams, operations groups, vendors, carriers, and scientific stakeholders
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a highly collaborative, cross-functional technical environment supporting mission-critical network infrastructure
• Experience using collaboration, ticketing, documentation, monitoring, and operational support tools within network engineering or service provider operations environments

Nice to Haves

• Experience working in Research & Education (R&E), scientific computing, backbone, or service provider networking environments
• Experience with network automation, model-driven telemetry, APIs, YANG/NETCONF, or infrastructure-as-code methodologies
• Experience supporting optical transport systems, DWDM technologies, coherent optics, or long-haul backbone infrastructure
• Familiarity with large-scale peering ecosystems, interdomain routing, and high-capacity backbone operations
• Experience participating in on-call operational support rotations for production WAN or backbone network environments

Benefits

• Exceptional health and retirement [benefits](https://benefits.lbl.gov/), including pension or 401K-style plans
• A culture where you’ll belong - we are invested in our teams!
• In addition to accruing vacation and sick time, we also have a Winter [Holiday](https://hr.lbl.gov/resource/berkeley-lab-holiday-calendar/) Shutdown every year.
• Parental bonding leave (for both mothers and fathers)
• Pet insurance