Optical Switch Engineer - Onsite

Job Title:

Optical Switch Engineer

Location: Menlo Park, CA

Work Model: 100% Onsite (Client Site)

Company: Industry‑leading global technology company operating hyperscale networks

We are seeking a highly skilled Optical Switch Engineer to support optical switching platforms, automation workflows, and data center network operations for a global hyperscale technology organization. The ideal candidate has strong hands‑on experience with optical hardware, switching platforms, automation tooling, and troubleshooting complex network/optical environments s role requires close partnership with hardware, software, operations, and capacity planning teams, along with a strong desire to learn proprietary platforms, tools, and automation systems.

Candidates with experience designing or operating environments with tens of thousands of devices or massive‑scale optical systems are strongly encouraged to apply.

• 5+ years experience in optical networking or transport engineering
• 2+ years automating network operations and workflows (mandatory)
• 1+ year Data Center Network (DCN) Engineering experience (mandatory)
• Hands‑on experience with Fiber spool, PDUs, switches, and related core network hardware
• Experience with IXIA, Calient, and/or Telescent optical switching platforms
• Repository management experience (Git or equivalent tools)
• Deployment automation experience (Ansible or similar)
• Strong programming/scripting skills in Python (OOP) or Go/Bash
• Knowledge of data center fabric architectures and telemetry systems
• Experience with gNMI‑based monitoring technologies
• Bachelor’s degree in EE, CE, Telecommunications, or equivalent experience
• Vendor certifications or formal optical training (Ciena, Infinera, Nokia, Juniper, Cisco)

• Hands‑on expertise with IXIA, Calient, and/or Telescent optical switch platforms
• Multi‑vendor cabling and optics expertise
• Strong foundation in physical layer components:
  • Fiber cleaning/inspection
  • Cabling standards (TIA/EIA, ISO/IEC)
  • OTDR, power meters, light meters
  • Transceiver compatibility & diagnostics (DOM/DDM)

• Build, enhance, and maintain automation for optical switching and network workflows
• Develop API integrations, scripts, and configuration automation
• Use configuration management systems to automate provisioning, monitoring, and diagnostics
• Deploy automation at hyperscale across thousands of devices

• Diagnose issues in DWDM and PON systems
• Use OTDR and related tools for fault isolation
• Analyze optical signal loss, BER issues, and transceiver telemetry
• Resolve high‑capacity optical link performance issues

• Configure network devices for IPv4, IPv6, DHCP, DHCPv6, DNS
• Implement firewalls (stateful/stateless) based on security requirements
• Perform physical and logical installation of network and optical equipment

• Monitor network performance using SNMP, Net Flow, sFlow, ICMP, IPSLA, RPM probes, syslog
• Update firewall rules and network configurations
• Provide pre‑ and post‑migration support
• Conduct root cause analysis and resolve complex incidents

• Apply QoS for optimized traffic prioritization
• Implement NAT/NAT
  64 as needed
• Optimize bandwidth usage and network efficiency

• Implement ECMP and redundancy strategies
• Configure backup and failover mechanisms
• Ensure rapid recovery through monitoring and automated fallback

• Use IXIA for throughput, latency, resiliency, and failover validation
• Perform lab and production acceptance testing for:
  • Optical transport systems
  • PON OLT/ONT platforms
  • Fiber automation workflows
• Conduct pre‑production and regression testing

• Ability to design & implement spine‑leaf architectures
• Familiarity with SLAAC, IPFIX/Net Flow
• Strong understanding of server and switch architecture
• Experience planning and designing IPv4/IPv6 address architectures
• Knowledge of routing protocols: BGP/MP‑BGP, EVPN‑VXLAN, OSPF
• Experience with network migrations, documentation, dependency mapping
• Security experience: MACsec, IPSec, RADIUS/PI servers
• Familiarity with NIST framework and industry security standards
• Understanding of compliance standards (IEEE 802.1X/MAB)

• Final deliverables will be determined (TBD) based on project scope, migration plans, and operational requirements.