Senior Network Automation Engineer

Description

The company builds next-generation space stations and related infrastructure using an incremental, hardware-heavy, low-cost method.

It is scaling a multi-module station meant to keep people in orbit continuously for the United States and its partners, supporting microgravity research, manufacturing, and a commercial space economy serving government, corporate, and private clients.

Its 2025 demo mission made it the only commercial space station firm to have flown and operated its own spacecraft. The first commercial station is planned to launch in 2027, with more modules to follow. The company has also announced a high-power satellite line built on its station components and demo heritage.

Based in Long Beach, California, the company has over 1,000 staff and more than $1 billion in private funding, along with the facilities to build and run its next station. Future plans include Moon and Mars habitats, government-dedicated stations, and other crewed systems.

You will report to the Senior Manager of Network Infrastructure and lead the modernization of the data center and campus networks. The team uses modern software practices and AI-assisted engineering, including AI coding tools, to speed up script work, validation, and troubleshooting.

Responsibilities

• Design and run automation pipelines that provision and manage EVPN-VXLAN fabrics, including symmetric and asymmetric IRB, multi-homing, and anycast gateways, across Arista (EOS/AVD) and Juniper (Junos/Apstra).
• Push a vendor-neutral approach by turning device-specific tasks into reusable open data models in YAML, JSON, or YANG, and enforce a strict Network as Code model to avoid lock-in.
• Own the schemas and data definitions for the single source of truth platform (such as NetBox or Nautobot) so fabric intent maps to live state.
• Build network CI/CD by adding validation and dry-run tests (such as Batfish or pyATS) to GitLab CI or GitHub Actions, so network state is checked before changes go live.
• Identify and add AI-assisted workflows, such as agentic test automation, playbook generation, and natural-language telemetry queries, to speed up the team.
• Set coding standards and guardrails for AI-generated code, serve as the main reference for automation patterns, and mentor junior network developers.

Requirements

• 7, 10 years of network engineering experience, with at least 4+ years in deep network automation and NetDevOps practice.
• Strong knowledge of eBGP and OSPF underlay routing and EVPN-VXLAN overlay design in large enterprise data center and campus networks.
• Hands-on experience managing Arista EOS and Juniper Junos systems programmatically.
• Senior-level Python skills (Nornir, Asyncio, NAPALM) or Go for building reliable internal infrastructure APIs.
• Practical use of AI code assistants, prompt engineering patterns, or agentic frameworks to generate, refactor, and test automation code safely.
• Expert, production-proven use of Terraform, Ansible, and GitOps workflows.
• Ability to lift up to 25 lbs unassisted.
• Specific certifications, where appropriate.
• Preferred: advanced certifications such as Arista ACE, Juniper JNCIE, Cisco CCIE, or DevNet Professional or Expert.
• Preferred: experience using streaming telemetry standards (gNMI, gRPC) to monitor and parse real-time fabric state.
• Preferred: experience containerizing networking scripts or microservices with Docker or Kubernetes.

Conditions

Full-time, exempt position based in Long Beach, California.

Pay range: $131,000 - $186,000 USD.

Level and pay are set by the candidate's experience and demonstrated capability, and applicants across a range of experience levels are welcome.

Base pay depends on job-related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand, and is one part of total compensation.

Travel up to 20% of the time.

Willingness to work overtime or weekends to support critical milestones.

Benefits

• Company equity for full-time employees.
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents.
• Generous paid time off: up to 20+ vacation days for exempt staff and up to 10+ for non-exempt staff, with unused vacation cashed out annually.
• Paid parental leave, short- and long-term disability insurance, and life insurance.
• 401(k) retirement plan.
• ClassPass credits and personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health.
• Other discounts and perks.
• Food perks: snacks, drip coffee, an onsite barista, cold drinks, and free dinners, with subsidized lunch.