Platform Manager - Automation and Network Reliability Engineering

We are looking for a highly skilled Network Automation Architectto contribute to our automation efforts, focusing on the integration and optimization of our Global Network Platform. This role is crucial in crafting reliable, scalable, and efficient network automation services to support our global network infrastructure. The ideal candidate will have 4 years of hands-on programming experience supporting software development workflows and tools, including CI/CD pipelines, inventory and configuration resource management, and experience with development tools such as Harness, Python, JS, Bash, SQL. The candidate will also have experience specializing in Network Automation and/or Infrastructure as Code (IaC) automation with a deep knowledge of SRE and DevOps patterns. You will be responsible for designing, building, and deploying cutting-edge network automation solutions based on Harness, Python/ NetMiko, Ansible, Itential, Terraform, GIT, and RESTful APIs. 

Key Responsibilities

• Decision Making and Autonomy

• Demonstrated capacity and authority to make organizational decisions, autonomy in decisionmaking, complexity of decisions, impact of decisions, problem-solving.

• High levels of autonomy in making technical decisions and in problem solving related to the platform, while retaining accountability for decisions to be reviewed by architecture governance

• Ability to act independently and drive roadmap items and prioritization of work including efforts related to standards, blueprinting, and development of reference architectures.

• Leadership and Technical Direction:

• Act as a lead for the Network Automation Practice helping to set the long-term vision and design, development, and implementation of network and infrastructure automation solutions and programs.

• Drive strategic planning and implementation of automation workflows to optimize network performance, reduce downtime, and increase operational efficiency.

• Serve as the technical expert / SME for the team, mentoring junior engineers, and establishing best practices and training opportunities (coding challenges) for automation.

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including Network Service Delivery, Network Operations, Cloud, CI Pipeline, Security, DevOps and Foundation Platforms to ensure the scalability and reliability of automated solutions.

• Network and Infrastructure Automation:

• Work with network orchestration systems, telemetry systems, logging, and developer platforms to integrate and automate network functions across three key areas: 1) Inventory & Data Governance, 2) Configuration Management & Auditing, and 3) Platform Provisioning & Lifecycle Maintenance.

• Build and manage network continuous integration (CI) automation pipelines using tools like Ansible, Itential Terraform, and Git to automate network provisioning, configuration management, inventory (CMBD) and telemetry / bot integration.

• Key responsibilities include building automation services, developing reusable software modules, and designing data structures and UI interfaces for network automation.

• Strong focus on Event-Driven Fault Management in the network space, utilizing automation bots and predictive PR techniques to address deficiencies, reduce manual intervention, and minimize toil.

• Apply Infrastructure as Code (IaC) best practices to deploy and manage complex environments, ensuring service classification and adherence to SLAs.

• Develop a completely new automation platform and framework to streamline and simplify network workflows using languages like Python/NetMiko, JS, and Go.

• Integration with External Infrastructure Systems:

• Leverage external dependency systems like ServiceNow CMDB, Solarwinds, Grafana, Kafka / MQ to ensure seamless and reliable integrations with automation workflows.

• Develop solutions to integrate external systems with internal automation pipelines to enhance visibility and monitoring.

• Build and manage integrations with Rest APIs to connect disparate systems across the network and infrastructure stack.

• Tools and Technologies:

• Deep experience with industry-standard tools like Harness, Ansible, Itential Terraform, Buildkite, Grafana, and version control using Git.

• Experience working with YAML, JSON, and other configuration management formats for building automation scripts and pipelines.

• Expertise in creating and managing RESTful APIs to support automation workflows, ensuring systems are extensible and maintainable.

• Continuous Improvement and Innovation:

• Deploy continuous improvements to network automation practices and tools to enhance scalability, reliability, and performance.

• Research and integrate new automation tools and technologies that can improve network automation practices and overall infrastructure management.

• Collaborate with peer engineers to identify automation opportunities and implement solutions that reduce manual intervention.

• Monitoring, Reporting, and Telemetry:

• Leverage monitoring solutions such as Solarwinds, Grafana or other relevant graphic tools to visualize and track the performance of automated network systems.

• Leverage disparate telemetry data from network monitoring tools to proactively respond to network incidents, ensuring automation solutions meet operational needs.

• Ensure detailed reporting and logging of automation activities to track performance and enable data-driven decision-making.

• Cross-team Collaboration and Strategy:

• Collaborate with Network Operations, Network Service Delivery, DevSecOps, BU Network Partners, and Cloud Platform teams to ensure alignment and smooth execution of network automation initiatives.

• Advocate for automation at the platform level, ensuring alignment with broader team goals and initiatives.

• Provide technical guidance in driving the adoption of network automation best practices across the team.

Stakeholder Responsibilities

• Identifying, analyzing, engaging, and managing stakeholder needs, expectations, and leveraginginfluencewith individuals to ensure program deliverables are met and ensuring their support and participation throughout the project lifecycle. 

• Provide consistent communication to stakeholders, ensuring all stakeholders are informed about project progress and changes

• Proactively identifyand address stakeholder concerns to mitigate risks and prevent potential problems

• Understand customer needs and goals, current platform capabilities, and future platform possibilities.

• Set customer expectations and ensure services delivered meet or exceed current and future business, customer, and stakeholder expectations.

• Manage the expectations of business owners, customers, and other stakeholders.

Key Skills Required

• 10+ years of development experience, with a strong background in network and infrastructure as code (IaC) automation.

• 3+ years of experience as a platform lead or in a leadership role, guiding teams through complex automation projects.

• Deep experience in network automation using tools like Ansible, Terraform, GIT, and other infrastructure management platforms.

• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, and Go for automation scripting.

• Strong understanding of external infrastructure dependency systems like ServiceNow CMDB, Telemetry Systems, Kafka/ MQ, Containers (K8s), and Grafana for network monitoring and telemetry.

• Strong experience with YAML, JSON, and other data serialization formats used in configuration management.

• Expertise in building and managing REST APIs and webhooks to automate tasks and enable communication between internal and external systems.

• Proven experience building, deploying, and maintaining automation pipelines in a high-performance platform environment.

• Knowledge of network protocols, network infrastructure, and cloud-based environments (AWS, GCP, Azure) is highly desirable.

• Ability to lead and manage junior engineers, working collaboratively across multiple teams.

• Strong problem-solving and troubleshooting skills, with the ability to think critically about automation and its impact on operational efficiency.

Other Preferred Qualifications

• Background in Network Engineering CCNA/CCNP certifications or demonstratedcommensuratelevel experience.

• Experience with network workflow orchestration using theItential automation platform

• Experience with modern telemetry and monitoring systems (e.g., Prometheus, Elasticsearch, Kibana, Solarwinds, ThousandEyes, DataDog).

• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and related tools such as Harness, Ansible, and Git

• Certifications or training in Network Automation or Cloud Infrastructure (e.g., Cisco DevNet, AWS Certified DevOps Engineer).

• Familiarity with microservices architectures, containers, and orchestration tools like Kubernetes.