Sr Staff Platform Network Engineer

Kentik is the network intelligence platform for modern infrastructure teams. Unlike traditional monitoring and observability tools, we demystify complex network operations, enabling organizations to deliver applications and innovation at scale. Built by network experts to make critical insight accessible to every engineer, Kentik is the real-time source of truth that understands every network in context — from data center to cloud to the internet. This single platform unifies and correlates cloud, device, flow, synthetic data to turn telemetry into action. Market leaders like Akamai, Booking.com, Dropbox, and Zoom rely on Kentik to run, manage, and optimize their networks.

As a Sr Staff Platform Network Engineer, you'll be the technical owner of the network infrastructure that powers our SaaS platform while serving as our primary networking expert during critical incidents. This role uniquely combines deep data center networking expertise with platform engineering thinking - you'll need to architect networks that enable exceptional customer experiences while having the technical depth to troubleshoot and resolve complex network issues in production.

Working as part of the Production SRE team, you’ll work directly with Infrastructure Engineering and Product Engineering teams to design network solutions that scale with business growth. However, this isn't just about building great networks - it's about building networks that serve our platform and knowing how to fix them when they break.

• Platform Network Architecture - Design and evolve network infrastructure that supports SaaS platform performance, customer isolation, and multi-tenant requirements
• Incident Response Leadership - Serve as primary escalation point for network incidents with deep troubleshooting expertise across all network layers
• Production Network Operations - Own day-to-day health, performance, and reliability of our data center network infrastructure
• Platform Integration - Partner with Product and Engineering teams to ensure network capabilities enable product features and application scaling
• Network Automation - Build automation and tooling that supports operational excellence and platform deployment velocity
• Capacity Planning - Lead network capacity modeling based on technical requirements and business growth projections
• Architecture Evolution - Design and implement network improvements that balance operational needs with long-term platform requirements
• Vendor Management - Evaluate, implement, and manage network technologies and vendor relationships
• Documentation - Create operational runbooks and architecture documentation for network systems

Studies have shown that some candidates tend to apply to jobs only if they meet 100% of the qualifications. We encourage you to apply if you meet most of the criteria - even if you don’t match all of the qualifications, your skills and experience could be valuable in this role!

• 8+ years of hands-on network engineering with demonstrated expertise in production incident resolution and data center networking
• Expert knowledge of spine-leaf architectures, EVPN/VXLAN, BGP in the data center, and modern data center protocols
• Deep understanding of BGP, OSPF, Layer 2/3 troubleshooting, and network performance analysis
• Experience with multi-tenant network design, container networking, and application-aware network architectures
• Hands-on experience with merchant silicon switches, network operating systems, and data center hardware platforms
• Strong programming skills (Python, Go) for network automation, configuration management, and operational tooling
• Proven experience leading complex network incident response and post-incident technical analysis
• Expertise building network monitoring that connects technical metrics to customer experience and business outcomes
• Ability to work effectively with numerous stakeholders to translate requirements into network solutions
• Comfortable making decisions with incomplete information and building scalable solutions for growing environments

Nice to haves:

• Experience building network infrastructure for multi-tenant SaaS platforms or customer-facing services
• Experience managing network infrastructure supporting thousands of servers and high customer traffic volumes
• Previous experience with high scale global peering and transit networking
• Experience implementing network security controls, segmentation, multitenancy, and threat (DDoS, etc.) response
• Background optimizing networks for specific application workloads and customer performance requirements
• Advanced experience with network “source of truth” (eg: Netbox, Nautobot) configuration management using Ansible, Terraform, or similar CI/CD automation frameworks

• Our core data engine and platform are primarily written in Go
• We use Node.js + Express for application serving, and React as our primary UI framework
• We also use some JS and Python for tooling/scripting
• In addition to our own database, we use Postgres, Kafka, Mysql, and Redis
• Internal and public APIs expose both rest/json and gRPC endpoints
• Haproxy, Envoy for API traffic routing and balancing
• Github for source control, PRs, issues
• Jenkins for automated builds

Kentik is a fully remote company that operates globally. We seek professionals that will help us thrive as an organization, and in turn, to broaden and enhance your career. We’re very thorough in the interview process to understand your skills and how they will relate to your successful growth here at Kentik. Our compensation philosophy encompasses a fair program for all in order to attract, engage and retain talented individuals who will drive our business and wow our customers.

The compensation range for this position is: $215,000 - $290,000. This range reflects the low and high end of the U.S. compensation range Kentik reasonably and generally expects to pay the hired candidate in this role. The actual compensation offered may be lower or higher than the stated range depending on various factors, including but not limited to:

• Experience with the skill sets required for success
• Demonstrated competencies and potential 
• A geographic market-based approach

In addition to a great career opportunity, Kentik offers stellar benefits for our employees, which include:

• 100% of premiums are paid by company for health, vision and dental coverage for you and your dependents
• Additionally, an annual Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) of $3,000 for an individual or $4,500 for a family
• Paid family & medical leave 
• Open PTO, a quarterly Wellness Day, and a minimum of 10 paid holidays
• 401(k) retirement account
• Home office reimbursement 
• Stock options

Note: Benefits are as listed for all US full-time employees. For compensation, international applicants will be treated equitably in relation to the laws applicable within the countries in which we operate.

The true meaning of Kentik is visibility. We’re committed to making sure everyone feels empowered to use their voice, has a sense of belonging, and is represented at Kentik. 

We don’t look for individuals who fit the culture, but those who will continue to add to the culture.
We encourage everyone to apply, especially those individuals who are underrepresented in the industry: people of color, LGBTQI+ community, women, individuals with disabilities (both seen and unseen), veterans, and people of any age or family status. 

Kentik is committed to creating an inclusive interview process. If you require a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please reach out to [email protected].

Come as you are!
You will be working at a fast-growing, well-funded startup alongside industry thought leaders and network aficionados as we build the future of observability and set the high bar for how network operations and digital businesses should run. With a competitive salary and amazing benefits on top of the meaningful and challenging projects you’ll take on, we’re sure you’ll enjoy joining the Kentik team.

#li-remote