Network Engineer, Distributed Compute

About Base

Base is America’s next‑generation power company. We’re rebuilding the foundation of modern civilization—electricity—by deploying a vast network of distributed batteries that is transforming today’s fragile, centralized grid into a resilient and abundant system. We are engineers, operators, and creatives solving some of the most complex, interdisciplinary challenges of our time.

About the Role

This is the first dedicated network engineering hire for the Distributed Compute program, which deploys modular datacenters on top of our battery fleet, turning distributed energy sites into a distributed inference network.

Responsibilities

• Own the end‑to‑end network architecture for Distributed Compute networks, including site connectivity, backhaul, fleet‑wide overlay, and inter‑node interconnect.
• Standardize the per‑site network stack (routing, switching, firewall, out‑of‑band management) to enable rapid site onboarding.
• Lead fiber and carrier strategy: evaluate dark fiber vs. lit services, make build vs. lease decisions per site cluster, select scalable topologies, manage carrier/ISP selection, circuit ordering, and failover across fiber, fixed wireless, and cellular.
• Build and operate the fleet overlay and its automation, establishing secure site‑to‑site and site‑to‑cloud connectivity, BGP routing, and traffic engineering for inference workloads.
• Automate configuration generation, zero‑touch provisioning, and monitoring so network state is managed in code.
• Instrument, secure, and support the network: track latency, throughput, packet loss, and circuit health in Base’s telemetry and Grafana stack.
• Define segmentation between compute, battery control, and management planes, including certificate management and audit‑ready access controls.
• Support initial site installs and bring‑ups in the field, then reduce on‑site involvement as processes mature.

Requirements

• 5+ years running production networks.
• Deep, hands‑on experience with routing and switching (BGP, OSPF, VLANs, VRFs).
• Experience with site‑to‑site connectivity at scale (SD‑WAN or overlay networks such as WireGuard, IPsec) across tens to hundreds of locations.
• Familiarity with fiber networks and topologies.
• Experience procuring and managing circuits with carriers.
• Comfort working in the field; some work will occur at sites in utility territories.

Team

Distributed Compute is Base’s program for deploying modular datacenters on top of our battery fleet, turning distributed energy sites into a distributed inference network. The scale is a networking problem as much as a power problem: hundreds of small sites, each running GPU compute, spread across utility territories, all requiring reliable, secure, high‑throughput connectivity, with the fleet behaving like one coherent network.

This is the first dedicated network engineering hire on the program, so architecture decisions are still open and constraints are real (residential and utility sites, power budgets, physical access). The work you build will carry production inference traffic within months, not years.

Values

• First Principles Thinking: Question assumptions. Principles > rules.
• Operate at Base Pace: Focus on what matters, act quickly, and learn by doing.
• Give & Get Feedback: Be direct, be humble, and maintain a growth mindset.
• Everyone’s an Owner: Follow through on commitments and own results.
• Strong Opinions, Loosely Held: Drive clarity and make calls with imperfect information.
• Committed to the Mission: Rebuilding the grid is a big challenge; we work hard because we care deeply about the impact we’re creating.
• Work Environment: In‑person, not a 9‑to‑5, all‑in.
• Fun & Optimism Coexist with Grit: Collaboration and celebration coincide with the intensity of building real things.