Principal Network Engineer
About the role
Lila's science factories run on a fast-growing, multi-site network that spans corporate offices, autonomous labs, and OT/robotics environments across Cambridge (Alewife), OCP, San Francisco, and London. As Principal Network Engineer, you will be the senior technical owner of that network: building the in-house engineering capability to design, secure, and scale it, while increasing the value and effectiveness of our managed service provider relationships. You'll partner closely with Identity, Endpoints, Security, and OT/Controls engineering teams as we build the corporate engineering function. You’ll have real influence over the network architecture decisions that determine how quickly and safely we can bring new labs and AI Science Factories online. This is a hands-on, senior IC role for someone who can set technical direction, operate deeply in the details, and shape the network engineering function as it matures.
Responsibilities
- Own the architecture, design, and roadmap for Lila’s global network, including SD-WAN/SASE, enterprise firewalls, and secure remote access.
- Lead VLAN, subnet, and segmentation design across corporate IT, lab, and OT environments.
- Design IT/OT convergence patterns that keep production labs safe, segmented, observable, and reliable.
- Drive network infrastructure migration and hardening, including firewall-to-SASE cutovers and maintenance windows.
- Build network visibility, monitoring, and telemetry to detect issues before they affect scientists or lab operations.
- Establish scalable standards for DNS, IP addressing, and naming conventions across labs, buildings, and geographies.
- Serve as the senior escalation point for complex network incidents, and create runbooks that help the broader IT team self-serve.
- Manage network-focused MSPs and vendors while insourcing the highest-value engineering work over time.
- Mentor other network engineers and represent network engineering in planning for lab buildouts and facility expansions.
- Advise leadership on network architecture tradeoffs across security, cost, reliability, and delivery speed.