Senior Principal Engineer, Product Software (Network Platform)

About the role

The Senior Principal Architect is a highly influential technical leadership role responsible for end-to-end architectural direction, technical governance, and the evolution of software and network platforms within Network Platform Engineering (NPE).

Responsibilities

• Define and drive end-to-end architecture across network and software platforms, including control plane, data plane, telemetry, APIs, automation, and operations.

• Act as architect-of-record for critical platforms and initiatives, collaborating with peer architects on shared systems and boundaries.

• Guide engineering teams and tech leads on architecture, design patterns, and implementation; lead architecture and design reviews.

• Drive software platform architecture with a system-level perspective, ensuring scalability, resilience, and operational excellence.

• Shape design across control plane systems, telemetry and observability pipelines, and network platforms.

• Champion automation-first design and strong operational practices.

• Own architectural strategy from long-term vision through delivery and steady-state operations.

• Translate business needs into architectural direction and clearly communicate trade-offs to senior stakeholders.

• Partner cross-functionally to improve platform quality, operability, and readiness.

• Drive adoption of AI-driven capabilities where relevant.

• Act as a senior escalation point for complex, cross-domain technical issues.

• Provide architectural leadership during critical incidents and ambiguous problem spaces.

• Leverage data-driven insights to accelerate diagnosis and resolution.

• Establish and evolve architectural governance, standards, and best practices with peer architects.

• Ensure consistency across platforms while enabling team autonomy and addressing technical debt.

• Promote responsible and scalable integration of AI capabilities.

• Operational Excellence & Impact:

  • Drive efficiency through automation, standardization, and simplification.

  • Define and track metrics for system health, performance, and architectural quality.

• Leadership & Industry Engagement:

  • Influence outcomes across engineering, product, and leadership through technical expertise and collaboration.

  • Represent Equinix externally and contribute to industry standards, innovation, and emerging technologies.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in large-scale, mission-critical infrastructure environments.

• Proven success in a senior architecture role (Principal / Senior Principal level), influencing technical direction across multiple teams and domains.

• Experience operating within an architecture community or peer architect model, driving alignment and shared outcomes.

• Experience applying AI/ML in large-scale infrastructure or platform environments.

• Familiarity with AIOps, data engineering, and production ML pipelines.

• Understanding of model lifecycle management and real-time inference systems (nice to have).

• Deep expertise in modern, cloud-native and distributed software architectures.

• Strong experience with control plane systems, telemetry and observability platforms, and network software stacks.

• Solid grounding in large-scale network architecture and operations.

• Ability to reason across hardware, software, and operational systems.

• Strong communication skills, with the ability to engage across engineering, product, and senior leadership.

• Proven ability to influence architectural outcomes across teams through collaboration and technical leadership.