Architect – Network Automation

CBTS serves enterprise and midmarket clients in all industries across the United States and Canada. CBTS combines deep technical expertise with a full suite of flexible technology solutions--including Application Modernization, Managed Hybrid Cloud, Cybersecurity, Unified Communications, and Infrastructure solutions. From developing and deploying modern applications and the secure, scalable platforms on which they run, to managing, monitoring, and optimizing their operations, CBTS delivers comprehensive technology solutions for its clients' transformative business initiatives. For more information, please visit www.cbts.com.

We are seeking a Senior Network Automation Architect — a software engineer first, with deep domain expertise in network infrastructure.

This is not a traditional network engineering role with scripting. This position owns the design, development, and delivery of production‑grade automation software that operates across a large‑scale, multi‑vendor network environment for a Managed Service Provider (MSP).

You will define the developer experience for the network organization: setting coding standards, designing extensible software architectures, building reusable Python libraries and internal platforms, implementing CI/CD pipelines, and mentoring engineers in modern software development practices.

You think in design patterns, clean abstractions, testability, and long‑term maintainability — and you apply that mindset to infrastructure automation.

What You’ll Own

Software Architecture & Development

• Architect and develop production-quality Python applications, libraries, and CLI tools for network automation, orchestration, and observability.
• Design clean, extensible architectures using patterns such as factory, strategy, adapter, and plugin-based systems to abstract vendor differences.
• Build and maintain API integrations (REST, GraphQL, gRPC, JSON‑RPC) with platforms including:
• Arista VeloCloud
• Palo Alto Prisma SD‑WAN
• Fortinet SD‑WAN
• Cisco Meraki
• Juniper Mist
• Traditional network OS platforms (IOS‑XE, NX‑OS, JunOS)
• Develop internal Python packages with:
• Proper packaging (pyproject.toml)
• Semantic versioning
• Dependency management
• Internal PyPI distribution
• Write comprehensive test suites:
• Unit tests (pytest)
• Integration tests
• Network validation tests using mocks and fixtures
• Shape Git strategies and repository structure.
• Leverage AI/LLM developer tooling responsibly to improve productivity and code quality.
  

Developer Experience & Engineering Standards

• Author and maintain coding standards, architectural decision records (ADRs), and development guidelines.
• Establish and enforce code quality tooling:
• PEP8
• Ruff / Pylint
• Black
• MyPy
• Pre‑commit hooks
• Design and implement CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins) for:
• Linting
• Testing
• Security scanning
• Build and release automation
• Define Git workflows:
• Branching strategies
• Pull request standards
• Code review expectations
• Release management
• Create project templates, scaffolding, and cookiecutters to standardize automation development.
  

Innovation, Automation & Technical Leadership

• Identify manual workflows and operational pain points, then design automation solutions to eliminate them.
• Prototype new tools, frameworks, and approaches from idea through production adoption.
• Improve observability by integrating automation platforms with logging, monitoring, and alerting systems.
• Contribute to technology roadmap and vendor evaluation from a software architecture and productivity perspective.
  
  

Mentorship & Culture

• Mentor network engineers in:
• Python development
• Testing strategies
• Code structure
• Debugging
• Version control
• Lead code reviews with a teaching mindset.
• Facilitate workshops, knowledge-sharing sessions, and pair programming.
• Partner with DevOps, Cloud, Security, and Application teams to align engineering practices.
  

Required Qualifications

Software Engineering (Primary)

• 7 years of professional software development experience with Python as the primary language.
• Advanced Python expertise:
• Type hints
• Dataclasses / Pydantic
• Async / await
• Context managers, decorators, generators
• Experience building Python libraries, packages, and CLI tools (Click, Typer, argparse).
• Strong testing background: pytest, mocking, fixtures, TDD.
• Advanced Git skills (rebase, cherry‑pick, bisect, hooks).
• Hands‑on experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
• Solid grounding in SOLID principles, design patterns, and clean architecture.
• Experience writing technical documentation and developer guidelines.
  

Required Network Domain Expertise

• Strong understanding of:
• Routing (BGP, OSPF)
• Switching
• VPNs and firewalls
• SD‑WAN
• Network security fundamentals
• Experience automating at least two or more of:
• NetBox
• Arista VeloCloud
• Cisco Meraki
• Juniper Mist
• Palo Alto Prisma SD‑WAN
• Fortinet SD‑WAN
• Familiarity with Netmiko, NAPALM, Nornir, pyATS.
• Experience with JSON, YAML, XML, and Jinja2 templating.
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Terraform (including module or provider development)
• AWS networking and architecture
• Docker, Kubernetes, Linux
• Observability stacks (Grafana, Prometheus, ELK)
• Event-driven automation (Kafka, RabbitMQ, webhooks)
• Database integration (PostgreSQL, Redis, SQLite)
• Internal developer platforms, self‑service portals, or ChatOps
• Open-source contributions or public automation portfolio
• Relevant certifications (Cisco DevNet, CCNP/CCIE, AWS, Terraform)
  
  

Why This Role

• Architect the automation backbone of a modern MSP
• Own standards, tooling, and culture — not just scripts
• Solve large‑scale, real‑world infrastructure problems
• High autonomy, high impact, long‑term technical ownership
  
  

Due to U.S. Government requirements applicable to foreign-owned telecommunications providers, non-US citizens may be required to submit to an extensive government agency background check which will necessitate disclosure of sensitive Personally Identifiable Information.

The Pay Range For This Role Is

120,000 - 170,000 USD per year (Remote (Cincinnati, OH, US))