What are the responsibilities and job description for the Principal Network Infrastructure Architect, Logical position at Poolside Infrastructure Company?
About PIC
At PIC we're not just building data centers; we're reimagining how AI infrastructure gets developed, financed, and scaled by combining hyperscale-grade facilities with direct access to energy, land, and fiber at a scope that simply doesn't exist anywhere else. Backed by a best-in-class supply chain, world-class partners, and advanced partnerships with major hyperscale customers, PIC is poised to become a multi-billion dollar platform with ambitions to layer cloud, compute, and advanced manufacturing on top of our energy foundation.
If you want to work at the intersection of AI, energy, and infrastructure at a scale that will shape the next decade of compute, join our team.
About The Role
We are seeking a Principal Network Architect to lead the logical design of networking infrastructure supporting a hyperscale AI data center campus serving multiple leading hyperscale tenants. This role owns the architecture for backbone connectivity, campus IT networks (wired and wireless), and operational technology (OT) networks, ensuring secure, scalable, and highly resilient connectivity across the campus.
This is a Greenfield opportunity in a startup environment, where you will define network architecture, protocols, and standards from the ground up. You will work closely with hyperscale tenants to understand connectivity requirements and partner with infrastructure and construction teams to ensure the logical design aligns with physical implementation.
What You'll Do
At PIC we're not just building data centers; we're reimagining how AI infrastructure gets developed, financed, and scaled by combining hyperscale-grade facilities with direct access to energy, land, and fiber at a scope that simply doesn't exist anywhere else. Backed by a best-in-class supply chain, world-class partners, and advanced partnerships with major hyperscale customers, PIC is poised to become a multi-billion dollar platform with ambitions to layer cloud, compute, and advanced manufacturing on top of our energy foundation.
If you want to work at the intersection of AI, energy, and infrastructure at a scale that will shape the next decade of compute, join our team.
About The Role
We are seeking a Principal Network Architect to lead the logical design of networking infrastructure supporting a hyperscale AI data center campus serving multiple leading hyperscale tenants. This role owns the architecture for backbone connectivity, campus IT networks (wired and wireless), and operational technology (OT) networks, ensuring secure, scalable, and highly resilient connectivity across the campus.
This is a Greenfield opportunity in a startup environment, where you will define network architecture, protocols, and standards from the ground up. You will work closely with hyperscale tenants to understand connectivity requirements and partner with infrastructure and construction teams to ensure the logical design aligns with physical implementation.
What You'll Do
- Define and own the logical network architecture strategy for backbone, campus IT (wired and wireless), and OT networks.
- Design high-capacity backbone connectivity integrating carriers, tenant networks, and external interconnects.
- Architect scalable and resilient campus networks (wired and wireless) supporting enterprise and operational environments.
- Define routing and transport architectures including BGP, MPLS, and Segment Routing (SR).
- Establish security architecture and segmentation models across IT, OT, and tenant environments.
- Partner with hyperscale tenants to define connectivity models and integration requirements.
- Define standards for high availability, failover, and network resiliency across the campus.
- Drive network automation and programmability, including infrastructure-as-code and API-driven design.
- Define and implement network observability and telemetry frameworks for performance and reliability.
- Collaborate with physical infrastructure teams to align logical and physical network designs.
- Participate in network operations, troubleshooting, and incident response as part of a small team.
- Serve as the technical authority for network architecture and design decisions.
- 15 years of experience in network engineering and architecture within large-scale environments.
- Proven experience designing backbone/WAN networks using BGP, MPLS, and Segment Routing (SR).
- Strong experience architecting campus networks (wired and wireless) supporting large operational environments.
- Experience designing and supporting Operational Technology (OT) networks for critical infrastructure (e.g., BMS, EPMS).
- Deep expertise in network security architecture and segmentation across IT and OT environments.
- Experience designing and implementing network automation and programmability frameworks (Python, APIs, IaC tools).
- Experience building network observability and telemetry platforms for large-scale infrastructure.
- Proven ability to operate as a hands-on individual contributor, delivering architecture, implementation, and operational support.
- Experience working with hyperscale data centers, colocation providers, or cloud infrastructure environments.
- Experience working with carrier-grade or service provider networks.
- Experience collaborating with construction and infrastructure teams on network integration.
- Certifications such as CCIE, JNCIE, or equivalent advanced networking expertise.
- Occasional travel to the data center campus and partner locations.
- Comfortable operating in a hands-on, fast-paced startup environment, taking ownership across design, build, and early operations, and working closely with a small, high-impact team
- Interview w/Molly Anderson, Senior Manager of People Operations
- Interview w/Senthil Ganesan, Director of Network & Platform Infrastructure
- Interview w/ Pierre-Yves, CTO
- Interview w/Lance Smith, VP of Data Centers