What are the responsibilities and job description for the Telecommunications Engineer position at VAILEXA?
Note: Candidate will need to work one day onsite in Tualatin, one day a week in Milwaukie. Then there are a few substations throughout the greater Portland area they will need to go to for the "travel". They won't need to fly out of town for travel.
Job Title: Telecommunications Engineer
Number of Openings: 1
Location: Tualatin, Oregon Onsite (Occasional travel to sites required)
Duration: 12 months
CORE RESPONSIBILITIES
- Conduct structured, site-by-site field visits across regional client facilities to assess legacy transport equipment and supporting infrastructure
- Collect, reconcile, and validate circuit records from NMS platforms, OSS systems, and legacy/paper records against physical equipment and platform configurations
- Trace and document circuits on a circuit-by-circuit basis: origination, termination, intermediate nodes, protection paths, and current service status
- Identify gaps, discrepancies, and undocumented circuits between existing records and the physical network state
- Build a comprehensive, site-by-site inventory of SONET platforms, shelf configurations, line cards, protection schemes, and optical spans
- Produce clear, structured findings documentation for client review and sign-off at each phase milestone
- Facilitate working sessions with client network operations and engineering staff to verify findings and resolve discrepancies
- Maintain version-controlled, audit-ready records throughout the engagement
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- 7 years of hands-on experience with SONET/SDH transport networks at an engineer level — design, analysis, circuit engineering, and records management (not solely installation or maintenance)
- Deep working knowledge of SONET multiplexing: DS1, DS3, OC-3, OC-12, OC-48, OC-192 and associated TDM circuit types
- Strong understanding of SONET protection architectures: UPSR, BLSR/MS-SPRing, and APS (1 1, 1:N)
- Proficiency working with SONET Network Management Systems (NMS) for circuit tracing, alarm analysis, and inventory extraction
- Demonstrated ability to read and interpret circuit records, network diagrams, cross-connect maps, and as-built documentation
- Experience with fiber optic infrastructure: span documentation, OTDR interpretation, and optical power budgets
- Ability to work independently in field-based infrastructure environments
- Strong technical writing and documentation skills — this role produces client-facing deliverables
- Valid driver's license and ability to travel to regional client sites as needed
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
Legacy Optical Transport Platform Experience (Strongly Preferred):
- Hands-on experience with legacy SONET optical transport platforms, including OC-level transport systems or equivalent
- Familiarity with vendor-specific network management systems for circuit provisioning, tracing, and inventory validation
- Experience reading and interpreting platform-specific cross-connect and tributary configurations
- Understanding of shelf architecture, slot assignments, and card types common in large-scale transport environments