Principal network engineer

This is a remote position.

About Unistam Technology Services

Unistam Technology Services delivers reliable, secure, and scalable technology solutions to clients across industries. Our network infrastructure is the backbone of everything we do, and we're looking for a seasoned technical leader to set the standard for how we design, build, and operate it. This is a fully remote role open to candidates based in Oregon.

Position Summary

As Principal Network Engineer, you are the most senior individual contributor on the network engineering team and the go-to technical authority for network architecture, reliability, and security. You will own the design and evolution of our enterprise, data center, and cloud networks, set engineering standards, drive automation, and mentor engineers across the organization. This role blends deep hands-on technical work with strategic influence over the long-term direction of our network platform.

What You'll Do

• Architect, design, and lead the implementation of large-scale enterprise, data center, and multi-cloud network solutions.
• Serve as the highest level of technical escalation for complex network issues, including critical production incidents.
• Define network engineering standards, reference architectures, and best practices, and ensure they are adopted across teams.
• Lead network automation initiatives, building tooling and infrastructure-as-code to reduce manual effort and human error.
• Design for high availability, performance, scalability, and security across LAN, WAN, SD-WAN, and cloud environments.
• Partner with security, cloud, and application teams to align network design with broader architecture and compliance requirements.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and vendors, and make recommendations that shape the technology roadmap.
• Develop network capacity plans, monitoring strategies, and disaster recovery designs.
• Mentor and provide technical guidance to network and infrastructure engineers, raising the bar for the whole team.
• Produce clear technical documentation, design diagrams, and runbooks.

Requirements

• 10+ years of progressive experience in network engineering, including significant time at a senior or lead level.
• Expert-level knowledge of routing and switching protocols (BGP, OSPF, EIGRP, MPLS, VLANs, STP).
• Deep hands-on experience with enterprise and data center networking (Cisco, Juniper, Arista, or equivalent).
• Strong experience designing and operating cloud networking in AWS, Azure, and/or GCP (VPCs, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect/ExpressRoute, VPN).
• Proven expertise with network security technologies: firewalls, VPNs, NAC, segmentation, and zero-trust principles.
• Hands-on experience with SD-WAN and modern WAN architectures.
• Network automation skills using Python, Ansible, Terraform, or similar.
• Demonstrated ability to lead large, complex projects and influence technical direction without direct authority.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Must reside in Oregon and be legally authorized to work in the United States.

Preferred Qualifications

• CCIE, JNCIE, or equivalent expert-level certification.
• Experience with network observability and monitoring tools (e.g., SolarWinds, ThousandEyes, Grafana, Prometheus).
• Familiarity with compliance frameworks such as SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI-DSS, or HIPAA.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field (equivalent experience accepted).
• Experience supporting a fully distributed/remote workforce.

Benefits

• Competitive salary commensurate with experience.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match.
• Generous paid time off (PTO), plus paid holidays.
• Paid sick leave in accordance with Oregon law.
• Fully remote work with a flexible schedule.
• Home office / equipment stipend.
• Annual professional development and certification budget.
• Paid parental leave.
• Life and disability insurance.
• Employee wellness programs.