Backbone Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is seeking a Core Routing/IP Backbone Engineer to join its Scientific Networking Division and support Energy Sciences Network (ESnet), the DOE-funded high-performance network connecting national labs, universities, and research institutions worldwide.

As part of the ESnet Network Services Group, you will help design, deploy, operate, and support network infrastructure and peering architectures for ESnet's production and research environments, enabling large-scale scientific collaboration and high-performance data movement.

You'll work closely with engineers, operations teams, research institutions, vendors, and international partners to deliver scalable, resilient networking solutions. The position may be filled at the CSE2 or CSE3 level based on experience and offers opportunities for technical leadership and cross-functional collaboration.

We're here for the same mission, to bring science solutions to the world. Join our team and YOU will play a supporting role in our goal to address global challenges! Have a high level of impact and work for an organization associated with 17 Nobel Prizes!

Why join Berkeley Lab?

We invest in our employees by offering a total rewards package you can count on:

• Exceptional health and retirement benefits, including pension or 401K-style plans
• A culture where you'll belong - we are invested in our teams!
• In addition to accruing vacation and sick time, we also have a Winter Holiday Shutdown every year.
• Parental bonding leave (for both mothers and fathers)
• Pet insurance

What You Will Do at Level 2 (CSE2):

• Design, deploy, and support routing, switching, optical, and transport infrastructure across ESnet's production and research networks.
• Configure and troubleshoot advanced networking technologies including IPv4/IPv6, BGP, IS-IS, MPLS, Segment Routing, RSVP, QoS, and L2/L3 VPNs.
• Support network operations, maintenance, upgrades, incident response, and service restoration.
• Develop automation tools and operational workflows to improve scalability, reliability, and efficiency.
• Collaborate with engineers, scientific stakeholders, vendors, carriers, and partner organizations to deliver and maintain network services.
• Participate in project planning, procurement, testing, deployment, and operational readiness activities.
• Create and maintain technical documentation, procedures, and network standards.
• Contribute to process improvements, troubleshoot moderate-complexity issues, and provide trusted technical guidance to stakeholders.
• Participate in an on-call rotation for business-hours and after-hours operational support.

In Addition to the Above, What You Will Do at Level 3 (CSE3):

• Operate with strong technical ownership and independence across infrastructure and operational initiatives.
• Lead projects, resolve complex technical issues, and contribute to network architecture and service design.
• Mentor junior engineers and drive operational improvements through automation, process optimization, and cross-team collaboration.

We are looking for at Level 2 (CSE2):

• Typically requires a minimum of 5 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 3 years and a Master's degree; or equivalent work experience.
• Minimum of five years of relevant experience designing, deploying, operating, and troubleshooting network infrastructure and services.
• Demonstrated experience working with enterprise, service provider, research, or large-scale WAN/LAN environments.
• Demonstrated knowledge and hands-on experience with IP networking technologies and carrier-grade services including MPLS, QoS, traffic engineering, Layer 2/Layer 3 VPN technologies, and related service provider architectures.
• Experience configuring, troubleshooting, and operating advanced routing protocols and technologies, preferably including BGP, IS-IS, OSPF, Segment Routing, IPv4/IPv6, and MPLS within large-scale WAN, backbone, or service provider networking environments.
• Strong understanding of network troubleshooting methodologies with the ability to diagnose and resolve complex routing, transport, and end-to-end service issues across distributed wide-area infrastructures.
• Experience administering and operating multi-vendor routing platforms, preferably Juniper and Nokia (Alcatel-Lucent), in production backbone or carrier-class environments.
• Experience working in UNIX/Linux command-line environments, including remote systems administration, scripting fundamentals, and network automation workflows.
• Experience contributing to technical projects involving backbone deployments, network service implementations, migration planning, testing, operational readiness, and production support.
• Strong analytical, organizational, and problem-solving skills with the ability to manage operational and engineering issues of moderate to high complexity in large-scale network environments.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to collaborate effectively across engineering teams, operations groups, vendors, carriers, and scientific stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a highly collaborative, cross-functional technical environment supporting mission-critical network infrastructure.
• Experience using collaboration, ticketing, documentation, monitoring, and operational support tools within network engineering or service provider operations environments.

In addition to the above, the level 3 (CSE) will have:

• Typically requires a minimum of 8 years of related experience with a Bachelor's degree; or 6 years and a Master's degree; or equivalent experience.
• Expert level capabilities in router configuration, including experience with several vendors.
• Experience in managing traffic flows in a production network using analytical tools, ECMP, traffic engineering and similar approaches.
• Project Management experience including demonstrated expertise in developing technical project scope, schedule and budget.
• Ability to resolve complex issues in creative and effective ways.
• Ability to network and collaborate with key contacts outside their own area of expertise.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively as part of a cross-disciplinary team.

Desired skills/knowledge:

• Experience working in Research & Education (R&E), scientific computing, backbone, or service provider networking environments.
• Experience with network automation, model-driven telemetry, APIs, YANG/NETCONF, or infrastructure-as-code methodologies.
• Experience supporting optical transport systems, DWDM technologies, coherent optics, or long-haul backbone infrastructure.
• Familiarity with large-scale peering ecosystems, interdomain routing, and high-capacity backbone operations.
• Experience participating in on-call operational support rotations for production WAN or backbone network environments.

Additional information:

• Appointment type: This is a full-time, 2 years, term appointment with the possibility of extension or conversion to Career appointment based upon satisfactory job performance, continuing availability of funds and ongoing operational needs.
• Salary range:
• Level 2: The expected salary for this position is $131,760 - $161,064, which fits into the full salary of $117,132 - $197,676 depending upon the candidate's skills, knowledge, and abilities. This includes education, certifications, and years of experience.
• Level 3: The expected salary for this position is $156,864 - $191,724, which fits into the full salary of $139,440 - $235,308 depending upon the candidate's skills, knowledge, and abilities. This includes education, certifications, and years of experience.
• Background check: This position is subject to a background check. Any convictions will be evaluated to determine if they directly relate to the responsibilities and requirements of the position. Having a conviction history will not automatically disqualify an applicant from being considered for employment.
• Work modality: Work may be performed on-site, hybrid, full-time telework, remote. The primary location for this role is Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA. Work must be performed within the United States.
• Multi-level Posting: This position will be hired at a level commensurate with the business needs and the skills, knowledge, and abilities of the successful candidate.

Want to learn more about working at Berkeley Lab? Please visit