Lab Automation Engineer Jobs in Tennessee (NOW HIRING)

SpaceXAI is looking for an exceptional network engineer with experience in mission-critical and large-scale production environments to support high-density AI training and inference clusters as well as high-reliability data center networks. As a member of the Data Center Network Engineering team, you will provide operational and design services for networks used by compute clusters, automation & controls engineering, and facilities teams. The ideal candidate thrives in intense, high-flux environments, brings a strong sense of urgency balanced with operational excellence, communicates effectively, and demonstrates high levels of technical acumen.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Design and implement highly available, high-bandwidth networks for AI data centers, carefully balancing routing, overlay, and redundancy technologies (including spine-leaf / Clos fabrics) to meet unique requirements of GPU training clusters, inference, storage, and management planes.
• Design and maintain data center and campus networks in accordance with company network standards. Collaborate with adjacent compute, infrastructure, facilities, and enterprise teams.
• Evaluate, procure, and deploy network hardware including high-speed switches, optics, firewalls, multiplexing, and related appliances.
• Contribute to ever-maturing network automation tooling; implementing configuration analysis, linting, and scalability into the deployment framework.
• Plan and coordinate network maintenance windows with stakeholders to perform software updates, hardware refreshes, and general network work (sometimes on weekends and evenings) in live production environments.
• Troubleshoot and resolve network-related issues, publishing root cause analysis (RCA) documentation and hosting retrospective reviews.
• Provide direct networking support during cluster bring-up, capacity expansions, and high-load operations; participate in on-call or serve as networking responsible engineer during critical events.
• Proactively tailor network monitoring and telemetry to detect congestion, packet loss, and other issues before they impact training or inference workloads.
• Continuously create and update network documentation, including architecture overviews, design drawings, and operational procedures.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to proactively identify and resolve potential technical issues with network designs, especially systemic and cascading failure modes and insufficient redundancy.
• Perform job walks with customers, vendors, and contractors to gather network and connectivity requirements and create implementation plans for new halls and expansions.
• Ensure networks are configured and maintained in compliance with industry and cybersecurity standards, with particular attention to segmentation between compute fabrics, management, and facilities/OT networks.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, or other STEM discipline and 3+ years of professional network engineering experience;
  • OR 5+ years of professional network engineering experience in lieu of a degree.
• Extensive hands-on experience designing, deploying, supporting, and troubleshooting Layer 2 and Layer 3 networks in latency-sensitive and/or industrial / high-reliability environments.
• Functional experience with multiple network vendors either in production or lab environments.
• Experience with GitOps and Infrastructure as Code frameworks, both as user and contributor.

PREFERRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Strong understanding of the OSI model and network standards.
• Hands-on experience with data center class switches (Cisco, Arista, Juniper, NVIDIA Spectrum or similar).
• Experience with high-speed Ethernet fabrics for AI/HPC (RoCEv2, PFC/ECN, lossless or near-lossless designs), EVPN/VXLAN, and related overlay technologies.
• Experience with Wave Division Multiplexing (WDM) and fiber optics infrastructure.
• Extensive knowledge of common enterprise, data center, and media protocols.
• Experience with switch port security features, network segmentation, QoS, multicast, and redundancy protocols.
• Familiarity with network monitoring tools and Layer 1 testing tools.
• Proficiency in scripting (Bash/PowerShell/Python) and automation frameworks (Terraform, Ansible, etc.).
• Linux and Windows system administration experience professionally or from labs.
• Industry standard certifications such as CCNA or CCNP.
• Experience supporting real-time systems, industrial control networks, or operational technology (OT) environments in data center, energy, or similar high-reliability industries.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to communicate with internal/external customers, vendors, and management in both formal and informal situations.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS:

• Ability to work in data center environments (hot/cold aisles, raised floor or slab, cable trays).
• Ability to work in tight quarters; physical dexterity is necessary to perform job functions.
• Availability for extended hours and/or weekends as the schedule varies depending on site operational needs; flexibility is required.
• Ability to provide 24x7 on-call support in emergency situations and participate in an after-hours on-call rotation.
• Willingness to travel (up to 20-30%, including other SpaceXAI data center sites) as needed.
• Ability to lift 30 lbs.
• Ability to work at heights (e.g., cable trays, ladders).
• Ability to drive (active valid driver's license).