Network Engineer

Role Summary

Firmus Technologies is seeking a skilled Network Engineer / Senior Network Engineer to join our Engineering and Technology team. The ideal candidate will play a crucial role in leading the development of our network designs and supporting the network deployment for AI infrastructure projects. This role offers an exciting opportunity to work at the forefront of AI networking technology and contribute to the growth of AI infrastructure.

 

Key Responsibilities

Design, Implement and Maintain Network Infrastructure

• Architect, deploy, support the corporate LAN, WAN, WLAN, and VPN infrastructure.
• Ensure high availability, performance and security of on-premise and cloud-connected network services.
• Setup, configure and maintain secure site-tp-site VPNs, MPLS links, or private interconnects between data centres, customer site, cloud environments and partner networks.

 

Network as Code and Automation

• Develop and maintain automated network configurations using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools (eg: Ansible, Netbox, Python scripts)
• Implement CI/CD pipelines for network changes to improve speed, consistency, and auditability
• Automate routine tasks such as provisioning, backups and compliance checks.

 

Network Security and Policy Enforcement

• Implement and manage firewall and security devices. Apply firewall rules, VLAN segmentation, ACLs and zero-trust principles to safeguard internal and external communications.
• Collaborate with SMC Security and Risk team to enforce policies and respond to security incidents.

 

Operation Support

• Respond and resolve escalate network issues, outages and performance degradations across the SMC Corporate and Compute network infrastructure.
• Analyze logs, run diagnostics and coordinate with vendors, carriers as needed.
• Work with internal observability team to setup and maintain monitoring tools to proactively identify bottlenecks, errors and abnormal behaviours.
• Analyze trends for bandwidth, hardware utilization, and growth to inform scaling and make recommendation to procurement decisions.
• Design and rest redundant paths, failover mechanisms and DR playbooks to ensure uninterrupted connectivity during outages or maintenance.
• Participate in operation standby roster and on-call for time to time.

 

Project Management and Stakeholder Management

• Support the deployment team in their project management and resource allocation for the network portion of AI cluster installations.
• Collaborate and work closely with Global Operation Centre, Software Defined Infrastructure team, Data Centre Infrastructure team and Solution Architects to support deployments and to maintain SLAs.

 

Technology Expertise

• Maintain and expand expertise in physical network hardware and advanced networking technologies, including (i) NVIDIA InfiniBand; (ii) Spectrum Ethernet Platform, and (iii) RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE).
• Familiar with open source network operating systems such as Cumulus Linux and Sonic
• Maintain and expand expertise in NetDevOps practices to maintain software defined network infrastructure
• Provide technical support and troubleshooting for advanced networking technologies, escalating to vendors as needed.
• Mentor junior network engineers, assisting with their technical development.

 

Stakeholder Management

• Work closely with both Firmus Engineering and Commissioning teams to align network infrastructure with customers’ requirements.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and communication between teams and create and maintain comprehensive technical documentation.
• Maintain and build strong relationships with key technology partners and vendors and proactively manage and coordinate partner engagement on site.

 

Skills & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in network engineering, computer science, or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of experience in network engineering, with a focus on AI infrastructure.
• Experience in Linux systems especially host network configuration.
• Strong project management skills and experienced in complex technical projects.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Willingness to undertake international and/or domestic travel for on-site deployments and commissioning.
• Solid understanding of advanced networking technologies, particularly those related to AI would be highly advantageous.
• Hands-on experience with NVIDIA InfiniBand, Spectrum Ethernet Platform, and/or RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) preferred.

 

Key Competencies

• Enterprise & AI network delivery (LAN, WAN, WLAN, VPN)
• Secure connectivity (site-to-site VPN, MPLS, private interconnects)
• Network automation & NetDevOps (IaC, Ansible, Python, CI/CD)
• Network security (firewalls, VLANs, ACLs, zero-trust)
• Operations, monitoring & incident response
• AI networking tech (InfiniBand, Spectrum, RoCE)
• Linux networking fundamentals
• Cross-team collaboration & mentoring

 

Success Metrics

• Networks meet availability, performance & security SLAs
• Reduced manual work through automation and IaC
• AI cluster network components delivered on time
• Low MTTR and minimal unplanned outages
• Proactive capacity planning avoids service impact
• Clear, current documentation and positive stakeholder feedback

 

Location & Reporting

• Australia (Melbourne, VIC)
• Reporting to Senior Manager, Networking

 

Employment Basis

Full-time

 

Diversity

At Firmus, we are committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace. We encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds who are passionate about creating a more sustainable future through innovative engineering solutions.

Join us in our mission to revolutionize the AI industry through sustainable practices and cutting-edge engineering. Apply now to be part of shaping the future of sustainable AI infrastructure.