Who are we?

A place where tech thinkers and future builders turn bold ideas into breakthrough experiences, we welcome your unique perspective.

Help us challenge assumptions, uncover bias, and remove barriers—because progress starts with fresh ideas. You’ll find belonging, purpose, and a team that welcomes you—because when you feel valued, you’re empowered to do your best work.

As the Principal Engineer for Equinix Fabric Product Software, you are the visionary architect for the platforms that power Equinix’s global interconnection services. You will work with product management team and cross-functional engineering teams, analyze product requirements, lead architecture design, define APIs and contracts. You will be able to lead a small engineering team to develop product software from PoC to public release, to deploy in production, and resolve customer issues.

Responsibilities:

Strategic Leadership and AI Evolution

• Platform Vision: Define and drive the multi-year technical roadmap to evolve Equinix Fabric into a fully programmable, self-service Connectivity-as-a-Service (CaaS) platform.

• AI & Agentic Workflows: Architect the integration of Generative AI, LLMOps, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) into the product lifecycle. Lead initiatives to move from manual workflows to "Agentic" automation for service provisioning and customer support.

• Cross-Functional Influence: Act as a force multiplier by bridging the gap between Product Management, Network Engineering, and DevOps to ensure technical designs align with long-term business scale.

Architectural Excellence & Product Innovation

• System Design: Lead the architecture of high-throughput, low-latency distributed systems, ensuring adherence to SOLID, Clean Architecture, and cloud-native design patterns.

• API First Strategy: Standardize API contracts and Northbound/Southbound interfaces to ensure seamless integration across the Equinix ecosystem and partner clouds (AWS, Azure, GCP).

• Technical Governance: Oversee deep-dive design reviews and set the "gold standard" for code quality, security, and scalability across multiple engineering pods.

Execution & Mentorship

• Complex Problem Solving: Serve as the final escalation point for the most challenging technical "bottlenecks," from deep-seated concurrency issues to global-scale performance tuning.

• Mentorship: Level up Staff and Senior engineers through strategic coaching, fostering a culture of technical curiosity and engineering excellence.

• Emerging Tech Advocacy: Continuously evaluate and prototype emerging technologies to keep Equinix at the frontier of the industry.

Qualifications

• Experience: 12+ years of software development experience, with at least 6+ years in a Principal, Architect, or high-impact Technical Lead role. You have a proven track record of delivering large-scale distributed systems from initial concept to global production.

• Education: Bachelor’s or master’s degree in computer science, Software Engineering, or a related field.

• Networking & Infrastructure:

  • Deep fluency in the 7-layer OSI model and its application in developing management and control plane software.

  • Expertise in Cloud Networking and Virtual Network Functions (VNF), specifically how they interface with physical infrastructure.

  • Hands-on mastery of Kubernetes (K8s) and Docker, with experience architecting containerized microservices at scale.

• Distributed Systems & Data: 

  • Working experience with high-throughput messaging services like Apache Kafka for real-time data orchestration.

  • Expertise in choosing and tuning RDBMS and NoSQL technologies (e.g., PostgreSQL, Cassandra, or Redis) based on specific consistency and availability requirements.

• API & Connectivity Strategy:

  • Expert-level proficiency in REST API design (OpenAPI/Swagger).

  • Experience building "Northbound" interfaces for customer consumption and "Southbound" interfaces for hardware/network automation.

• AI Strategy & Digital Evolution:

  • Strategic AI Oversight: Proven ability to evaluate and integrate Generative AI and Agentic workflows into the software development lifecycle to drive engineering productivity.

  • Architectural Vision for AI: Experience defining the use of LLMs, Function Calling, and emerging standards like Model Context Protocol (MCP) to transform legacy manual processes into autonomous, self-healing services.

• Soft Skills:

  • Exceptional Communication: Ability to translate complex technical "debt" or architectural needs into business value for executive stakeholders.

  • Mentorship: A passion for developing the next generation of engineers through rigorous code reviews and architectural coaching.

The targeted pay range for this position in the following location is / locations are:

United States - Redwood City Office GHQ : 213,000 - 319,000 USD / Annual

Our pay ranges reflect the minimum and maximum target for new hire pay for the full-time position determined by role, level, and location.The pay range shown is based on our compensation structure in place at the time of posting and may be updated periodically based on business needs. Individual pay is based on additional factors including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education and/or training.

The targeted pay range listed reflects the base pay only and does not include bonus, equity, or benefits. Employees are eligible for bonus, and equity may be offered depending on the position.

Equinix Benefits

As an employee, you become important to Equinix’s success. We ensure all your benefits are in line with our core values: competitive, inclusive, sustainable, connected and efficient. We keep them competitive within the current marketplace to ensure we’re providing you with the best package possible. So, wherever you are in your career and life, you’ll be able to enhance your experience and bring your whole self to work.

Employee Assistance Program: An Employee Assistance program is available to all employees.

US Benefits: - Insurance: You may enroll in health, life, disability and voluntary plans that are designed for you and your eligible family members. - Retirement: You and Equinix may contribute to a retirement plan to help you plan for your financial future. - Paid Time Off (PTO) and Paid Holidays: You will receive an accrued amount of PTO each pay period along with various paid holidays for you to rest and recharge. Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to specific plan or program terms.

Equinix is committed to ensuring that our employment process is open to all individuals, including those with a disability.  If you are a qualified candidate and need assistance or an accommodation, please let us know by completing this form.

Equinix is an Equal Employment Opportunity and, in the U.S., an Affirmative Action employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to unlawful consideration of race, color, religion, creed, national or ethnic origin, ancestry, place of birth, citizenship, sex, pregnancy / childbirth or related medical conditions, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or domestic partnership status, age, veteran or military status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, political / organizational affiliation, status as a victim or family member of a victim of crime or abuse, or any other status protected by applicable law. 

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