Staff Network Engineer, Network Infrastructure and Capacity at Google
Thornton, CO
$176,000–$256,000from the description
Jul 27, 2026
Thornton, CO
Jul 28, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A Staff Network Engineer role at Google focused on architecting and scaling the company's global network infrastructure through strategic capacity planning, topology design, and automation. The position involves leading architectural standards across the OSI stack, driving hardware lifecycle policy, and developing machine-readable policy frameworks for automated design verification. It suits a senior network architect with deep routing protocol expertise and experience designing large-scale, multi-site carrier-class networks.
Staff level · 10+ years · Atlanta, GA · Full-time
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
Why we read it this way (7)
The role is open across five US locations (Atlanta GA, Addison TX, Reston VA, Sunnyvale CA, Thornton CO); Atlanta is listed first. Candidates select their preferred location at application.
The 10-year requirement is tied to 'network routing protocols, design and troubleshooting' and the 5-year requirement to 'planning and designing networks' — both are role-level gates that also name specific technical domains; the 10-year figure is used as the overall years minimum.
A Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering or equivalent practical experience is listed as a minimum qualification; because equivalent experience is explicitly accepted, the degree requirement is set to None.
Compensation includes a stated 20% bonus target and equity in addition to the $176,000–$256,000 base salary range; those components are not captured in the comp fields, which reflect base salary only.
Skills such as carrier-class telecommunications, DWDM, CDN, IP transit/peering, dark fiber, colocation, optical transport, and cloud technologies all appear under Preferred qualifications.
AI and automation are referenced in the responsibilities narrative (transforming network planning through AI and automation) rather than in a formal qualifications section, so they are marked as preferred.
Ignored 3 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): network design, network troubleshooting, AI/automation.
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