Staff Network Engineer at Archer
San Jose, CA
$152,100–$190,100from the description
Jul 1, 2026
San Jose, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior-level, tech-lead network engineering role at an electric aircraft manufacturer, responsible for designing and standardizing enterprise network infrastructure across multiple campuses, data centers, and cloud environments. Day-to-day work spans SD-WAN, next-generation firewalls, AWS networking, and security segmentation, alongside building out automation and observability practices. Suits an experienced network engineer comfortable setting architectural direction and mentoring peers.
Senior level · 8+ years · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 9 people in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (network and computer systems administrators). range 2–15
Applicant volume Light — Few people clear these requirements, so an application that does clear them gets looked at. Worth applying to even if you miss a nice-to-have.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $136,293 (middle half $104,938–$171,398). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (7)
The role is titled 'Senior Network Engineer' but is explicitly framed as a 'tech lead' role — the seniority assessment reflects that scope (Senior), not Staff, because the JD describes leading a single team/function rather than setting direction across multiple teams.
Ansible and Python appear together in the requirements section under network automation; Terraform also appears as a required IaC tool. All three are marked required. Ansible is listed with Python as alternatives for the automation requirement, but Terraform is a separately stated IaC requirement.
Network observability tooling (Grafana, Prometheus, Datadog) is listed under requirements as 'Exposure to … or similar' — a relatively low bar; marked preferred to reflect the 'exposure' framing rather than deep expertise.
CCNP is listed as 'or equivalent experience' in the requirements section, and CCIE/AWS Advanced Networking are explicitly called out as a plus — CCNP is marked preferred accordingly, as the JD accepts equivalent experience in lieu of the certification.
The 'Nice to Have' section contains only one item: experience in a high-growth manufacturing, aerospace, defense, or compliance-heavy environment — this is a domain/industry preference, not a named technology, so it is not emitted as a skill.
SOC classification: this role is primarily about operating, designing, and maintaining network infrastructure (LAN/WAN, firewalls, SD-WAN, switching) across enterprise sites. While it includes automation/IaC work, the primary day-to-day work is network engineering, supporting 15-1244. 15-1299 is noted as a runner-up given the meaningful automation and architecture scope.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): Palo Alto Networks NGFW.
Read the full posting
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.