Principal Network Infrastructure Architect

Tenarai is seeking a visionary Principal Network Infrastructure Architect to lead modernization, performance engineering, and automation-first initiatives across large-scale infrastructure environments. This includes data centers, Points of Presence (PoPs), backbone networks and edge deployments. This role will focus on architecting scalable infrastructure, driving open-source network and infrastructure automation, and accelerating content delivery and performance. The Principal Network Infrastructure Architect will act as a senior technical advisor and innovation partner to client infrastructure leaders and will play a key role in shaping our digital infrastructure services strategy.

Key Focus Areas

• Building large-scale data centers, cloud-native infrastructure, and network backbone environments.
• Modernizing network and infrastructure for performance, resilience, and content acceleration.
• Driving at-scale infrastructure and network automation using open-source tooling (e.g., Ansible, Terraform, NetBox, Python-based frameworks).
• Designing and implementing infrastructure-focused build-and-test labs for operational validation.
• Architecting AI/ML platforms for predictive infrastructure operations and high-performance computing.
• Enabling cloud and infrastructure cost optimization across hybrid/multi-cloud environments.
• Establishing observability, telemetry, and monitoring frameworks for digital infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities

Infrastructure Transformation

• Architect modern, scalable infrastructure solutions tailored for enterprise and tech customers, spanning data centers, edge/PoP environments, and backbone networks.
• Lead initiatives to integrate AI/ML into infrastructure operations to support predictive management, self-healing systems, and anomaly detection.
• Drive performance architecture initiatives to optimize content delivery, network throughput, and low-latency compute environments.
• Define physical-to-virtual infrastructure strategies, including rack-and-stack design, structured cabling, and remote provisioning. Automation & Optimization
• Build and evolve open-source-based infrastructure automation frameworks to streamline provisioning, deployment, configuration, and lifecycle management.
• Champion network automation engineering practices, including zero-touch provisioning and intent-based networking.
• Lead cost optimization strategies across compute, storage, and network infrastructure—ensuring both performance and eficiency at scale.
• Create reusable playbooks and modular components for rapid deployment and replication of infra patterns across sites. Observability & Operational Excellence
• Establish comprehensive observability and telemetry frameworks that provide real-time visibility, alerting, and analytics across infrastructure layers.
• Embed resilience, fault tolerance, and auto-remediation into infrastructure designs.
• Collaborate with SRE and operations teams to build unified dashboards and health scoring systems for proactive issue resolution. Leadership & Customer Evangelization
• Partner with client infrastructure leaders to co-create transformative modernization strategies and roadmaps.
• Act as the face of Tenarai’s infrastructure practice in customer technical reviews, governance boards, and strategic initiatives.
• Evangelize Tenarai’s capabilities in cloud-native, open-source-driven, and AI-augmented infrastructure transformation through whitepapers, forums, and innovation councils.

Ideal Candidate Experience

• 15+ years of experience in infrastructure architecture, network engineering, and operations within hyperscale or cloud-scale environments.
• Deep understanding of the physical and logical aspects of infrastructure design, including rack-and-stack, structured cabling, provisioning tools, and device lifecycle management.
• Hands-on experience with network backbone, PoP infrastructure, and content delivery systems.
• Demonstrated leadership in client-facing roles involving infrastructure modernization and automation adoption.

Technical Expertise

• Strong proficiency in open-source automation tooling (e.g., Ansible, NetBox, Terraform, Python scripting) and network provisioning frameworks.
• Advanced knowledge of infrastructure performance engineering, including tuning for throughput, latency, and content acceleration.
• Deep familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), edge compute strategies, and hybrid data center designs.
• Knowledge of AI/ML application in infra observability and automation is a plus. Leadership & Collaboration
• Exceptional communication and executive presence with the ability to influence client stakeholders at the CTO/VP level.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional engineering and delivery teams.
• Comfortable working in high-velocity environments requiring innovation, adaptability, and hands-on leadership.

Why Join Us?

• Lead transformative digital infrastructure initiatives at global scale.
• Drive the convergence of automation, performance engineering, and AI-driven operations .
• Join a high-impact team where technical excellence and client impact are at the core.