Infrastructure Engineer

<p>Forward Networks is transforming how the world’s most complex networks are managed and secured. Founded in 2013 by four Stanford Ph.D.s, we built the industry’s first network digital twin — a mathematically precise model of the production network that gives IT teams unmatched visibility, verification, and agility across every major cloud and vendor environment.</p> <p>Our customers include global leaders such as Goldman Sachs, PayPal, S&amp;P Global, IBM, and Dell, as well as fast-growing enterprises and government agencies. According to IDC, Forward Networks customers realize an average of $14.2 million in annual benefits through improved efficiency and security.</p> <p>Backed by world-class investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, MSD Partners, and Threshold Ventures, Forward Networks offers a people-centric, innovative culture where brilliant minds are shaping the future of network reliability, security, and AI-ready operations.</p> <p>Forward Networks is looking for an experienced Infrastructure Engineer. As an Infrastructure Engineer, you will support the deployment, operation, and evolution of internal platforms and applications.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>In this role, you'll have hands-on time with a wide breadth of systems and system types, going beyond just core “IT”, to frequent interactions with security and engineering teams.&nbsp; As we grow our infrastructure, (both on-prem and in-cloud), and grow the team, you’ll have ample opportunities to learn.&nbsp; Both Dev and Ops work is in scope.</p> <p>Storage, Compute, Network, Cloud, or Application?&nbsp; If you said ‘Yes’, you may be the right fit.</p> <p><strong>Must be</strong><strong><em> </em></strong><strong>able to work from the office in Santa Clara at least two days a week, and able to come in as needed.</strong></p> <p><strong>Responsibilities:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Drive development work for physical systems, network devices, and virtual machines - to add new systems, replace existing ones, or integrate new functionality</li> <li>Drive operations for corporate systems: handle tier-two escalations, write runbooks, and do knowledge transfer to systems engineers on the team</li> <li>Implement corporate security policies into all systems</li> <li>Drive updates and patching</li> </ul> <p><strong>Required background</strong>:</p> <ul> <li>Thirst for knowledge / desire to learn and grow</li> <li>Ability to effectively debug hard problems on a range of systems types</li> <li>Infrastructure Systems Experience: experience configuring, operating, and maintaining:</li> <ul> <li>Virtualization Hosts: (OpenShift/Kubernetes and<strong> </strong>VMware vCenter/ESX)</li> <li>DDI Systems (DNS, DHCP, IPAM)</li> <li>Network and security infrastructure (experience with routers/routing, switches/switching, and firewalls/network policy)</li> <li>Backup and disaster recovery systems</li> <li>Working knowledge of wireless networking and troubleshooting of them</li> </ul> <li>Comfort and working experience with CLI and Linux</li> <li>Understanding of application-relevant security concepts, including certificates, VPNs,&nbsp; and encryption</li> <li>Understanding of network connectivity concepts, including IP address allocation, tunneling, L2/L3 routing and switching, firewalls, and proxies (ideally, CCNA-level knowledge or better)</li> <li>3-5 years of hands on experience with network equipment and servers</li> </ul> <p><strong>Nice-to-have</strong>:</p> <ul> <li>Scripting: Practical scripting and automation experience, including git, Bash, Python, Ansible, Terraform, Kubernetes, REST APIs, etc.</li> <li>Comfort working with AI tools / processes and effective prompting</li> <li>Cloud: Experience provisioning and using resources in AWS (or other clouds)</li> <li>File servers and NAS (disk and flash-based) - basic knowledge and understanding of storage is required but specific / detailed knowledge of a specific system or format is not required</li> <li>iSCSI knowledge</li> <li>Access and identity systems (SSO, LDAP, VPN, …)</li> </ul> <p><strong>Examples of potential job tasks:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Move Jira to the Cloud</li> <li>Fix issues (provisioning, resource allocation, performance, etc) in Kubernetes, bonus for VMWare</li> <li>Generate and deploy certificates to a running app</li> <li>Change a system to use Okta auth via SAML</li> <li>Write and maintain inventory discovery and reconciliation scripts</li> <li>Writing a runbook</li> <li>Writing a high / low level design document</li> </ul> <p>Salary Range: The base pay range for this role is between $175,000 and $210,000. Base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location</p>