Senior Staff Software Engineer

About the role

Forterra is expanding its mission through Vektor, a next-generation, edge-deployed, software-defined communications and smart data-brokering layer built for disrupted, degraded, intermittent, and low bandwidth (DDIL) environments. Joining the Vektor team means helping shape how humans and autonomous systems stay connected when it matters most.

We are seeking a Senior Staff Software Engineer to deploy, operate, and troubleshoot Vektor's network infrastructure across field sites and cloud environments. You'll be hands-on with routers, switches, radios, and Linux-based appliances — configuring them, automating them, and making sure they perform under real-world constraints. This role requires approximately 50% travel to customer and field locations for site installations, maintenance, and support.

What you'll do

We're looking for engineers who are equally comfortable behind a terminal and behind a rack, care deeply about uptime and security, and enjoy solving problems that span Layer 2 through the application stack. As a core member of the infrastructure team, you will:

• Design, deploy, and maintain L2/L3 network infrastructure across Vektor's install base — routing, switching, VLANs, trunking, QoS, and VPN tunnels.
• Configure and operate Linux-based network appliances using systemd-networkd, Netplan, iptables, StrongSwan, and WireGuard.
• Build and maintain infrastructure-as-code (Ansible, Terraform) to automate provisioning and configuration of network and compute resources.
• Collect, analyze, and act on network telemetry using Grafana, Telegraf, and related tooling.
• Deploy and manage AWS GovCloud and Commercial infrastructure (EC2, VPC, Transit Gateway, Security Groups) that supports Vektor's cloud-side services.
• Travel to customer and field sites (~50%) for installation, commissioning, troubleshooting, and ongoing support of deployed systems.
• Collaborate across engineering in design reviews and deployment planning, mentor teammates, and drive best practices for network operations and automation.

Minimum Qualifications

• 11+ years of professional Network/Systems engineering experience.
• 5+ years of hands-on network engineering experience (vendor-agnostic routers and switches)
• Strong L2/L3 fundamentals — routing protocols (BGP, OSPF, or Babel), VLANs, trunking, QoS, NAT/PAT, multicast, IPv4 + IPv6
• Strong Linux systems experience — systemd, networkd, Netplan, iptables, SSH, Docker
• Experience with site-to-site and remote access VPN (IPsec / StrongSwan, WireGuard)
• Hands-on infrastructure automation (Ansible or Terraform) and scripting (Bash, Python, or Go)
• Working knowledge of cryptography fundamentals — PKI, IPsec, FIPS compliance requirements
• AWS experience — VPC design, EC2, Security Groups, Transit Gateway
• Willingness and ability to travel 10-25% domestically to field and customer sites

Preferred Qualifications

Experience with MANET radios and mesh networking in defense or tactical environments

• Familiarity with NIST/CMMC compliance frameworks
• Experience with VXLAN overlays
• Knowledge of IGMP/PIM for multicast routing
• Experience with DHCP/DNS infrastructure at scale
• Exposure to telemetry pipelines (InfluxDB, Telegraf, Grafana)
• US Salary Range $195,000 - $230,000

Pay and benefits

The salary range for this role is an estimate and is based on a wide variety of compensation factors. The salary offered to candidates will vary based on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) relevant work experience, education, specialized training, critical expertise, training, and more. Equity in Forterra is included in most of our full-time, high-demand roles and is therefore considered part of Forterra’s overall compensation package. In addition to base salary and equity, Forterra offers competitive benefits for full-time employees including:

Premium Healthcare Benefits

• Three plan options, including an HSA-eligible plan, with Forterra covering 80% of the plan premium for you and your dependents.
• Basic Life/AD&D, short and long-term disability insurance plans 100% covered by Forterra, plus the option to purchase additional life insurance for you and your dependents.
• Extremely generous company holiday calendar including a winter break in December.
• Competitive paid time off (PTO) offering 20 days accrued per year.
• A minimum of 7 weeks fully paid parental leave for birth/adoption.
• A $9k annual tuition reimbursement or professional development stipend.
• Fully stocked beverage refrigerators with all the Celsius your little heart desires.
• 401(k) retirement savings plan, including traditional, Roth 401(k), and after-tax deferral with company match up to 4%.
• Your recruiter will be able to share more information about our salary and benefits offering during the hiring process.

Clearance Eligibility

This position may require eligibility to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance. For more information about U.S. Security Clearances:

To see Forterra’s candidate data privacy policy, please visit Forterra Legal | Job Applicant Privacy Notice.

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