Principal Engineer

Verisign helps enable the security, stability, and resiliency of the internet. We are a trusted provider of internet infrastructure services for the networked world and deliver unmatched performance in domain name system (DNS) services.

We are a mission focused, values driven company where each individual can contribute to building a stronger, more secure internet. We offer a dynamic and flexible work environment with competitive benefits and the ability to grow your career.

The Principal Engineer is responsible for developing, managing, and optimizing the organization’s global Internet interconnection strategy. This role oversees settlement-free peering, paid peering, IP transit, Internet Exchange (IX) participation, traffic engineering, routing policy, and strategic relationships with network operators, content providers, cloud providers, carriers, and Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).

The ideal candidate possesses strong technical networking expertise, business negotiation skills, and industry engagement experience to improve network performance, reduce transit costs, increase resiliency, and support the company’s global connectivity objectives.

Responsibilities:

Interconnection Strategy

• Develop and execute the global peering and interconnection strategy
• Identify opportunities to expand peering relationships and optimize transit utilization
• Drive network growth through strategic partnerships with ISPs, cloud providers, content networks, CDNs, carriers, and hyperscalers
• Evaluate new IX opportunities and regional expansion initiatives
• Establish KPIs for traffic offload, cost reduction, latency improvements, and resiliency

Peering Management

Negotiate and manage:

• Settlement-Free Peering
• Bilateral Peering
• Multilateral Peering
• Public Peering
• Private Peering

Maintain peering policies and qualification requirements

Manage relationships through:

• PeeringDB
• IX communities
• Industry forums
• Network operator groups

Coordinate onboarding and operational support for new peers

Resolve peering disputes, routing issues, and traffic imbalances

Internet Exchange (IX) Operations

Manage participation across global Internet Exchanges

Evaluate IX performance and ROI

Coordinate provisioning of:

• Cross-connects
• Port upgrades
• New exchange deployments

Develop business cases for new IX expansion

Maintain relationships with IX operators and executive leadership

IP Transit Management

Manage global transit providers and carrier relationships

Conduct transit capacity planning

Negotiate contracts and pricing

Evaluate transit performance and redundancy requirements

Develop strategies to reduce transit costs through increased peering

Monitor traffic shifts between transit and peering environments

Routing & Traffic Engineering

Define and maintain routing policies

Optimize traffic flows across:

• Peering
• Transit
• IX fabrics
• Private interconnections

Manage traffic engineering initiatives using:

• BGP communities
• Local Preference
• MED
• AS Path Prepending

Analyze traffic patterns and forecast growth

Improve latency, packet loss, and path optimization

Industry Engagement

Represent the company at:

• NANOG
• RIPE
• APRICOT
• LACNIC
• ARIN
• APNIC
• Global Peering Forum

Build executive-level relationships across the Internet ecosystem

Participate in policy discussions and industry working groups

Monitor industry trends affecting interconnection and Internet governance

Cross-Functional Leaderships

Partner with:

• Network Engineering
• Infrastructure Operations
• Security
• Product Management
• Legal
• Procurement
• Finance

Develop executive reporting and dashboards

Present interconnection strategy and performance metrics to senior leadership

Required Technical Expertise

Routing Protocols

• BGP-4 (Border Gateway Protocol)
• eBGP
• iBGP
• Route Reflectors
• Confederations
• BGP Communities
• Large Communities
• Flowspec

Core Internet Protocols

• IPv4
• IPv6
• ICMP
• TCP/IP
• UDP
• MPLS

Routing Technologies

• OSPF
• IS-IS
• Segment Routing
• EVPN
• VXLAN

Internet Infrastructure

• Internet Exchanges (IX)
• Route Servers
• Route Collectors
• CDN Architectures
• Anycast
• DNS Infrastructure
• DDoS Mitigation Architectures
• Content Delivery Networks

Routing Security

• RPKI
• ROA Validation
• ASPA
• BGPsec
• MANRS
• IRR Databases
• Route Filtering
• Prefix Filtering

Monitoring & Analytics

• NetFlow
• sFlow
• IPFIX
• SNMP
• Telemetry
• Traffic Analytics Platforms
• Capacity Planning Tools

Cloud & Interconnection Platforms

• AWS Direct Connect
• Azure ExpressRoute
• Google Cloud Interconnect
• Oracle FastConnect
• Equinix Fabric
• Megaport

Business & Commercial Responsibilities

• Peering negotiations
• Transit contract negotiations
• Capacity planning and budgeting
• Vendor management
• Cost optimization initiatives
• SLA management
• Risk assessment and mitigation
• Executive reporting and forecasting

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Telecommunications, or related field
• 15+ years related engineering experience
• 7+ years of Internet networking experience
• 5+ years of peering, transit, or interconnection experience
• Experience managing relationships with ISPs, carriers, cloud providers, and IX operators
• Proven experience negotiating peering and transit agreements
• Experience operating large-scale global networks

Preferred Certifications

• CCNP Service Provider
• CCIE Service Provider
• JNCIP-SP
• JNCIE-SP
• AWS Advanced Networking Specialty
• MANRS Certification Knowledge
• RPKI Deployment Experience

This position is based in our Reston, VA office and offers a hybrid work schedule.

The pay range is $180,700 - $244,500.

The anticipated annual base salary range for this position is noted above, however, base pay offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience. Verisign offers a discretionary bonus which is based on individual and company performance, and certain roles may be eligible for discretionary stock awards.

Verisign is an equal opportunity employer. That means we recruit, hire, compensate, train, promote, transfer, and administer all terms and conditions of employment without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, protected veteran status, disability, or other protected categories under applicable law.

Additional Information:

• Our Careers Page
• Our Benefits Summary
• Verisign in the Community
• Our EEO Statement
• Our Privacy Notice for Job Applicants/Candidates
• Reasonable Accommodations

Staffing agency policy: No fees will be paid for unsolicited resumes submitted to Verisign or our employees by third parties.