Network Specialist, Japan

Who we are:

Digital Edge DC (Digital Edge) is an emerging data center platform company, established to transform digital infrastructure in Asia. We seek to build the foundation for the world’s digital future, helping organizations to grow sustainably and empowering the populations they serve.

Through building and operating state-of-the-art, energy-efficient data centers rich with connectivity options, we aim to bring new colocation and interconnect options to the Asian market, making infrastructure deployment in the region easy, efficient, and economical. Backed by Stonepeak, a leading alternative investment firm specializing in infrastructure and real assets, Digital Edge has in excess of US$1 billion in committed capital.

Founded in 2019 the company has grown rapidly across multiple markets in the region, and this role is an exciting opportunity to join the team as we further expand our footprint across Asia.

Our Values:

• Respect: We embrace diversity and collaboration.
• Innovation: We share ideas and solve problems.  
• Grit: We are driven and determined.
• Excellence: We optimize for success.
• Responsibility: We do what’s right for our people and the planet.

What we need:

Reporting to the Operations Director, this role will be responsible for deploying and operating customer-facing network infrastructure to fulfil Digital Edge’s network product portfolio and serve our customer’s interconnection requirements.

Key responsibilities:

• Plan, develop, operate and maintain the end-to-end network infrastructure across Digital Edge’s Japan Data Centres, spanning the fibre, optical transport (DWDM) and IP/MPLS layers.
• Act as the subject-matter expert (SME) for Digital Edge’s network in Japan. Owning in-country network design standards, serving as the senior technical escalation point for network incidents, and providing technical authority across the Japan portfolio.
• Early engagement in our Data Centre site selection process, assessing connectivity availability, carrier diversity and fibre routes to inform site decisions.
• Design and continually optimise the network topology for the Data Centres we develop in Japan alongside with platform team, ensuring resilience, scalability and low-latency interconnection.
• Plan, provision and operate DWDM transport on Nokia (Infinera) and Ciena platforms, including capacity planning, wavelength provisioning and optical performance monitoring.
• Ensure successful delivery of fibre and IP connectivity required for our Data Centres, coordinating builds, cross-connects and metro and long-haul circuits.
• Run day-to-day operations and maintenance for network systems, including provisioning, access control, security, and fault, asset, configuration, change, and performance management.
• Propose and implement system enhancements that will improve the performance and reliability of our Network infrastructure.
• Build and maintain network automation and infrastructure-as-code, using frameworks and tools such as Python, Terraform and Jinja2, to streamline provisioning, configuration and operations.
• Apply deep technical competency in IS-IS, OSPF, BGP, VxLAN, Segment Routing, MPLS and EVPN to design, deploy, operate and troubleshoot the network.
• Develop and enhance relationship and partnership with Telco carriers, IXes and other network service providers. Drawing on a strong working knowledge of the Japan connectivity industry.
• Manage vendors, including coordination and escalation for infrastructure support, covering telecommunications carriers, ISPs, and OEMs.
• Collaborate with Platform Product and Engineering teams to ensure we apply our latest design philosophy and best practice to our Data Centres.
• Work with sales and pre-sales engineering teams for connectivity part of customer opportunities.
• Drive optimisation and standardisation of the network systems and tools used internally and by customers.
• Actively champion and implement policies and procedures for occupational health & safety in the workplace, information security management and environmental management systems; incident management; and comply with all legal and regulatory requirements of the organisation.

The successful candidate:

• Diploma/ Degree in computer science, engineering or equivalent experience
• 5+ years of experience in network operations, engineering and architecture on carrier IP networks (CLEC/ISP)
• Hands-on experience in routing, switching and load balancing, preferably in a high-traffic content delivery or cloud provider environment
• Experienced in architecting service provider networks running on IP networks (running Ethernet, IS-IS, OSPF, VxLAN, BGP, Segment Routing, MPLS, EVPN, Layer 2 Switching, etc.)
• Experienced in troubleshooting and resolving complex routing and switching problems in an IP based carrier network
• Hands-on experience with network automation and infrastructure-as-code frameworks, such as Python, Terraform and Jinja2.
• Hands-on experience operating DWDM optical transport networks, ideally on Nokia (Infinera) and/or Ciena platforms, including wavelength provisioning and optical performance monitoring
• Intimate knowledge of IP and Ethernet industry landscape including IP Core equipment, service enabling devices, Ethernet switch vendors, etc.
• Intimate understanding of the design and operation of large scale IP networks from the network core.
• Experienced with Linux and excellent knowledge of core network services (DNS, SMTP, NTP, syslog, HTTP)
• Good understanding of in-depth networking product and technology knowledge
• Expert level knowledge in routing and switching protocol (IS-IS, OSPF, VxLAN, BGP, Segment Routing, MPLS and EVPN)
• Knowledge of LAN technologies (LAN design standards and best practices)
• Knowledge and experience with enterprise networking technologies, such as MPLS, VxLAN, IPSec VPN, etc.
• Ability to work effectively with clients, senior management, staff and vendors
• Business-level Japanese, including technical terminology, together with a good command of English
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills required

Preferred (advantageous):

Professional networking or optical certifications, such as JNCIE, CCIE or Nokia (NRS / optical) certifications

Join us to shape the future of Digital Infrastructure in Asia. Apply now for a confidential career discussion.