Principal Application Operations Engineer

You want more out of a career. A place to share your ideas freely - even if they're daring or different. Where the true you can learn, grow, and thrive. At Verizon, we power and empower how people live, work and play by connecting them to what brings them joy. We do what we love - driving innovation, creativity, and impact in the world. Our V Team is a community of people who anticipate, lead, and believe that listening is where learning begins. In crisis and in celebration, we come together - lifting our communities and building trust in how we show up, everywhere & always. Want in? Join the #VTeamLife.

The Virtualized Engineering and Network Management Group in the Global Network & Technology organization at Verizon is looking for a highly experienced, self-motivated, curious, and technically adept principal engineer to join the growing and fast-paced operations team responsible for building, operating, and improving mission critical 5G / 4G Core systems serving roughly 150M wireless customers nationwide.

As a lead engineer of this highly visible, dedicated, and skilled operations team, you will provide technical expertise, oversight, and leadership to create / execute on effective and precise strategies for the seamless and successful operational maintenance of existing virtualized and non-virtualized systems and their associated interactions within the Verizon ecosystem. In addition, you will drive the deployment of new distributed application infrastructure to augment capacity and resiliency in a manner that avoids outages which negatively impact the customer experience.

Also, this role will require you to identify and drive improvements to existing distributed application infrastructure and operational practices with various internal groups and vendor partners across the Verizon ecosystem to ensure operational success and optimize efficiencies. This includes giving direction for MOP (Method of Procedure) improvements, detailed design optimizations, capacity/demand analysis, timing of required growth projects, and development of requirements for the successful deployment and integration of new systems. You will be expected to work independently with minimal supervision, while keeping management and project teams fully aware of implementation schedule progress in a timely manner.

• Leading yourself and the business by embodying the following Leadership Principles: Act on Customers' Behalf, Create and Drive Change, Deliver Results, Drive Teamwork, Align on Our Direction, Nurture Development, Foster Inclusion, Lead by Example, and Take Responsibility.

• Leading the day-to-day operational management of production systems which control access \ policy, mobility, signaling \ routing, and discovery functions within the 5G and 4G ecosystem. These 5G / 4G systems include PCF, SCP, BSF, NRF, SLF, NSSF, SEPP, PCRF, and DRA.

• Following established policies and procedures for hands-on operational maintenance activities such as software updates, patching, deployment efforts in order to maintain and enhance these critical systems.

• Monitoring these mission-critical systems and respond to issues with a sense of urgency to quickly diagnose \ resolve problems.

• Leading engagement with vendors, and owners of various internal and external support teams to quickly resolve new and on-going issues.

• Leading development of new procedures as needed and explore process improvements.

• Working efficiently and effectively, both as an individual and as a team member.

• Quickly learn new technical skills as needed in order to successfully complete hands-on and theoretical operational and performance objectives.

• Supporting a flexible work schedule, including frequent overnight maintenance and weekend work as business needs dictate.

• Participating in on-call rotation that provides 24x7 critical support for applications within the team's scope.

You're a technical expert with experience managing multiple medium to large projects at once. Cross-functional work is ideal for you, given your collaborative nature and ability to work with a variety of stakeholders across the organization. You have experience and knowledge in scripting and automation and have a knack for using these abilities to increase efficiency within a production environment. You will have a strong, customer centric voice in assisting with as well as implementing our strategic roadmap.

You'll need to have:

• Bachelor's degree or four or more years of work experience.

• Six or more years of relevant experience required, demonstrated through one or a combination of work and/or military experience, or specialized training.

• Experience track record of leading diverse teams in designing, refining, and formulating strategies for development, implementation, and continued production support of enterprise solutions.

• Hands-on experience deploying, configuring, and supporting highly available applications within a distributed Kubernetes cloud environment.

• Linux System Administration skills.

• Proficient knowledge and hands-on experience developing scripts using Python, Ansible, Perl, Shell, or similar programming languages to increase efficiency, quality, and productivity.

• Proficient knowledge of TCP/IP Networking fundamentals and associated troubleshooting capabilities.

• Proficient in collecting and analyzing packet captures.

• Leadership experience as a subject matter expert.

Even better if you have one or more of the following:

• Virtualization and Linux Certifications.

• Experience deploying, configuring, and supporting RedHat Openshift.

• Working knowledge of RedHat Openstack.

• Familiarity with Common Carrier and Enterprise grade Hardware (Oracle, x86, HP, DELL).

• Proficient knowledge of database systems such as MySQL.

• Working knowledge of 5G and 4G Network functions and Call Flow (SBI, Diameter, SIP).

• Advanced hands-on experience deploying, configuring, and supporting highly available applications within a distributed Kubernetes cloud environment.

• Advanced Linux System Administration skills.

If Verizon and this role sound like a fit for you, we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every "even better" qualification listed above.

Verizon is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to veteran status, disability or other legally protected characteristics.

Our benefits are designed to help you move forward in your career, and in areas of your life outside of Verizon. From health and wellness benefit options including: medical, dental, vision, short and long term disability, basic life insurance, supplemental life insurance, AD&D insurance, identity theft protection, pet insurance and group home & auto insurance. We also offer a matched 401(k) savings plan, stock incentive programs, up to 8 company paid holidays per year and up to 6 personal days per year, parental leave, adoption assistance and tuition assistance, plus other incentives, we've got you covered with our award-winning total rewards package. Depending on the role, employees have the opportunity to receive compensation in the form of premium pay such as overtime, shift differential, holiday pay, allowances, etc. Newly hired employees receive up to 15 days of vacation per year, which grows with additional service. For part-timers, your coverage will vary as you may be eligible for some of these benefits depending on your individual circumstances.