Senior Transport Engineer

Job Title: Senior Transport Engineer, Long Haul Wave (Backbone Optical Transport)

Duration: 12-month contract to perm (must be able to convert without sponsorship)

Location: Onsite 4 days/week in Mount Laurel, NJ or Denver, CO (1 day remote)

Project Details:
The Senior Transport Engineer, Long Haul Wave is an experienced optical transport professional
responsible for delivering backbone wavelength services from initial design through customer turn-up.
This role owns the complete lifecycle of a wave, including feasibility analysis, end-to-end path design,
provisioning across multiple optical platforms, validation, testing, and final customer acceptance.
This is a single-owner delivery model. Instead of handing work between separate design, provisioning,
and testing teams, the engineer is responsible for the entire circuit across every network segment,
including metro ingress, the national backbone, and metro egress. The engineer remains accountable
until the service has been successfully validated and accepted.
Must Have Skills:
• 10+ years of hands-on experience engineering, provisioning, or supporting DWDM and optical
transport networks in a carrier or large-scale service provider environment.
• Strong understanding of optical transport technologies, including DWDM, ROADM architectures,
wavelength planning, optical amplification, regeneration, OSNR, dispersion, and optical power
budgets.
• Hands-on experience provisioning and troubleshooting services on optical transport equipment
from at least one major vendor, with the ability to work across multiple vendor platforms.
• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot end-to-end circuits across multiple network segments while
isolating faults within complex multi-vendor environments.
• Strong documentation skills and the ability to work directly with customers, operations teams, field
personnel, and vendor support organizations throughout the service delivery process.

Nice to Have Skills:
• Experience with Comcast, co-location, telecom headend, or hyperscaler datacenter facility
environments.
• Familiarity with AWS IoT SiteWise Edge or equivalent industrial cloud gateway programs.
• Experience designing programs for AI/ML-driven automation platforms or predictive control
systems.
• Familiarity with Eaton Foreseer or vendor-specific monitoring platforms in the Comcast footprint.
• Python programming for automation logic test programs or API integration programs.
• Knowledge of NIST SP 800-82 (Operational Technology security) or Purdue Model network
segmentation.
• Certified Control Systems Technician (CCST) or equivalent credential.
• Experience with containment systems: hot-aisle/cold-aisle containment, in-row cooling.
Day to day responsibilities:
• Perform end-to-end feasibility studies and path design for backbone wavelength services, including
route selection, regeneration requirements, optical amplification, and reach validation.
• Engineer optical spectrum across the complete path, including wavelength assignment, fixed-grid
and flex-grid alignment, and spectrum utilization to maximize backbone efficiency while
preserving future capacity.
• Select the appropriate transponder, muxponder, and line-side hardware based on service rate, reach,
and platform requirements.
• Validate optical performance against engineering standards before implementation and identify any
constraints requiring hardware additions or path modifications.
• Document the complete service design, including intermediate sites, equipment, ports, and circuit
routing.
• Provision end-to-end wavelength services across a multi-vendor optical network consisting of
Nokia and Ciena transport platforms.
• Configure and turn up services on Nokia optical transport platforms, including the 1830 PSS, PSD,
PSI-M family, and related shelf types.
• Configure and turn up services on Ciena 6500, Waveserver, and RLS platforms, including
transponders, CCMD/CMD components, and line-system elements.
• Manage service transitions between vendor platforms and ensure optical and framing parameters
remain consistent across vendor boundaries.
• Execute provisioning through element and network management systems while maintaining
accurate service records, circuit labeling, and implementation documentation.
• Perform complete validation of wavelength services before customer handoff, including optical
power verification, performance testing, error-free burn-in, and confirmation that service objectives
have been achieved across the entire path.
• Troubleshoot complex issues across multi-vendor optical networks and determine whether faults
originate within metro networks, the national backbone, or at vendor boundaries.

• Diagnose optical impairments including power issues, OSNR, dispersion, span loss, framing errors,
timing issues, and service-layer alarms.
• Coordinate with field operations, network operations, and vendor technical support to resolve
issues requiring field dispatch or vendor escalation.
• Deliver validated, production-ready wavelength services and provide post-installation support for
services returning after customer handoff.
• Perform end-to-end service acceptance testing, document validation results, and verify that all
customer acceptance criteria have been satisfied before placing services into production.
• Maintain accurate engineering records, service documentation, turn-up results, circuit labeling, and
as-built documentation throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Execute work in accordance with approved operational procedures and engineering practices to
minimize customer impact while maintaining backbone stability.
• Identify opportunities to automate repetitive design, provisioning, validation, and documentation
tasks to improve delivery efficiency and reduce manual effort.
• Contribute to implementation procedures, methods of procedure (MOPs), and operational
documentation that support backbone wavelength delivery.
Nice to Have Skills:
• Direct experience with Nokia 1830 PSS, PSD, PSI-M, and related optical transport platforms.
• Direct experience with Ciena 6500, Waveserver, and RLS optical platforms.
• Experience supporting long haul or backbone optical transport networks.
• Familiarity with optical network management and orchestration systems.
• Experience performing optical service turn-up, customer acceptance testing, and production
implementations.
Things to note:
I wanted to send a quick update after several candidate reviews/interviews to help narrow the search.
The team has identified 2 candidates they'd like to move forward with, but they're looking to hire 4
total and would like to have the remaining 2 candidates lined up so everyone can start around the same
time. We're still actively looking for a couple of strong profiles.
The biggest thing we've learned is that this role is much more niche than it looked on paper. The client is
looking for engineers with carrier optical transport experience who have been involved in the
planning/engineering, provisioning, turn-up, and troubleshooting of DWDM transport networks.
A few key takeaways:
• Ciena OR Nokia experience is acceptable as long as the candidate has the rest of the required
skill set. Strong hands-on experience with either platform is what they're looking for.
• Target backgrounds: Charter, Cox, and former Comcast engineers have aligned well with what
the client is looking for.
• The manager hasn't seen much success with candidates from Meta/Facebook, Microsoft, or
Amazon, so I'd prioritize carrier/service provider backgrounds whenever possible.

• They're not looking for subscriber/service provisioning (internet, voice, video activations). They
want optical transport provisioning—bringing wavelengths/circuits into service on DWDM
networks.
• On the design side, don't get too hung up on finding someone who personally designed the entire
optical network from scratch. One of the strongest candidates worked closely with vendors during
the planning phase, reviewed and validated designs, determined equipment locations, built
implementation packages, and then owned the deployment, provisioning, and turn-up. If the vendor
handled the detailed design, that's okay—as long as the engineer was heavily involved in the
planning and engineering process.
• Strong troubleshooting during deployments and turn-ups is also important.
Candidates we've passed on have generally fallen into one of these buckets:
• Strong planning/architecture background but not enough hands-on optical provisioning.
• Strong operations/NOC background without planning or provisioning.
• Subscriber/service provisioning instead of optical transport provisioning.