Network Architect

Telesat (NASDAQ and TSX: TSAT) is a leading global satellite operator, providing reliable and secure satellite-delivered communications solutions worldwide to broadcast, telecommunications, corporate and government customers for over 50 years. Backed by a legacy of engineering excellence, reliability and industry-leading customer service, Telesat has grown to be one of the largest and most successful global satellite operators.

Telesat Lightspeed, our revolutionary Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite network, scheduled to begin service in 2027, will revolutionize global broadband connectivity for enterprise users by delivering a combination of high capacity, security, resiliency and affordability with ultra-low latency and fiber-like speeds. Telesat is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, and has offices and facilities around the world.

The company’s state-of-the-art fleet consists of 15 GEO satellites, the Canadian payload on ViaSat-1 and one LEO 3 demonstration satellite. For more information, follow Telesat on X and LinkedIn or visit www.telesat.com

The Network Architect is an integral part of the Network and Telecom team at Telesat. The Network Architect will work with the Cloud Architect and Infrastructure Architect to ensure that Telesat has a robust and viable network design for the Lightspeed data centres. They will lead the development of an overall on-premises data centre network infrastructure and ensure integration with related Cloud platforms. The incumbent will be fully responsible and accountable for the data centre network design and operation including the infrastructure design of the various security zones and models to ensure compliance with existing security and Cybersecurity specifications. Help drive networking best practices using a combination of leading edge, and trusted designs and solutioning. 

Candidates must live in the Ottawa area or be willing to relocate to Ottawa. 

Candidates must be willing to be onsite in the office at least 4 days per week. 

Main Responsibilities

• Design, build and test the high-security infrastructure domain for satellite operations.
• Design, build and test the network architecture for the on-premises Lightspeed datacentres.
• Provide technical leadership and oversight to the Network and Telecom team.
• Oversee the activities of vendors and contractors as required.
• Make technical presentations and seek acceptance of various design decisions across stakeholder teams.
• Provide integration with other environments through various security zones and portals.
• Assist in the design and test of various Basic Infrastructure Services (DNS, DHCP, NTP, etc).
• Develop automation scripting for environments and provide documentation.
• Follow and document operational processes including Change Management.
• Manage device, firewall and security logs.
• Proactively plan and determine patching strategies, high-availability, upgrades and updates.
• Provide tier 3 on-call operational support as the environment evolves.

Education & Experience Required

• University degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science or related field.
• Must have at least 7 years’ experience in network administration in both Cloud and on-premises.
• Must have at least 3 years’ experience in the configuration and operation of Linux-based environments (e.g. RedHat, Ubuntu).
• Must have at least 3 years’ experience in building out on-premises networks to support large Linux-based clusters.
• Proven experience in the deployment and configuration of Enterprise grade firewalls and switches.

Specialized Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

• Strong experience with building and running large scale, high-available and fault-tolerant network infrastructure within a data centre environment.
• Strong experience in TCP/IP based protocols, IPv4, MPLS and BGP.
• Strong experience in the building and operation of dedicated, isolated infrastructure services such as DNS and NTP.
• Strong knowledge of IAM and access management strategies and tooling.
• Strong understanding of LAN, WAN, SDWAN.
• Strong understanding and hands on experience in the daily administration of Linux.
• Experience leveraging scripts to build infrastructure (i.e. bash, Python, Terraform).
• Familiarity with Kubernetes/CNI deployments considered an asset.
• Familiarity with SRE concepts considered an asset.

Decision Making & Supervision

• The incumbent will rely on their experience to make decisions on installation, customization and tuning of environments and services.
• This role has no direct reports but will work and interact with multi-disciplinary engineering and IT teams.

Working Conditions

• Ability to travel between 3 sites in the Ottawa-Gatineau area is required on a rotational basis ( 15%)
• Ability to travel to an alternate data centre is required ( 5%)
• No other business travel is anticipated.

The successful candidate must be able to work in Canada and obtain clearance under the Canadian Controlled Goods Program (CGP).

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At Telesat, we take pride in being an equal opportunity employer that values equality in the workplace. We are committed to providing the best candidate experience possible including any required accommodations at every stage of our interview process. All qualified applicants that have been selected for an interview that require accommodations, are advised to inform the Telesat Talent team accordingly. We will work with you to meet your needs. All accommodation information provided will be treated as confidential.