Principal Network Engineer, Catalyst

Orbis is seeking a Principal Network Engineer to set architectural vision across Catalyst - our secure, multi-cluster service mesh platform - and define how teams within the domain build and ship. You will serve as the senior escalation point for architectural decisions spanning the event-driven control plane, proxy data plane, policy-as-code authorization, and multi-cluster federation layers. This is a role for someone who shapes how an organization approaches multi-cluster federation, Zero Trust enforcement, and the evolution of internet-routing-inspired service mesh architectures., * Set architectural vision across the Catalyst platform domain; serve as the senior technical escalation point for any architectural question

• Define platform standards, governance, and the operational philosophy for distributed mesh deployments across cloud, on-premise, and edge
• Evaluate and evolve the platform's security architecture: PKI trust models, policy-as-code design patterns, Zero Trust enforcement, and post-quantum encryption strategy
• Design and evaluate multi-cluster federation topologies: peer routing, convergence behavior, and scalability tradeoffs
• Define the technical knowledge bar that platform engineers must meet; set fluency expectations across networking, transport, authorization, and orchestration domains
• Partner with research and product leadership to align architecture evolution with mission needs, threat models, and emerging protocol standards
• Grow architects and senior engineers through deliberate coaching; shape team structure and composition in partnership with leadership

• 10+ years of experience with domain-level influence over how distributed systems, networking platforms, or security infrastructure are built, shipped, and evolved
• Authoritative understanding of a complete service mesh architecture across management and data planes, all subsystems, and their interactions - sufficient to serve as the final technical escalation point
• Deep expertise in multi-cluster federation design: peer topology, route propagation, loop prevention, convergence behavior, and the tradeoffs between full-mesh and hierarchical architectures
• Ability to evaluate and evolve a platform's security architecture: operator-managed PKI trust models, policy-as-code design patterns (Cedar, OPA, or equivalent), Zero Trust enforcement, and mTLS identity / policy evaluation interaction
• Experience with post-quantum encryption strategies (Kyber/ML-KEM, PQ-TLS) and protocol evolution planning for long-lived infrastructure
• Defines operational philosophy and reliability culture for distributed platform deployments; establishes platform-level SLOs across cloud, edge, and contested environments, * Has defined how teams within a platform domain build products - career development, processes, and cultural norms around craft
• Track record of leading hiring for senior, staff, and architect-level infrastructure or platform roles
• Experience advising leadership on platform capability investments and risk tradeoffs with measurable organizational impact
• Deep background in national security, intelligence, or defense environments with direct influence on mission-critical platform delivery
• Willingness to travel 10-20% for customer engagement, architecture reviews, or strategic planning

Physical Requirements

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Routine video conference and/or in-person meetings.
• Up to 10-20% domestic and international travel required