Verisign helps enable the security, stability, and resiliency of the internet. We are a trusted provider of internet infrastructure services for the networked world and deliver unmatched performance in domain name system (DNS) services.
We are a mission focused, values driven company where each individual can contribute to building a stronger, more secure internet. We offer a dynamic and flexible work environment with competitive benefits and the ability to grow your career.
The Principal Engineer is responsible for developing, managing, and optimizing the organization’s global Internet interconnection strategy. This role oversees settlement-free peering, paid peering, IP transit, Internet Exchange (IX) participation, traffic engineering, routing policy, and strategic relationships with network operators, content providers, cloud providers, carriers, and Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).
The ideal candidate possesses strong technical networking expertise, business negotiation skills, and industry engagement experience to improve network performance, reduce transit costs, increase resiliency, and support the company’s global connectivity objectives.
Responsibilities:
Interconnection Strategy
- Develop and execute the global peering and interconnection strategy
- Identify opportunities to expand peering relationships and optimize transit utilization
- Drive network growth through strategic partnerships with ISPs, cloud providers, content networks, CDNs, carriers, and hyperscalers
- Evaluate new IX opportunities and regional expansion initiatives
- Establish KPIs for traffic offload, cost reduction, latency improvements, and resiliency
Peering Management
- Negotiate and manage:
- Settlement-Free Peering
- Bilateral Peering
- Multilateral Peering
- Public Peering
- Private Peering
- Maintain peering policies and qualification requirements
- Manage relationships through:
- PeeringDB
- IX communities
- Industry forums
- Network operator groups
- Coordinate onboarding and operational support for new peers
- Resolve peering disputes, routing issues, and traffic imbalances
Internet Exchange (IX) Operations
- Manage participation across global Internet Exchanges
- Evaluate IX performance and ROI
- Coordinate provisioning of:
- Cross-connects
- Port upgrades
- New exchange deployments
- Develop business cases for new IX expansion
- Maintain relationships with IX operators and executive leadership
IP Transit Management
- Manage global transit providers and carrier relationships
- Conduct transit capacity planning
- Negotiate contracts and pricing
- Evaluate transit performance and redundancy requirements
- Develop strategies to reduce transit costs through increased peering
- Monitor traffic shifts between transit and peering environments
Routing & Traffic Engineering
- Define and maintain routing policies
- Optimize traffic flows across:
- Peering
- Transit
- IX fabrics
- Private interconnections
- Manage traffic engineering initiatives using:
- BGP communities
- Local Preference
- MED
- AS Path Prepending
- Analyze traffic patterns and forecast growth
- Improve latency, packet loss, and path optimization
Industry Engagement
- Represent the company at:
- NANOG
- RIPE
- APRICOT
- LACNIC
- ARIN
- APNIC
- Global Peering Forum
- Build executive-level relationships across the Internet ecosystem
- Participate in policy discussions and industry working groups
- Monitor industry trends affecting interconnection and Internet governance
Cross-Functional Leaderships
- Partner with:
- Network Engineering
- Infrastructure Operations
- Security
- Product Management
- Legal
- Procurement
- Finance
- Develop executive reporting and dashboards
- Present interconnection strategy and performance metrics to senior leadership
Required Technical Expertise
Routing Protocols
- BGP-4 (Border Gateway Protocol)
- eBGP
- iBGP
- Route Reflectors
- Confederations
- BGP Communities
- Large Communities
- Flowspec
Core Internet Protocols
- IPv4
- IPv6
- ICMP
- TCP/IP
- UDP
- MPLS
Routing Technologies
- OSPF
- IS-IS
- Segment Routing
- EVPN
- VXLAN
Internet Infrastructure
- Internet Exchanges (IX)
- Route Servers
- Route Collectors
- CDN Architectures
- Anycast
- DNS Infrastructure
- DDoS Mitigation Architectures
- Content Delivery Networks
Routing Security
- RPKI
- ROA Validation
- ASPA
- BGPsec
- MANRS
- IRR Databases
- Route Filtering
- Prefix Filtering
Monitoring & Analytics
- NetFlow
- sFlow
- IPFIX
- SNMP
- Telemetry
- Traffic Analytics Platforms
- Capacity Planning Tools
Cloud & Interconnection Platforms
- AWS Direct Connect
- Azure ExpressRoute
- Google Cloud Interconnect
- Oracle FastConnect
- Equinix Fabric
- Megaport
Business & Commercial Responsibilities
- Peering negotiations
- Transit contract negotiations
- Capacity planning and budgeting
- Vendor management
- Cost optimization initiatives
- SLA management
- Risk assessment and mitigation
- Executive reporting and forecasting
Requirements:
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Telecommunications, or related field
- 15+ years related engineering experience
- 7+ years of Internet networking experience
- 5+ years of peering, transit, or interconnection experience
- Experience managing relationships with ISPs, carriers, cloud providers, and IX operators
- Proven experience negotiating peering and transit agreements
- Experience operating large-scale global networks
Preferred Certifications
- CCNP Service Provider
- CCIE Service Provider
- JNCIP-SP
- JNCIE-SP
- AWS Advanced Networking Specialty
- MANRS Certification Knowledge
- RPKI Deployment Experience
This position is based in our Reston, VA office and offers a hybrid work schedule.
The pay range is $180,700 - $244,500.
The anticipated annual base salary range for this position is noted above, however, base pay offered may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, experience. Verisign offers a discretionary bonus which is based on individual and company performance, and certain roles may be eligible for discretionary stock awards.
Verisign is an equal opportunity employer. That means we recruit, hire, compensate, train, promote, transfer, and administer all terms and conditions of employment without regard to their race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, protected veteran status, disability, or other protected categories under applicable law.
Additional Information:
Our Careers Page
Our Benefits Summary
Verisign in the Community
Our EEO Statement
Our Privacy Notice for Job Applicants/Candidates
Reasonable Accommodations
Staffing agency policy: No fees will be paid for unsolicited resumes submitted to Verisign or our employees by third parties.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Telecommunications, or a related field
- 15 or more years of related engineering experience
- 7 or more years of Internet networking experience
- 5 or more years of peering, transit, or interconnection experience
- Experience managing relationships with ISPs, carriers, cloud providers, and Internet Exchange operators
- Proven experience negotiating peering and transit agreements
- Experience operating large-scale global networks
- CCNP Service Provider certification
- CCIE Service Provider certification
- JNCIP-SP certification
- JNCIE-SP certification
- AWS Advanced Networking Specialty certification
- MANRS certification knowledge
- RPKI deployment experience
VERISIGN Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about VERISIGN and has not been reviewed or approved by VERISIGN.
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is described as comprehensive, spanning medical, dental, vision, prescriptions, telemedicine, behavioral-health resources, and specialized programs for family building and midlife support. Onsite wellness amenities such as the Reston fitness center further support day-to-day wellbeing.
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Retirement Support — Retirement programs include Traditional and Roth 401(k) with company match, an Employee Stock Purchase Plan, and access to licensed financial coaching. These offerings provide structured support for long-term savings as part of total compensation.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Employer-posted salary ranges and structured pay bands reduce uncertainty and clarify how roles are compensated. Public ranges for technical roles indicate competitive positioning relative to the market.
VERISIGN Insights
What We Do
Verisign, a global provider of domain name registry services and internet infrastructure, enables internet navigation for many of the world’s most recognized domain names. Verisign helps enable the security, stability, and resiliency of the Domain Name System (DNS) and the internet by providing root zone maintainer services, operating two of the 13 global internet root servers, and providing registration services and authoritative resolution for the .com and .net top-level domains, which support the majority of global e-commerce.
