Network Engineer - Core Infrastructure

About Kraken

Founded in 2011, Kraken is one of the world's longest-standing crypto platforms, trusted by over 10 million individuals and institutions globally. It offers spot trading, margin, futures, staking, and OTC services, with products built for both individual investors and institutional clients.

The Role

The Network Engineer within Core Infrastructure Engineering is a strategic, security-minded, hands-on role critical to Kraken's success. You will join a dedicated team that designs, builds, secures, and operates the entire network and data-center infrastructure for the exchange.

This role spans four disciplines: build, secure, operate, and automate. We hire across levels—earlier-career engineers focus on hands-on build and operational queues while growing into design and tooling, while senior engineers lead network design, automation, and mentorship.

Key Responsibilities

Design & Build Data Centers

• Design and build data centers end-to-end: cages, racks, PDU/power, structured cabling, and hardware installation.
• Deliver connectivity (circuits, dark fiber, DIA), managing carrier/vendor coordination, cross-connects, and capacity planning.
• Stand up and evolve modern data-center fabrics (e.g., Cisco ACI, HPE Juniper Apstra).

Secure the Network

• Design, implement, and defend a zero-trust, defense-in-depth network centered around firewalls (policy, segmentation, secure connectivity).
• Implement enterprise network access controls (RBAC, least-privilege, segmentation).
• Partner with Engineering and IT Security to ensure security is built-in and properly monitored.

Operate & Respond

• Serve as a first responder to infrastructure requests (provisioning, access, connectivity, troubleshooting).
• Monitor and maintain physical infrastructure (network, security, compute), cloud environments, and remote sites.
• Respond to critical incidents to maximize system uptime.

Automate & Tool

• Manage and deploy Infrastructure as Code (IaC) at scale.
• Build team tooling—automation, internal utilities, and AI agents—to reduce toil and scale capabilities.
• Write high-quality technical documentation, policies, and procedures.

What You Bring

• 2+ years of network engineering experience with a security-minded approach.
• Hands-on experience with physical data-center infrastructure (racking, cabling, power, cross-connects, hardware install).
• Working knowledge of switching (VLANs, capacity planning) and routing (OSPF, BGP, ECMP, PBR).
• Exposure to public cloud networking (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and hybrid connectivity.
• Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code and automation tools (e.g., Terraform, Ansible) with a code-forward mindset.
• Hands-on experience with firewalls (e.g., Palo Alto Networks / PAN-OS / Panorama) is a strong plus.
• Experience with platforms from vendors such as Palo Alto Networks, Cisco, HPE Juniper Networking, or HPE Aruba Networking.
• Comfort with VPN and remote-access connectivity.
• Strong bias for automating repetitive tasks and operational ownership.
• Valid passport and ability to travel internationally as needed.

Nice to Haves

• Data-center design and build at scale across multi-site buildouts.
• Data-center fabric design using Cisco ACI or HPE Juniper Apstra.
• Deep firewall design and operations (multi-site policy, HA clusters, PAN-OS/Panorama at scale).
• Experience building AI agents or developer tooling for runbook automation and agentic triage.
• Defensive security background (IDS/IPS, security monitoring, threat-based testing).
• Advanced hybrid/public cloud experience managing end-to-end IaC pipelines.