This is a full-time onsite role based in the location(s) posted and is performed from the designated work location five days per week. No relocation is offered.

At AT&T, we're building the next generation of autonomous network operations. We're looking for a senior technical leader who can bring together 5G Mobile Core, network automation, AIOps, intent-driven networking, and agentic AI to move network operations toward true closed-loop autonomy.

As a Sr. Principal Member of Technical Staff, you'll set technical direction and lead the architecture, engineering, and delivery of autonomous capabilities across AT&T's Mobile Core. You'll help advance Mobile Core use cases across the TM Forum Autonomous Network maturity model, designing systems capable of understanding intent, evaluating network conditions, making governed decisions, taking action, and continuously learning from outcomes.

This is a highly technical leadership role for someone who can move comfortably between architecture, software engineering, AI/ML, telecom standards, network operations, and large-scale execution.

What You'll Do:

• Lead the architecture and engineering of Autonomous Network capabilities for AT&T's Mobile Core, advancing use cases across TM Forum AN Levels 1–5.
• Define intent-driven architectures that translate business and operational intent into policies, decisions, and automated network actions.
• Establish the reference architecture for agentic network operations, including how AI agents interact with network functions, OSS platforms, observability systems, APIs, and automation tools.
• Design and deploy closed-loop, self-healing systems capable of detecting network conditions, determining corrective actions, executing changes, and validating outcomes.
• Architect real-time telemetry, topology, event, and network-data pipelines that provide autonomous systems with accurate network state.
• Apply network analytics and digital twins to predict issues, simulate network behavior, and validate automated actions before production deployment.
• Develop and operationalize LLM/AI agents, including model selection, tuning, evaluation, tool integration, orchestration, and lifecycle management.
• Build AI-assisted testing and automation frameworks that accelerate certification, improve defect detection, and increase deployment confidence.
• Establish responsible automation controls through policy-as-code, human-in-the-loop approvals, blast-radius limits, automated rollback, explainability, and auditability.
• Design security controls for agentic environments, including agent identity, least-privilege access, token-based authentication, secrets management, credential lifecycle management, and protections against prompt injection and tool misuse.
• Perform deep technical troubleshooting and root cause analysis using logs, network KPIs, telemetry, and packet-level diagnostics.
• Define and measure autonomy outcomes including touchless operations, MTTD/MTTR, false-positive rates, and automated-change success.
• Influence supplier roadmaps so network functions provide automation-ready APIs, telemetry, and control points.
• Represent AT&T in industry standards organizations including TM Forum, 3GPP SA5, and ETSI ZSM, translating emerging standards into implementable network architectures.
• Mentor engineers and establish technical direction across teams adopting AI-driven and autonomous network operations.

What You'll Bring:

• Deep expertise in telecommunications network architecture and automation, ideally within large-scale Mobile Core environments.
• Strong understanding of 5G Standalone Core architecture, network functions, protocols, lifecycle management, configuration management, and operational workflows.
• Demonstrated expertise in TM Forum Autonomous Networks and intent-driven network management.
• Hands-on experience designing agentic AI and closed-loop automation systems, including LLM-based agents, tool integration, guardrails, evaluation, and governance.
• Strong background in AIOps, ML-enabled automation, observability, network analytics, and production AI/ML architectures.
• Ability to bridge traditional network engineering with modern cloud-native software engineering, AI/ML, GitOps, APIs, telemetry, and automation.
• Experience architecting highly available, scalable distributed systems with a focus on reliability, performance, security, and operational efficiency.
• Proven ability to establish technical direction and drive complex, cross-functional engineering initiatives from architecture through production.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to influence engineering, operations, suppliers, standards organizations, and senior leadership.
• A hands-on, execution-oriented mindset with the ability to turn emerging AI and autonomous-network concepts into production-grade solutions.

What You'll Need:

• Extensive experience in network automation, system architecture, AI/ML engineering, or telecom software engineering.
• Advanced knowledge of 5G SA Mobile Core technologies, protocols, and procedures, including HTTP/2 and mTLS.
• Hands-on development experience with Python and/or Go.
• Experience implementing and scaling machine-learning models and AI-enabled applications in production environments.
• Practical experience with LLMs, agentic AI architectures, AI agents, tool/function integration, guardrails, and model evaluation.
• Experience building intent-driven and closed-loop automation systems.
• Demonstrated experience using GitOps for lifecycle management (LCM) and configuration management (CM).
• Experience with contemporary engineering workflows including Git, CI/CD, automated testing, AI-assisted development, debugging, and code management.
• Experience delivering telecom capabilities on cloud-native platforms.
• Understanding of network observability, telemetry, event processing, network topology, APIs, and data pipelines.
• Experience with AI/automation security controls, identity, least-privilege access, authentication, secrets management, and automated policy enforcement.
• Experience participating in or contributing to TM Forum, 3GPP, ETSI, or comparable telecommunications standards initiatives.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technically complex initiatives across distributed engineering and operational organizations.

Joining our team comes with amazing perks and benefits:

• Medical/Dental/Vision coverage
• 401(k) plan
• Tuition reimbursement program
• Paid Parental Leave
• Paid Caregiver Leave
• Additional sick leave beyond what state and local law require may be available but is unprotected
• Adoption Reimbursement
• Disability Benefits (short term and long term)
• Life and Accidental Death Insurance
• Supplemental benefit programs: critical illness/accident hospital indemnity/group legal
• Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)
• Extensive employee wellness programs
• Employee discounts up to 50% off on eligible AT&T mobility plans and accessories, AT&T internet (and fiber where available) and AT&T phone
• Long Term Grants and Deferred Compensation
• Paid Time Off and Holidays (based on date of hire, at least 28 days of vacation each year and 9 company-designated holidays

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AT&T and its subsidiaries are committed to equal employment opportunity. All hiring, promotion, and other employment decisions remain merit-based and free from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, physical disability, mental disability, pregnancy, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, military status, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws. In addition, AT&T will provide reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities. AT&T is a fair chance employer and does not initiate a background check until an offer is made. Click here to learn more or request an application accommodation here.