About the role
Are you looking to Optimize your life? Start your exciting path to a rewarding career today!
We are Optimum, a leader in the fast-paced world of connectivity, and we're seeking driven and enthusiastic professionals to join our team, empower lives, fuel businesses, and drive innovation. Connectivity is no longer a luxury, but a necessity. A career at Optimum means you'll be enabling progress and enhancing lives by providing reliable, high-speed connectivity solutions that keep the world connected.
Our successes, now and in the future, are powered by our amazing product, a commitment to our people and culture, and the connections we make in our communities. If you are resourceful, collaborative, and passionate about delivering consistent excellence, Optimum is for you! Job Summary The Role Senior DNS Engineer – SRE is an expert level technical role responsible for the strategic architecture, global scalability, and ironclad reliability of the mission-critical DNS infrastructure powering our ISP and core network services.
This position is designed for a veteran engineer who masters the Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) philosophy—championing automation, observability, and self-healing systems as the standard for Tier-1 operations.
You will mentor junior staff and lead the technical roadmap, combining deep IP networking expertise with modern security protocols to defend against sophisticated threats while maintaining sub-millisecond performance for millions of users. The Impact
This is a high-visibility, influential role. As a technical authority, you will drive cross-functional initiatives across Product, Security, and Service Assurance teams. Your mission is to evolve a carrier-grade DNS ecosystem that sets the industry standard for privacy (DoH/DoT) and availability.
You will not only manage infrastructure but also define the engineering culture, ensuring our global name services remain resilient, compliant, and ahead of the technological curve. Responsibilities
Architectural Vision
Lead the high-level design and evolution and operation of global, multi-site DNS architectures. Implement advanced Anycast routing strategies, multi-provider redundancy, and zero-touch failover mechanisms.
Architectural Ownership
Lead the design and evolution of global DNS architectures, ensuring high availability through Anycast routing, multi-provider redundancy, and automated failover mechanisms.
Strategic Vendor Relations
Act as the primary technical authority in engagements with DNS and infrastructure vendors, driving roadmaps that align with our long-term reliability and security goals.
Lifecycle & Capacity Management
Oversee the full lifecycle of DNS platforms—including automated software deployments, hardware refreshes, and proactive capacity planning—to stay ahead of traffic growth.
Standardization & Policy
Optimize, Define and enforce organization-wide standards for DNS record management, security protocols (DNSSEC), and traffic steering policies to optimize user latency.
Reliability Engineering
Convert "Strategic Design" into "Operational Reality" by defining Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and Error Budgets for all core name services.
Advanced DNS Operations & SRE Protocol Mastery
Serve as the final escalation point for complex protocol issues involving recursion, iteration, and specialized record (A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, SRV) in a dual-stack environment.
Security Engineering
Architect robust DNSSEC implementations and global DDoS mitigation strategies. Lead the response to DNS-based threats, including cache poisoning and sophisticated amplification attacks.
Toil Elimination & Tooling
Lead the development of custom automation frameworks using industry tools. Replace all manual intervention with robust, tested workflows via Ansible, Terraform, or Kubernetes operators.
Full-Stack Performance Tuning
Optimize Linux kernel parameters for extreme network throughput. Conduct forensic-level analysis of BIND, Unbound, or PowerDNS logs and telemetry to identify latent systemic issues.
Deep Observability
Design comprehensive monitoring ecosystems using Prometheus, Grafana, and dnstap. Transform raw query data into executive-level insights regarding latency, error rates (NXDOMAIN/SERVFAIL), and user behavior.
Qualifications
Education
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Telecommunications, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)
Experience
5+ years in networking or systems engineering, with at least 3 years focused on
SRE principles within a high-scale production environment DNS Authority
Expert-level experience configuring and maintaining at least three of the following: BIND, Unbound, PowerDNS, AWS Route 53, or
Azure DNS Advanced Networking
Expert understanding of TCP/IP, BGP (for Anycast), and encrypted transport protocols (DoH/DoT)
Software Engineering
High proficiency in Python, Go, or Bash, with a proven track record of building production-grade automation tools
Observability Stack
Deep experience architecting monitoring solutions with Prometheus, Grafana, and OpenTelemetry
Preferred Qualifications
ISP/Carrier
Experience
Previous experience in a Tier-1 or Tier-2 service provider environment managing infrastructure for millions of subscribers
Cloud-Native DNS
Proven success in managing hybrid-cloud DNS environments and migrating legacy workloads to cloud-native or containerized solutions
Security Certifications
Relevant certifications (e.g., CISSP, CCNP/CCIE, or
SRE-specific certifications) are a plus Leadership
Experience mentoring junior engineers and leading complex, multi-quarter technical projects from inception to completion At Optimum, every action and interaction we take part in, is driven by our three
Guiding Principles
Do What’s Right, Drive One Optimum, and Make It Happen. These aren’t just words, they help us build trust, create real community, and embrace new ways of thinking. Our employees are empowered to do the right thing for our customers and co-workers and to recognize and reward these behaviors when we see them.
It’s all part of the bigger picture of “Be The Difference” where each employee knows they have the power to enact real change, share new ideas, and understand that learning never stop. If you have the drive to succeed and are ready to embark on a thrilling career, seize this opportunity today, and join our winning team. Together, we'll shape the future of connectivity.
All job descriptions and required skills, qualifications and responsibilities for a particular position are subject to modification by the Company from time to time, in the Company’s discretion based on business necessity. We are an
Equal Opportunity
Employer committed to recruiting, hiring and promoting qualified people of all backgrounds regardless of gender, race, color, creed, national origin, religion, age, marital status, pregnancy, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by federal, state, or local law. The Company collects personal information about its applicants for employment that may include personal identifiers, professional or employment related information, photos, education information and/or protected classifications under federal and state law.
This information is collected for employment purposes, including identification, work authorization, FCRA-compliant background screening, human resource administration and compliance with federal, state and local law. Applicants for employment with The Company will never be asked to provide money (even if reimbursable) as part of the job application or hiring process.
Please review our Fraud FAQ for further details. Pay is competitive and based on a number of job-related factors, including skills and experience.
The starting pay rate/range at time of hire for this position in New York is 100,246.00 - 164,689.00 / year. For other locations, please inquire with your recruiter.
The rates/ranges provided herein are the anticipated pay at the time of hire, and do not reflect future job opportunity. We appreciate your interest in this opportunity.
Applicants must be authorized to work for ANY employer in the U.S. Please note that at this time, we do not provide visa sponsorship for employment.