Tech Lead, Mobile Core Network Engineering at Textnow

TextNow is on a mission to make communications affordable and accessible for everyone. As a full MVNO operating our own mobile core network over LTE and 5G NSA, we have the unique advantage of controlling our network infrastructure end-to-end. We operate the HSS, PGW, and other critical network functions, giving us the flexibility to innovate and deliver exceptional service to millions of users.  About the Role  We are looking for a hands-on Tech Lead, Mobile Core Network Engineering to own the health and evolution of our mobile core platform. Our cloud-hosted core runs in AWS, with our mobile core vendor providing managed services for day-to-day operations. This role is the critical bridge between our vendor’s Managed Services team and our internal engineering, product, and operations teams.  You’ll be the technical owner of the mobile core, combining deep technical expertise with strong coordination skills. You won’t just manage vendor deliverables—you’ll dive into the technical details, challenge approaches when needed, and ensure our core network evolves to meet the demands of a growing subscriber base. This role has a clear growth path into technical and people leadership as the team scales.  A note on background: We know that people who have operated a mobile core at scale are rare. If you’re a strong SRE or infrastructure engineering leader with deep networking knowledge and a track record of managing complex, vendor-operated platforms, we want to hear from you—even if you haven’t worked with 3GPP technologies before. We’ll invest in helping you build the telco-specific domain knowledge.  Who You Are • • Experienced in SRE or Infrastructure Leadership: 7+ years in SRE, infrastructure engineering, or network engineering, with a track record of operating complex, high-availability platforms at scale. • Strong Networking Fundamentals: Deep understanding of IP networking, routing, tunneling protocols, DNS, DPI. You can reason about packet flows across distributed systems and debug from the wire up. • Vendor Management Experience: You've managed vendor or managed-service relationships for critical infrastructure. You know how to review their work, hold them accountable, and coordinate across vendor, operations, and product teams without micromanaging. • AI-First Mindset: You actively use AI tools to accelerate incident triage, anomaly detection, and root cause analysis, and continuously evolve how you apply them to raise the bar on operational excellence. • Technical Leadership & Ownership: You've provided technical direction and mentorship to other engineers, see problems before they're escalated, and drive them to resolution. You enjoy technical leadership and want to grow into leading a team. • Incident Management & Observability: Comfortable handling production incidents, analyzing root causes, and implementing long-term fixes. Hands-on experience with observability platforms like Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana, or the ELK stack. • AWS Infrastructure: Experience with AWS (EC2, EKS, VPC networking) or equivalent cloud platform. • Comfortable Operating in Ambiguity: You don't need to have all the answers on day one, but you know how to find them. You're motivated to learn new technical domains and apply that learning quickly. You’ll stand out if you have: • Experience with mobile core network operations (LTE/5G EPC/NSA)—hands-on experience with HSS, PGW/SGW, PCRF, or similar network functions • Understanding of 3GPP standards, Diameter, GTP, or mobile packet core architecture • Experience at an MVNO or with carrier/MVNO-specific network challenges • Familiarity with IMS or VoLTE deployments, SIP, SMPP, SMTP What You'll Do • • Own the Mobile Core Platform: Take end-to-end accountability for the health, performance, and evolution of TextNow's mobile core (HSS, PGW, PCRF, and related functions running in AWS). Drive capacity planning and platform evolution to support growing scale. • Manage Vendor Relationships: Serve as the primary technical interface with our mobile core vendor's Managed Services team and TextNow's broader carrier partners. Review vendor-proposed changes and architectural decisions, catch errors before production, and hold partners accountable to SLAs. Oversee vendor software upgrade cycles, coordinate upgrade windows, and ensure smooth rollouts. • Build AI-Driven Operational Capabilities: Design and deliver AI tooling to improve operational health, including agentic performance analysis, automated diagnostics, and accelerated root cause analysis. Continuously evolve how the team uses AI to raise the bar on operational excellence. • Technical Leadership & Mentorship: Provide technical direction and mentorship across the Telecom Engineering pod, growing into people leadership as the team scales. • Incident Response & On-Call Support: Participate in an on-call rotation, troubleshoot issues, and drive incident resolution to minimize downtime. Conduct post-mortems and implement corrective actions to enhance reliability. • Cross-Functional Coordination: Partner with product, engineering, and other pods to prioritize and sequence network asks. Translate internal requirements into actionable work for the team and vendors. • Platform Evolution: Contribute to the long-term technical roadmap for the core network. Develop and improve monitoring, alerting, and operational tooling for core network health. Evaluate new technologies and drive initiatives to reduce operational burden and increase automation. Why TextNow? • Rare opportunity to own a mobile core network at a full MVNO—not just configure someone else’s • High-impact role: your work directly affects millions of users’ connectivity • Small, senior team where your decisions and leadership shape the platform’s direction • Remote-friendly culture with a collaborative, low-ego engineering organization • Competitive compensation, equity, and comprehensive benefits More about TextNow  Our culture  We’re proud of the culture that we’ve built at TextNow, but one of the most common questions we hear is ‘how do you continue to sustain it as the world and the company continues to change?’ The reality is that we’re only able to keep up because each and every TextNovian contributes to our culture through being involved, by living our values, sharing feedback, embracing change and more!       Our values  Customer Obsessed  We strive to have a deep understanding of our customers.    Do Right By Our People  We treat each other with fairness, respect, and integrity.    Accept the Challenge  We adopt a "Yes, We Can" mindset to achieve ambitious goals.    Act Like an Owner  We treat this company like it's our own... because it is!    Give a Damn  We are deeply committed and passionate about our work and achieving results.      Our benefits and more  This is a brief overview of the benefits that TextNow offers its employees. More complete details can be found in TextNow’s Benefit Guide and legal plan documents, which are available to employees on or shortly after their start date with TextNow. The benefits listed herein are for illustrative purposes only and may change from time-to-time in TextNow’s sole discretion.    Free phone service  Strong work life blend   Flexible work arrangements (work-from-home, remote, or access to one of our office spaces)  Employee stock options   Unlimited vacation   12 paid holidays per year  Competitive pay  Health, dental, and vision benefits  Short-term & long-term disability  $750 annual wellness benefit or healthcare spending account  RRSP matching (Canada) | 401(K) (USA)   Parental leave for eligible employees  Learning & Development opportunities We travel a few times a year for various team events, company-wide off-sites, and more  More information about our total rewards package will be available during the hiring process.    Dogfooding & Customer Obsession  At TextNow, every employee gets to actively use our app for calling and texting. Dogfooding helps us experience what customers do, to spot issues early, and drive better design, developer, and user experiences.    Diversity and Inclusion  Our aim is to make every person who joins TextNow feel like they belong, that they’re valued, and that they’re able to be their authentic selves at work.   We’re all accountable for creating an inclusive culture and a sense of belonging for one another. By doing this together, we’ll make TextNow better for everyone.     Equal opportunity  We are an equal opportunity employer and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, or any other protected characteristic.    Applicants who require reasonable accommodation during the hiring process may contact our Talent Team.    AI usage: We use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact our Talent Team.    TextNow Candidate Policy  By submitting an application to TextNow, you agree to the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with the TextNow Candidate Policy