Sr. Principal Autonomous Networks & Agentic AI Architect – 5G Mobile Core

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 e