Network SRE — Bucharest Sovereign Cloud Hub

Thales is a global technology leader trusted by governments, institutions, and enterprises to tackle their most demanding challenges. From quantum applications and artificial intelligence to cybersecurity and 6G innovation, our solutions empower critical decisions rooted in human intelligence. Operating at the forefront of defence and security, aerospace and space, cybersecurity and digital identity, we’re driven by a mission to build a future we can all trust.

In Romania, we are advancing innovation through software engineering, research and development, delivering solutions in key markets in which Thales Group operates. Our engineers design, develop and integrate solutions that impact global industries - from fully operational systems and subsystems for naval warfare and maritime security operations, to air traffic management systems, satellite-based solutions, tactical indoor simulations, identity and biometric technologies and more.

The mission

A trusted, sovereign Google Cloud region operated end-to-end from within Europe by the joint venture between Thales and Google Cloud. Same Google Cloud power (GKE, compute, data, Vertex AI), European jurisdiction, European operators, Thales-grade cybersecurity.

In the last 6 months alone: world-first regulatory qualification (IaaS + CaaS + PaaS in a single decision, SecNumCloud 3.2, December 2025), named 2026 Google Cloud Partner of the Year for Sovereign Cloud, 3 data centres, 10,000+ devices, NVIDIA H100 GPU clusters in production, workloads across energy, banking, healthcare, defense.

We are standing up the SRE function for this platform from scratch. Bucharest is the primary hub, Q3 / Q4 2026 hiring window. You are joining a greenfield team, not inheriting one.

Why this role matters:

You will design and operate the network fabric of a sovereign cloud region: SDN control plane, Kubernetes CNI plugins, overlay networks (VXLAN, Geneve), network policies, cloud load balancing, and service mesh integration. You own network reliability, traffic engineering, and segmentation from packet to pod.

What you will do:

• Operate the platform SDN control and data planes
• Own the K8s CNI plugin choice, deployment, and operational patterns
• Design overlay network topologies (VXLAN, Geneve) for tenant isolation
• Implement L3/L4 and L7 network policies for workload segmentation
• Integrate service mesh (Istio or equivalent) with the network fabric
• Drive network reliability engineering: capacity, latency, throughput, packet loss
• Own network incident response, post-mortems, and continuous improvement
• Follow-the-sun on-call rotation with Google Cloud SRE teams

What we are looking for:

You have some or all of the following. We hire for depth in at least one area of the stack, breadth in the adjacent ones, and willingness to grow into the rest.

• Minimum 3 years in SRE, Network Engineering, or Platform Engineering with strong networking depth
• Hands-on Kubernetes networking (CNI plugins, network policies, service mesh)
• Solid SDN concepts (control/data plane separation, programmable fabric)
• Understanding of overlay networking (VXLAN, Geneve, encapsulation)
• Automation via Terraform or equivalent (network as code)
• Excellent English (international team, follow-the-sun on-call)

Nice to have:

• OpenFlow, P4, or programmable data plane experience
• Service mesh in production (Istio, Linkerd, Consul)
• Cloud load balancing at scale (GCLB, ALB, or equivalent)
• Experience with regulated environments (banking, healthcare, defense)
• BGP, MPLS, or traditional network engineering background

Why join:

• Greenfield SRE function, Bucharest hub. You catch the org before it exists. First hires shape the standard everyone else inherits.
• Accelerated Google training program on Google's internal technical stack (Borg, Colossus, Spanner) is planned as part of onboarding.
• Direct technical collaboration with Google Cloud SRE teams. Follow-the-sun on-call model with global coverage.
• Sovereign cloud, first-of-its-kind, SecNumCloud 3.2 qualified. Regulated workloads in banking, healthcare, energy, defense.
• Hyperscaler-level scale of operations from a single location. No relocation required.
• Competitive package, private medical, meal vouchers, sport benefit, and the rest of the Thales standard package.

Sound like you?

Apply via the link in the first comment. We review Senior and Mid profiles within the same pipeline and route based on experience during first-stage screening.

At Thales, we’re committed to fostering a workplace where respect, trust, collaboration, and passion drive everything we do. Here, you’ll feel empowered to bring your best self, thrive in a supportive culture, and love the work you do. Join us, and be part of a team reimagining technology to create solutions that truly make a difference - for a safer, greener, and more inclusive world.