Telecom IT staffing for 5G, BSS/OSS, and network teams.
Specialist recruiters placing engineers at carriers, MVNOs, and equipment vendors in 17 days.
KORE1 telecom IT staffing places 5G, BSS/OSS, and network engineers at carriers, MVNOs, and equipment vendors. Our average IT fill time runs 17 days, backed by a 92% 12-month retention rate.
5G rollout didn’t slow down in 2026. Neither did BSS modernization. That’s the problem.
Every major U.S. carrier is running overlapping programs at once. Standalone core migration. Open RAN trials. A Netcracker or Amdocs rip-and-replace. ServiceNow TSM rollouts for field ops. The engineers who’ve actually shipped any of those sit at maybe fifty firms nationwide, and half are under 2-year contracts already.
We source the other half. KORE1 has been placing talent through our IT staffing services practice since before 5G was a product line. That’s the bench we run.
We place the engineers building 5G RAN, core, and virtualized networks.
5G isn’t one skill. A RAN engineer tuning O-RAN fronthaul doesn’t do the same work as a core engineer standing up a standalone AMF. We know the difference, and our recruiters screen for it.
Most of the roles we run are backend infrastructure. Standalone core migration, vRAN deployment, network function virtualization, RIC development, and IMS voice integration. Some of it is greenfield. Most of it is the messier work of grafting new network functions onto an existing carrier stack without breaking service for paying subscribers. Our recruiters screen against the actual specs, not the buzzwords — the 3GPP Release 18 specifications and the GSMA 5G Future Networks program define the ground truth we test candidates against.
Most of these hires don’t find themselves. We find them.
- O-RAN
- 5G SA/NSA
- IMS
- Virtualized Core
- NFV/SDN
- RAN Intelligent Controller
Deep BSS/OSS bench for billing, provisioning, and customer operations.
If you’ve ever sat in a four-hour Amdocs upgrade planning meeting, you know why this talent is hard to hire for. BSS and OSS engineers don’t code in a vacuum. They build inside a system where a wrong move breaks billing for a million subscribers the next morning.
Our BSS/OSS placements cover customer information systems, order management, provisioning and fulfillment, mediation, and revenue assurance. Named platforms we’ve filled against in the last 18 months include Amdocs CES, Netcracker Digital BSS, Ericsson EriCore, Salesforce Communications Cloud, ServiceNow Telecommunications Service Management, and Matrixx Digital Commerce. Most carrier modernization programs we staff into are aligned with TM Forum’s Open Digital Architecture — candidates who’ve worked inside ODA-aligned domains ship faster.
One of our clients, a mid-tier MVNO, asked us to find a Netcracker fulfillment engineer with Kafka experience. We placed one in 11 days. That’s the sort of search we run.
- Amdocs
- Netcracker
- Ericsson EriCore
- Salesforce Comms Cloud
- ServiceNow TSM
- Matrixx
17
Days avg fill
IT placements, trailing 12 months
92%
12-month retention
Placements still in seat after one year
30+
U.S. metros served
Tier-1 carriers to regional WISPs
15+
Years recruiter tenure
Average bench seniority on our telecom desk
Telecom IT roles we fill.
5G RAN Engineer
O-RAN, vRAN, and carrier aggregation work for Tier-1 carriers and equipment vendors.
BSS Developer
Amdocs, Netcracker, and Salesforce Comms Cloud backend for billing and CRM modernization.
OSS Analyst
Provisioning, fulfillment, and service assurance across legacy and modern telco stacks.
Network Automation Engineer
Ansible, Python, and closed-loop automation for carrier-grade network operations.
Also running active searches for telecom cybersecurity roles, DevOps engineers on carrier CI/CD, cloud engineers on carrier public-cloud migrations, data analytics specialists for network KPI and churn models, and software engineers working inside BSS/OSS platforms.
Common Questions
What makes telecom IT staffing different from general IT staffing?
Telecom IT staffing targets a talent pool measured in thousands, not millions. The engineers who’ve shipped a 5G core rollout or a Netcracker BSS migration sit inside roughly fifty firms nationwide. Pulling from that pool takes a recruiter who knows the platforms by name and knows who at each carrier was senior on the last rip-and-replace. General IT recruiters can’t build that list. Telecom recruiters can.
How fast can KORE1 fill a 5G engineer role?
Our trailing 12-month average for IT placements is 17 days, and telecom roles track close to that when the spec is clear. Senior vRAN and O-RAN openings trend slower, often 3 to 4 weeks. The main variable is comp flexibility. Carriers that can move on total-comp reach offer stage faster.
Do you fill contract, contract-to-hire, and direct hire?
All three. About 60% of our telecom placements run contract or contract-to-hire, usually 6 to 18-month initial terms tied to a specific program milestone. The remaining 40% are direct hire for core engineering and architect roles. We also run hybrid engagements where a team lead is direct and the surround team is contract.
What BSS/OSS platforms does KORE1 recruit against?
Amdocs, Netcracker, Ericsson EriCore, Salesforce Communications Cloud, ServiceNow Telecommunications Service Management, and Matrixx. We’ve run placements for all six in the last 18 months. For legacy modernization we also have bench on Oracle BRM, Comverse, and Kenan. The platform name matters. A Netcracker fulfillment engineer can’t drop into an Amdocs project and ramp in a month.
Can you staff Open RAN or private 5G build-outs?
Yes, and these are among the harder searches we run. Open RAN talent is still forming, with most shipped experience sitting at Mavenir, Altiostar before Rakuten, Samsung Networks, and Parallel Wireless. Private 5G is even smaller, with enterprise buyers like mining operations and port authorities who stood up their own networks in the last two years. We’ve placed into both.
How does pricing work for telecom IT staffing?
Rates depend on role seniority, engagement length, and whether you’re hiring direct or contract. Rather than quoting a table here, we scope a proposal once we understand your program, timeline, and comp framework. For reference, senior 5G core and BSS architects in 2026 typically land in the $180K to $245K base range for direct hire, with total comp on top.
For a broader view of sourcing economics, the BLS Occupational Outlook for network architects and the Ericsson Mobility Report both track demand signals we use to calibrate client pipelines.
Tell us what you’re building. We’ll send candidates.
Carriers, MVNOs, equipment vendors. 5G, BSS, OSS, network engineering. We’ll match the search to the right recruiter and start reaching out this week.