{"id":1149803,"url":"https://alion.io/job/arista-networks-seniorlead-software-engineer-packet-forwarding-2","title":"Senior/Lead Software Engineer, Packet Forwarding","company":{"id":2790,"name":"Arista Networks","domain":"arista.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/arista-networks","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"SmartRecruiters","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":98,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.99,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":33,"computed_at":"2026-10-23T05:54:15Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Nashua, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":133000,"max_usd":266000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":1150},"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Unix","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-22T12:53:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-22","last_verified_at":"2026-10-24T01:06:51Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":31,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":31},"description":"Arista Networks is an industry leader in data-driven, client-to-cloud networking for large data center, campus and routing environments. What sets us apart is our relentless pursuit of innovation. We leverage the latest advancements in cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and software-defined networking to provide our clients with a competitive edge in an increasingly interconnected world. Our solutions are designed to not only meet the current demands of the digital landscape but to also anticipate and adapt to future challenges.\nAt Arista we value the diversity of thought and perspectives that each employee brings to the table. We believe that fostering an inclusive environment, where individuals from various backgrounds and experiences feel welcome, is essential for driving creativity and innovation.\nOur commitment to excellence has earned us several prestigious awards, such as Best Engineering Team, Best Company for Diversity, Compensation, and Work-Life Balance. At Arista, we take pride in our track record of success and strive to maintain the highest standards of quality and performance in everything we do.\n Who You'll Work With\nArista Networks is looking for world-class Senior/Lead Packet Forwarding Engine (PFE) Software Engineers.\nAs a Senior/Lead PFE Software Engineer, you will collaborate and work with customers, product management and engineers to design and build novel packet forwarding features in EOS that help networks run effectively and efficiently. You will need to understand the packet forwarding architecture in depth and figure out how to apply it optimally to solve customer problems. You will design the packet forwarding flow, design data structures and algorithms to render the packet forwarding state used by the forwarding engine for efficiency and scale, and tie it all together with the higher layers.\nIn this role, you will get to confront complex, multi-dimensional problems such as\n“Upgrade software on a switch with no more than a few milliseconds of downtime”\n“Render a routing table with >1M routes into the forwarding path on a router with a hundred forwarding chips”\nthat are open ended, challenging, fun and require strong problem solving skills.\nArista Software Engineering roles demand a strong and broad software engineering background. While the primary focus area for this role is packet forwarding, the role will cover all aspects of software development spanning the addition of new features, debugging problems and fine tuning code for scalability and performance. You will own your projects from definition to deployment and customer interactions, and you will be responsible for the quality of everything you deliver.\nArista Software Engineering prides itself on a supportive and growth oriented culture. Over time, as your interests change, coupled with evolving business needs you will have the opportunity to switch from packet forwarding to other areas, if you like.\nWhat You’ll Do\nInterface with customers and product management to define packet forwarding features and solutions.\nArchitect, design and manage the development of these features.\nDevelop and maintain features using C, C++ and Python, review and contribute to functional and design specifications. Build automated tests and test infrastructure to test the features.\nProvide technical leadership across features, projects and tools.\nWork with Customer Support Engineers and customers to analyze, mitigate and fix problems in customer networks.\nWork with the System Test Engineers to analyze problems found in their tests and provide fixes for those problems.\nMentor new and junior engineers to bring them up to speed in Arista's software development environment.\n BS Computer Science/Electrical Engineering/Computer Engineering + 8 years experience, or MS Computer Science/Electrical Engineering/Computer Engineering + 6 years experience, or Ph.D. in Computer Science/Electrical Engineering/Computer Engineering + 3 years experience, or equivalent work experience\nExpert knowledge of C or C++ and Python.\nKnowledge of UNIX or Linux\nUnderstanding of IP networking and/or distributed systems\nExperience working with packet forwarding chips and pipelines is a plus\nApplied understanding of software engineering principles\nStrong problem solving and software troubleshooting skills\nAbility to design a solution and implement features independently.\nAbility to work in small teams.\nArista Networks is an equal opportunity employer. Arista makes all hiring and employment-related decisions in a non-discriminatory manner without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin or any other factor determined to be unlawful under applicable federal, state, or law law. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.","description_format":"text","description_chars":4826,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[{"language":"English","level":"All levels","optional":false}]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Network Equipment"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-23T17:16:36Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":41,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.543,"p_room":0.75,"age_days":30,"expected_fill_days":33,"reasons":["conf:3","stale_co","velocity","win:late","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-23T05:54:15Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/arista-networks-seniorlead-software-engineer-packet-forwarding-2","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/arista-networks-seniorlead-software-engineer-packet-forwarding-2.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-24T03:46:50Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":5968,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-25T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":2790},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2790"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Farista-networks-seniorlead-software-engineer-packet-forwarding-2"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Farista-networks-seniorlead-software-engineer-packet-forwarding-2"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Farista-networks-seniorlead-software-engineer-packet-forwarding-2"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/arista-networks-seniorlead-software-engineer-packet-forwarding-2\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Farista-networks-seniorlead-software-engineer-packet-forwarding-2"}]}