{"id":2618348,"url":"https://alion.io/job/digitalocean-senior-software-engineer-ii-network-datapath-5","title":"Senior Software Engineer II, Network Datapath","company":{"id":1115,"name":"DigitalOcean","domain":"digitalocean.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/digitalocean","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":38,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":23,"computed_at":"2026-10-19T05:45:15Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"senior","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Seattle, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":167200,"max":209000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":209000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"BGP","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"DigitalOcean","optional":false},{"name":"eBPF","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"TCP/IP","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-21T22:59:31Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-02","last_verified_at":"2026-10-19T10:22:31Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":27,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":27},"description":"Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean. Journey alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you’ll find your place here. We value winning together-while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world. \nAbout the Role\nDigitalOcean is looking for a Senior Software Engineer, Network Datapath to help build and evolve the software that powers high-performance networking across our cloud infrastructure.\nYou will work at the intersection of networking, operating systems, distributed systems, and high-performance software, developing datapath technologies that enable DigitalOcean to deliver high throughput, low latency, and predictable network performance at scale.\nThis role will focus on the software running in and around the network datapath, including packet processing, forwarding, routing, acceleration, observability, and integration with host and hardware-based networking components. You will work closely with Network Infrastructure, Compute, Availability, and hardware teams to design, implement, optimize, and operate production networking systems.\nThe ideal candidate is a strong software engineer with deep networking knowledge who enjoys working close to the system and is excited about optimizing the path that packets take through cloud infrastructure.\nWhat You'll Be Doing\nDesign, develop, and optimize high-performance network datapath software for DigitalOcean's cloud infrastructure.\nBuild and improve packet-processing and forwarding systems with a focus on throughput, latency, CPU efficiency, scalability, and reliability.\nDevelop networking functionality across the host, kernel, user space, and hardware-accelerated datapath.\nWork with technologies such as Linux networking, eBPF, XDP, DPDK, AF_XDP, SR-IOV, and programmable datapaths.\nAnalyze packet-processing paths and identify opportunities to eliminate bottlenecks and improve performance.\nDevelop software for routing, packet filtering, encapsulation, tunneling, load balancing, traffic steering, and network virtualization.\nBuild and improve datapath observability, telemetry, debugging, and performance monitoring.\nDesign software that integrates with DPUs, SmartNICs, programmable NICs, and other hardware acceleration technologies.\nDevelop automated testing and benchmarking frameworks to validate datapath correctness and performance.\nInvestigate complex production networking issues, including packet drops, latency, throughput degradation, CPU utilization, and unexpected traffic behavior.\nWork with Network Infrastructure and Compute engineers to integrate datapath functionality into DigitalOcean's broader infrastructure architecture.\nContribute to the design and implementation of next-generation network architectures.\nAuthor RFCs, architecture documents, technical proposals, design documents, and implementation plans to drive complex networking initiatives.\nClearly document technical decisions, tradeoffs, performance characteristics, dependencies, and operational considerations.\nParticipate in design reviews and provide technical guidance to other engineers.\nMentor engineers and contribute to improving software engineering and networking practices across the organization.\nWhat We're Looking For\nStrong experience designing and developing production software in C, C++, or Go.\nStrong understanding of networking and packet processing.\nExperience developing software for Linux-based networking systems.\nSolid understanding of networking concepts including TCP/IP, routing, switching, VLANs, VXLAN, BGP, ECMP, NAT, load balancing, and network virtualization.\nExperience debugging and optimizing performance-sensitive systems.\nUnderstanding of Linux networking internals, including the Linux kernel networking stack, network namespaces, sockets, queues, interrupts, and NIC drivers.\nExperience with one or more high-performance networking technologies such as DPDK, XDP, eBPF, AF_XDP, or SR-IOV.\nExperience with multithreaded and concurrent software.\nStrong understanding of performance analysis, profiling, benchmarking, and troubleshooting.\nAbility to reason about complex systems across hardware, operating systems, networking, and applications.\nAbility to independently drive projects from technical design through implementation and production deployment.\nStrong technical writing skills, with the ability to produce RFCs, architecture/design documents, technical proposals, and other documentation required to drive engineering projects.\nStrong communication skills and ability to work effectively across engineering teams.\nExperience with hardware-accelerated networking is highly valuable. This includes:\nExperience developing software for DPUs, SmartNICs, IPUs, or programmable NICs.\nUnderstanding how functionality can be distributed between host CPUs, NICs, DPUs, and switches.\nExperience with DPU-based networking, security, storage, virtualization, or packet processing.\nExperience with programmable datapaths such as P4, eBPF, or other programmable data-plane technologies.\nUnderstanding of PCIe, DMA, queues, interrupts, RSS, offloads, and NIC hardware architecture.\nAt the Senior Engineer level, you will be expected to:\nOwn significant technical components and deliver them from design through production.\nSolve complex performance and reliability problems in the network datapath.\nMake sound technical decisions based on measurable performance and operational requirements.\nDevelop scalable solutions rather than one-off fixes.\nProactively identify architectural and performance bottlenecks.\nWork effectively across Network Infrastructure, Compute, Security, and other engineering organizations.\nProduce clear RFCs and technical documentation that enable teams to align on complex architectural decisions.\nMentor other engineers and raise the technical bar within the team.\nUse AI and modern engineering tools to increase personal and team leverage and accelerate delivery.\nNice to Have\nExperience working on cloud networking or hyperscale infrastructure.\nExperience developing Linux kernel networking code or NIC drivers.\nExperience with DPDK, XDP, eBPF, AF_XDP, or DPU-based datapaths in production.\nExperience with 400G+ networking.\nExperience with high-performance packet processing at 10/25/40/100/200/400G+ speeds.\nExperience with network virtualization and overlay technologies such as VXLAN/EVPN.\nExperience with programmable switches.\nExperience with performance analysis using tools such as perf, eBPF tooling, flame graphs, or hardware performance counters.\nExperience building network datapath tests and benchmarking infrastructure.\nContributions to Linux, DPDK, eBPF, OVS, or other networking/open-source projects.\nWhy DigitalOcean\nThis role provides an opportunity to work on some of the most performance-sensitive software in DigitalOcean's infrastructure. The network datapath is foundational to the performance, scalability, and reliability of our cloud platform.\nYou will help shape the evolution from traditional host-based networking toward highly optimized, programmable, and hardware-accelerated datapaths, while solving challenging problems across software, operating systems, networking, and hardware.\nCompensation Range: \n$167,200 - $209,000\n*This is a hybrid role\nJR: 2026-8151\n#LI-Hybrid\nWhy You’ll Like Working for DigitalOcean\nWe innovate with purpose. You’ll be a part of a cutting-edge technology company with an upward trajectory, who are proud to simplify cloud and AI so builders can spend more time creating software that changes the world. As a member of the team, you will be a Shark who thinks big, bold, and scrappy, like an owner with a bias for action and a powerful sense of responsibility for customers, products, employees, and decisions.\nWe prioritize career development. At DO, you’ll do the best work of your career. You will work with some of the smartest and most interesting people in the industry. We are a high-performance organization that will always challenge you to think big. Our organizational development team will provide you with resources to ensure you keep growing. We provide employees with reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education. All employees have access to LinkedIn Learning's 10,000+ courses to support their continued growth and development.\nWe care about your well-being. Regardless of your location, we will provide you with a competitive array of benefits to support you from our Employee Assistance Program to Local Employee Meetups to flexible time off policy, to name a few. While the philosophy around our benefits is the same worldwide, specific benefits may vary based on local regulations and preferences.\nWe reward our employees. The salary range for this position is based on market data, relevant years of experience, and skills. You may qualify for a bonus in addition to base salary; bonus amounts are determined based on company and individual performance. We also provide equity compensation to eligible employees, including equity grants upon hire and the option to participate in our Employee Stock Purchase Program.\nDigitalOcean is an equal-opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.\nApplication Limit: You may apply to a maximum of 3 positions within any 180-day period. 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