{"id":3766949,"url":"https://alion.io/job/netapp-principal-engineer-2","title":"Principal Engineer","company":{"id":58700,"name":"NetApp","domain":"netapp.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/netapp","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Eightfold","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":89,"open_postings":28,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.429,"repost_share":0.036,"time_to_fill_p50_days":53,"computed_at":"2026-11-07T05:47:08Z"}},"role":"Backend","role_family":"Backend","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Jose, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":227800,"max":338800,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":338800},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":15,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"AI Agents","optional":false},{"name":"AIOps","optional":false},{"name":"Apache Kafka","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"Dynatrace","optional":false},{"name":"GCP","optional":false},{"name":"Google ADK","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"LangChain","optional":false},{"name":"LangGraph","optional":false},{"name":"Machine Learning","optional":false},{"name":"Mem0","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Splunk","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-24T23:42:37Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-04","last_verified_at":"2026-11-07T09:30:20Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":43,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":43},"description":"Job Summary\nNetApp is seeking a Principal Engineer to set the technical direction for the Active IQ platform, defining the architecture and engineering approach for the AI, agentic AI, and intelligent automation capabilities that turn NetApp telemetry into actionable customer intelligence.\nThis is a senior individual contributor role. The Principal Engineer operates as the most senior technical authority across multiple Active IQ teams, solving ambiguous, high-impact problems that span systems and organizational boundaries, and remains hands-on for the most critical and complex components of the platform.\nAbout Active IQ\nNetApp Active IQ is a digital advisor that uses AIOps to simplify and automate the proactive care and optimization of a customer’s infrastructure environment to improve its health and availability. Active IQ provides actionable intelligence for optimal storage health and simplified management.\nResponsibilities\nTechnical Vision & Architecture: Own the multi-year technical vision and target architecture for Active IQ, and drive alignment on that direction across engineering, product management, and executive leadership.\nAgentic AI & Machine Learning Systems: Architect and deliver agentic AI and machine learning systems that operate reliably at NetApp fleet scale, including the data, evaluation, and safety foundations they depend on.\nHands-On Technical Leadership: Lead the design and implementation of the most complex and highest-risk components, setting the technical bar through hands-on contribution, design review, and code review.\nCross-Team Problem Solving: Identify and resolve systemic technical problems that span multiple teams, and establish the engineering standards, patterns, and practices that other teams adopt.\nTechnology Evaluation: Evaluate emerging AI and cloud technologies, run the proofs of concept that de-risk them, and make build, buy, or partner recommendations that shape the roadmap.\nPlatform Reliability & Security: Partner with SRE and operations to ensure Active IQ services meet availability, performance, and security targets at scale, and drive the automation and observability strategy that sustains them.\nMentorship: Mentor and grow senior and experienced engineers, raising the technical capability of the broader Active IQ organization without formal management responsibility.\nCollaboration: Work closely with cross-functional teams, including product management, development, design, and operations, to deliver high-quality solutions.\n Technical Representation: Represent NetApp engineering with customers, partners, and industry forums on Active IQ architecture, AI strategy, and technical direction.\nJob Requirements\nExperience in design and development of agentic AI applications using modern frameworks such as LangGraph, LangChain, Google ADK, Phoenix, Guardrails, Mem0, and related technologies.\nStrong working knowledge of streaming and event-driven technologies such as Kafka.\nDeep experience with database technologies across relational, document, and vector stores, preferably including MongoDB.\nExtensive knowledge of cloud architecture and containerization, preferably Kubernetes and Docker, with cloud services such as AWS or Azure.\nExtensive knowledge of observability and application performance monitoring platforms such as Dynatrace and Splunk.\nExperience building enterprise software applications with a strong focus on Python development and generative AI technologies.\nExperience in building out the infrastructure layer(Storage, Compute and Databases) to support the Active IQ Ecosystem.\nDemonstrated track record of setting technical direction and delivering complex systems across multiple teams, with influence extending beyond a single organization.\nDeep expertise in distributed systems design, computer architecture, data structures, and large-scale data processing.\nExtensive experience architecting, implementing, and operating highly scalable, production-grade cloud services on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.\nProven experience designing and shipping AI or machine learning systems in production, including the trade-offs of latency, cost, accuracy, and reliability at scale.\nAbility to drive technical decisions to closure in ambiguous problem spaces where requirements, constraints, and success criteria are not yet defined.\nStrong understanding of both on-premises and cloud infrastructure, and of the reliability and security practices required to operate customer-facing services.\nDemonstrated ability to mentor senior engineers and elevate engineering practice across teams.\nExcellent problem-solving and analytical skills.\nExcellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to make complex technical trade-offs clear to both engineering teams and executive stakeholders.\nStrong interpersonal skills and the ability to build consensus across organizations.\nAbility to work effectively in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.\nEducation\nEducation: B.S. in Computer Science or a related field is required; an M.S. or Ph.D. in Computer Science or a related field is preferred.\nExperience: 15+ years of experience in the high-tech industry is required, including demonstrated technical leadership at the principal or equivalent level.\nCompensation:\nThe target salary range for this position is 227,800 - 338,800 USD. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range. Final compensation packages are competitive and in line with industry standards, reflecting a variety of factors, and include a comprehensive benefits package. This may cover Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off, various Leave options, Performance-Based Incentives, employee stock purchase plan, and/or restricted stocks (RSU’s), with all offerings subject to regional variations and governed by local laws, regulations, and company policies. 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