Sr. Software Engineer (Systems Engineering, C/C++)

Job Summary

NetApp is seeking a highly experienced Senior Software Development Engineer to help lead innovation across cloud infrastructure, software-defined storage, virtualization, and distributed systems technologies. This role is responsible for driving the design and execution of foundational infrastructure capabilities that power NetApp’s cloud-native storage and data management services across hyperscaler cloud environments.

As an Senior Software Engineer, you will apply broad and deep expertise across multiple specialized disciplines including distributed systems, Linux systems software, storage architecture, networking infrastructure, and virtualization technologies. You will contribute to significant technical initiatives spanning multiple products, teams, and partner organizations while influencing architecture, execution, scalability, and operational excellence across the organization.

This role requires strong technical leadership, advanced systems thinking, and the ability to identify challenges and blockers early while navigating complex technical and organizational constraints to deliver impactful outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and development of scalable, resilient, and high-performance infrastructure components across storage, networking, virtualization, and Linux systems layers.
• Drive architecture and technical direction for major subsystems within software-defined storage, virtualization infrastructure, and distributed cloud platforms.
• Contribute to significant portions of the product across multiple technical domains and projects while coordinating execution across stakeholders and partner teams.
• Architect and optimize storage and networking data paths for performance, scalability, reliability, and operational efficiency in cloud-scale environments.
• Provide technical leadership across virtualization technologies including KVM/QEMU, hypervisor integrations, virtual networking, storage virtualization, and infrastructure orchestration.
• Drive engineering excellence through strong design practices, observability, scalability, reliability, automation, and operational readiness.
• Lead resolution of highly complex technical challenges involving distributed systems, virtualization, cloud infrastructure, and enterprise storage technologies.
• Influence technical direction across organizations through architecture reviews, technical mentoring, design leadership, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Establish effective technical collaboration models across engineering teams and partner organizations to drive alignment and execution.
• Mentor engineers and help scale organizational engineering capability through technical guidance and leadership.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and industry trends in cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, storage, and virtualization platforms.

Job Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in systems software engineering, distributed infrastructure platforms, virtualization, storage systems, or cloud infrastructure development.
• Expert-level programming skills in C/C++ with strong proficiency in Python.
• Deep expertise in Linux operating systems internals, kernel technologies, systems architecture, concurrency, memory management, and performance engineering.
• Significant experience designing and building distributed storage systems, software-defined infrastructure platforms, or cloud-native infrastructure services.
• Deep expertise with virtualization stacks including KVM/QEMU, virtio, hypervisors, virtual storage, and virtual networking technologies.
• Strong experience with storage and networking subsystems, kernel development, or device driver development.
• Deep understanding of distributed systems architecture, scalability, fault tolerance, reliability engineering, and operational excellence.
• Strong operational expertise with hyperscaler cloud platforms including AWS, Azure, GCP, or OCI.
• Proven ability to lead large cross-functional technical initiatives and influence engineering outcomes across organizations.
• Exceptional debugging, systems analysis, and performance optimization capabilities.
• Strong communication, technical leadership, and stakeholder management skills.
• Demonstrated ability to independently solve highly complex technical challenges with broad organizational impact.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience architecting enterprise-scale storage operating systems such as ONTAP or similar platforms.
• Experience driving large-scale infrastructure modernization or platform transformation initiatives.
• Contributions to open-source systems software, kernel, virtualization, storage, or cloud infrastructure ecosystems.
• Recognized technical expertise in cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, virtualization, or storage platforms.
• Advanced cloud certifications or equivalent industry-recognized expertise.

Education

• Bachelors or Masters Degree in computer scicnece or similar field is preferred.

Compensation:

The target salary range for this position is 196,350 - 292,600 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. Benefits may vary by country and region, and further details will be provided as part of the recruitment process.