Principal Core Infrastructure Engineer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 2, 2026. First seen by Alion on Sep 15, 2026. Oracle scores A on the Alion truth index.
OCI is experiencing rapid growth driven by AI/ML adoption and increasing demand from traditional enterprise workloads. This growth is accelerating innovation across cloud infrastructure, from silicon and programmable hardware to the system software that enables it. The Virtual Networking Data Plane organization builds highly customizable VCN data plane services using industry-leading programmable SmartNICs and DPUs, delivering predictable performance, secure isolation, and high availability for OCI customers.
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is seeking a hands-on Senior Principal Systems Engineer to provide technical leadership for Card Management, a critical platform supporting SmartNIC/DPU provisioning, lifecycle management, security, observability, and operational readiness. This role will drive the architecture, reliability, and scalability of the platform capabilities that underpin OCI’s Virtual Cloud Network (VCN) data plane services.
This is an opportunity for a hands-on systems engineer who thrives at the intersection of hardware and software. The ideal candidate has deep systems engineering expertise and experience spanning cloud infrastructure, networking, hardware/software integration, programmable NICs or DPUs, and large-scale distributed systems.
Responsibilities
- Lead architecture and technical strategy for Card Management, including provisioning, lifecycle management, platform software, security, observability, and operational readiness.
- Design and deliver reliable, scalable services for SmartNIC/DPU fleet management in OCI.
- Lead complex technical and architectural decisions for card provisioning, lifecycle management, platform security, and reliability.
- Establish technical direction, resolve ambiguous system-level problems, and make decisions with broad platform and customer impact.
- Improve automation, telemetry, diagnosability, availability, performance, and operational processes.
- Identify and mitigate platform reliability, security, and operational risks.
- Partner with hardware and software teams to define requirements, validate designs, and support new platform introductions.
- Serve as a subject matter expert and provide technical mentorship across the organization.
- Participate in operational readiness reviews and incident analysis; drive durable corrective actions.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
- 8+ years of systems, platform, cloud infrastructure, networking, or distributed-systems engineering experience.
- Strong experience with Linux, systems software, networking, automation, and large-scale service operations.
- Experience designing and operating highly available, secure, and scalable infrastructure platforms.
- Demonstrated ability to lead architecture and delivery across multiple engineering organizations.
- Strong troubleshooting and root-cause analysis skills for complex hardware/software and distributed-system issues.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with SmartNICs, DPUs, programmable networking hardware, or NIC firmware/platform software.
- Experience with virtual networking, data plane systems, VCN/VPC technologies, or cloud network virtualization.
- Experience with hardware lifecycle management, provisioning systems, fleet management, or platform security.
- Familiarity with observability platforms, incident management, and operational excellence practices.
- Experience working in a large-scale cloud provider or hyperscale infrastructure environment.
Certain U.S. based or U.S. customer or client-facing roles may be required to comply with applicable requirements, such as immunization/occupational health mandates, and/or drug testing requirements.
Range and benefit information provided in this posting are specific to the stated locations only
US: Hiring Range in USD from: $114,600 to $234,600 per annum. May be eligible for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral.
Oracle maintains broad salary ranges for its roles in order to account for variations in knowledge, skills, experience, market conditions and locations, as well as reflect Oracle's differing products, industries and lines of business.
Candidates are typically placed into the range based on the preceding factors as well as internal peer equity.
Oracle US offers a comprehensive benefits package which includes the following:
1. Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion
2. Short term disability and long term disability
3. Life insurance and AD&D
4. Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)
5. Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
6. Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits
7. 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match
8. Paid time off: Flexible Vacation is provided to all eligible employees assigned to a salaried (non-overtime eligible) position. Accrued Vacation is provided to all other employees eligible for vacation benefits. For employees working at least 35 hours per week, the vacation accrual rate is 13 days annually for the first three years of employment and 18 days annually for subsequent years of employment. Vacation accrual is prorated for employees working between 20 and 34 hours per week. Employees working fewer than 20 hours per week are not eligible for vacation.
9. 11 paid holidays
10. Paid sick leave: 72 hours of paid sick leave upon date of hire. Refreshes each calendar year. Unused balance will carry over each year up to a maximum cap of 112 hours.
11. Paid parental leave
12. Adoption assistance
13. Employee Stock Purchase Plan
14. Financial planning and group legal
15. Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner and pet insurance
The role will generally accept applications for at least three calendar days from the posting date or as long as the job remains posted.
As part of Oracle's onboarding process and consistent with applicable law, US-based employees are required to complete identity verification, which involves the collection and processing of their biometric information. Accommodations to this requirement may be granted following an individualized assessment.