Vice President Software Engineer – Distributed Systems and Software Defined Networking

Lead the design and implementation of core platform components, including control plane (OVN), data plane (OVS/DPU), software gateways, load balancers, and IPAM systems. 

Architect and build distributed systems with a focus on correctness, fault tolerance, convergence, and performance at scale. 

Design and implement distributed algorithms for network control, coordination, state management, and routing across large-scale infrastructure. 

Write production-quality code in Go, Python, or C/C++ for networking infrastructure. 

Contribute to the strategy and development of multiple products, applications, and technologies within the networking platform portfolio. 

Communicate complex technical issues, trends, and architectural approaches to senior leadership to support informed decision-making about technology direction. 

Develop reusable software frameworks and libraries that can be leveraged across teams and functions. 

Collaborate with vendor partners  on roadmap alignment and integration. 

Mentor and guide associate and mid-level engineers, fostering a culture of technical rigor, research-driven development, and continuous learning. 

Participate in and contribute to open-source communities and industry forums. 

Leverage AI-assisted tooling for research, prototyping, and code generation to accelerate development cycles. 

Implement technical methods and best practices in specialized fields aligned with modern product development methodologies. 

Collaborate effectively across business, product, and technology teams and manage stakeholder relationships. 

Champion the firm's culture of diversity, opportunity, inclusion, and respect. 

8+ years of hands-on experience in software engineering with a focus on distributed systems, networking, or systems infrastructure. 

Proven track record of designing and implementing distributed systems at scale, including architecture decisions around consistency, availability, partition tolerance, and convergence. 

Deep practical experience with distributed algorithms: consensus protocols, leader election, distributed coordination, state replication, graph-based routing, or scheduling. 

Proficiency in one or more programming languages: Go, Python, C/C++, or Rust. 

Strong knowledge of networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, routing, switching, load balancing). 

Hands-on experience with software-defined networking technologies such as OVN, OVS, or equivalent. 

Demonstrated experience communicating technical strategy and complex system design to senior leadership and cross-functional stakeholders. 

Experience with modern development practices (CI/CD, infrastructure as code, observability). 

Solid practical cloud-native experience. 

Strong technical writing skills, with experience producing architecture documents, design proposals, and technical specifications. 

Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, or a related technical field. 

Experience designing or contributing to SDN controllers or network operating systems — this is a strong differentiator for this role. 

Experience with DPU/SmartNIC technologies (NVIDIA BlueField, AMD Pensando, Intel IPU). 

Knowledge of eBPF, XDP, DPDK, or other high-performance networking frameworks. 

Experience with CNI implementations (Cilium, Calico, Flannel) and Kubernetes networking. 

Understanding of BGP, OSPF, VXLAN, EVPN, or other advanced routing protocols. 

Graduate degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science, Mathematics, or a related discipline, particularly with a research focus in distributed systems, algorithms, or networking. 

Published technical writing, conference papers, or contributions to open-source networking projects. 

Familiarity with integrating AI/ML capabilities into software systems and using generative AI tools to accelerate development cycles.