Senior ultra-low-latency Network Engineer (Remote Spain)

Cactus; Gijón; A distancia; EUR 50.000 - 70.000; Jornada completa

Descripción de la vacante

A software development company in Spain seeks a high-performance networking engineer. You will develop efficient packet I/O pipelines and tune Linux servers for ultra-low latency. The ideal candidate has expertise in C/C++ and practical experience with DPDK or related technologies. This full-time role offers a competitive salary, flexible hours, and collaboration with international teams.

Servicios

Flexible working hours

Team events

Learning opportunities

Formación

• Expertise in C / C++ for high-performance networking.
• Experience with DPDK or similar in production.
• Strong knowledge of NIC hardware features.

Responsabilidades

• Design and implement high-performance packet I/O pipelines.
• Configure Linux servers for ultra-low latency.
• Collaborate with teams on kernel-bypass transport integration.

Conocimientos

C / C++ expertise

Networking code performance

Linux performance tuning

Problem-solving skills

English communication

Herramientas

DPDK

tcpdump

Wireshark

Descripción del empleo

Cactus is a software development company, providing full-cycle services for the European market. More than 170 companies increased business productivity using solutions developed by Cactus experts. The company has been regularly included in the listings of the best software development companies in Belgium and Europe.

This position is based in Spain, and you will collaborate with teams across Europe and an international partnership landscape.

What You Will Do

• Design and implement high-performance packet I / O pipelines using DPDK or equivalent frameworks.
• Adapt existing UDP application code to work with NIC queue–driven RX / TX loops, batch processing, and hardware offloads.
• Configure and tune Linux servers for ultra-low latency: hugepages, NUMA awareness, CPU pinning, NIC driver binding, RSS / flow steering.
• Ensure reliable operation at very high packet rates; instrument detailed throughput, latency, and packet-loss metrics.
• Collaborate with the application team to integrate kernel-bypass transport with existing processing pipelines.
• Stay current with RDMA and user-space networking trends (DPDK, netmap, AF_XDP, eBPF / XDP) to evaluate trade-offs.

What We Expect

• Expert C / C++ in performance-critical networking code.
• Hands-on experience with DPDK or similar (AF_XDP, netmap, PF_RING) in production systems.
• Strong knowledge of Linux performance tuning and NIC hardware features (RSS, flow steering, checksum / jumbo offloads).
• Familiarity with RDMA (RoCE, InfiniBand, iWARP) concepts and when to use them vs. raw packet I / O.
• Experience with packet capture / analysis tools (tcpdump, Wireshark, perf).
• Strong problem-solving and debugging skills at the network + OS boundary.
• Excellent English communication skills – written and spoken.
• Preferred industry backgrounds:
  • High-frequency trading (HFT) / fintech – ultra-low-latency networking engineers.
  • Telecom / 5G / packet core – engineers building EPC, UPF, or fronthaul solutions.
  • Network security & DPI appliances – intrusion detection / firewall data plane developers.
  • CDN / video streaming / media transport – high-performance transport engineers.
  • HPC / storage networking – experience with RDMA, NVMe-oF, or cluster interconnects.

What We Offer

• Working with international clients.
• An environment to develop your professional capabilities and take ownership.
• Collaboration with a team of open, dynamic, and international experts.
• Full-time position with a competitive salary and benefits, including learning opportunities.
• Flexible working hours.
• Get-together team events.