Principal Engineer, Software Defined Networking NVIDIA

Abundant Code; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

NVIDIA is seeking a Principal Engineer, Software Defined Networking to design, build, and operate scalable SDN solutions for AI Cloud workloads, including GPU-accelerated training and cloud gaming. You’ll own the SDN stack from control to data plane, emphasizing reliability engineering, observability, and incident response.

You will contribute to OVN-Kubernetes upstreams, optimize network observability, and drive secure, multi-tenant networking through CI/CD pipelines and GitOps in a large-scale

Qualifications

• Requires BS/MS in Computer Science or related technical field or equivalent
• 15+ years of proven software development experience in large-scale distributed environments
• Expert-level knowledge of OVN, OVS, OpenFlow and modern network protocols
• Strong programming skills in C and Go; scripting in Bash and Python
• Deep knowledge of Kubernetes and deploying CNIs (OVN-Kubernetes)
• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code and deployment tools (Ansible, Terraform, ArgoCD, Flux)
• Experience designing and operating complex multi-stage CI/CD pipelines
• Developing secure, high-performance services using gRPC and REST with TLS and strong authentication
• Strong knowledge of datacenter routing, switching and Linux host/VM networking

Responsibilities

• Design and develop SDN control and data plane software (OVS/OVN/OpenFlow) for multi-tenant clouds
• Build IaaS network orchestration and services using gRPC/REST to meet security and performance SLAs
• Contribute upstream to OVN-Kubernetes and related projects
• Develop software for network observability including telemetry and monitoring
• Operate OVS-OVN based SDN solutions in large-scale NVIDIA AI Cloud environments
• Own end-to-end observability for the SDN stack with monitoring and tracing
• Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines (GitLab) across Linux host networking, OVS, OVN, and Kubernetes CNIs
• Implement GitOps approaches for secure cloud integration
• Collaborate with SRE/DevOps and network teams on production readiness and tooling

Skills

15+ years experience

OVN/OVS/OpenFlow expertise

C programming

Go programming

Bash/Python scripting

Kubernetes

CNIs (OVN-Kubernetes)

Infrastructure-as-Code tools

CI/CD pipelines

TLS and strong authentication

Education

BS/MS in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

Ansible

Terraform

ArgoCD

Flux

OVN-Kubernetes

Job description

Principal Engineer, Software Defined Networking Overview

Company Name NVIDIA

Job Role Principal Engineer, Software Defined Networking

Qualifications Not specified

Category I

Job Type Full Time

Location Remote – UK

Requirements

What we're looking for

• BS/MS in Computer Science or related technical field, or a comparable blend of education and relevant experience
• 15+ years of proven experience in software development for large-scale distributed environments
• Expert-level knowledge of OVN, OVS, OpenFlow, and modern network protocols
• Strong programming skills in C and Go; advanced scripting in Bash and Python
• Deep knowledge of Kubernetes, practical experience deploying and supporting CNIs (OVN-Kubernetes)
• Hands-on experience with Infrastructure-as-Code and deployment tools (Ansible, Terraform, ArgoCD, Flux)
• Experience designing and operating complex, multi-stage CI/CD pipelines
• Hands-on experience developing secure, high-performance services using gRPC and REST with TLS and strong authentication
• Strong knowledge of datacenter routing, switching, and Linux host/VM networking

Nice to have

• Contributions to open-source projects (especially OVS, OVN, OVN-Kubernetes, or other Kubernetes networking projects)
• Experience with hardware acceleration (GPU, DPU or equivalent experience) for networking
• Practical experience with major cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) and hybrid/multi-cloud deployments
• SRE/DevOps top-level expertise – on-call, incident management, operations focused on service reliability targets, production ownership
• Experience with observability platforms and tools (Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, OpenTelemetry, ELK)

The role

We are looking for a Principal System Software Engineer, Software Defined Networking to design, build, and operate highly performant and scalable SDN solutions for NVIDIA’s AI Clouds hosting GPU-accelerated workloads – including hyperscale multi-node training, inference, cloud gaming, and cloud functions. This role spans the full lifecycle of our SDN stack – from designing and developing new control and data plane software to ensuring operational excellence in production through reliability engineering, CI/CD, observability, and incident response.

What you’ll do

• Design and develop next-generation multi-tenant cloud SDN control and data plane software (OVS, OVN, OpenFlow)
• Build Infrastructure-as-a-Service virtual network orchestration and services using gRPC and REST to support tenant workload security and performance SLAs for BMaaS, VMaaS, and Kubernetes
• Drive upstream contributions to OVN-Kubernetes and related open-source projects
• Develop software for network observability – monitoring, telemetry, intelligent metering, and performance analysis
• Operate and support OVS-OVN based SDN solutions in large-scale NVIDIA AI Cloud environments
• Own end-to-end observability for the SDN stack – build and maintain monitoring, alerting, distributed tracing, and dashboarding to ensure real-time insight into network health, performance, and tenant SLAs
• Design, enhance, and maintain CI/CD pipelines (GitLab) across Linux host networking, OVS, OVN, and Kubernetes CNIs
• Implement GitOps approaches or related experience for secure, seamless integration with cloud infrastructure
• Collaborate with SRE, DevOps, and network engineering teams on production readiness and operational tooling

Visa sponsorship: check with employer