Principal Software Engineer, OCI

Oracle; Bristol; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading cloud technology company based in Bristol is seeking experienced developers to join their OCI Service Platform team. This role focuses on creating innovative cloud solutions and requires strong technical leadership in software development, with a deep understanding of Linux internals and systems-level programming. Candidates should have over 8 years of experience and a passion for tackling complex technical challenges in a collaborative environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of professional software development experience.
• Experience as a technical lead on large-scale cloud services.
• Proficient in systems-level programming with one or more languages.

Responsibilities

• Define OCI's foundational architecture and lead innovative cloud solutions.
• Collaborate to design and build high-performance platform services.
• Drive architectural and design decisions with broad impacts.

Skills

Technical leadership

Problem-solving skills

Systems-level programming

Communication abilities

Linux internals understanding

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Rust

Java

C/C++

Go

Kubernetes

Job description

We’re seeking experienced and driven developers, experienced in Linux internals, virtualization and container technologies, to join a new Service Platform team within Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). This team is building a foundational platform that powers OCI services—from low-level execution runtimes and cluster management to application orchestration and advanced change management workflows. Our goal: to accelerate OCI’s evolution into an autonomous cloud, boosting efficiency, scalability, and developer productivity.

As a member of this growing team, you'll play a key role in shaping innovative initiatives with broad impact across OCI. We're looking for engineering leads who thrive on solving deep technical challenges, enjoy pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, and are eager to dive into complex systems to make them simpler, faster, and more reliable. If you’re passionate about building high-performance software, value clean design at scale, and enjoy working in fast-paced, collaborative environments—this is your opportunity to make a difference.

Career Level - IC4/IC5

Qualifications

Career Level - IC4

Responsibilities

Bring your strong technical, analytical, and problem-solving skills to help shape the next generation of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Service Platform.

In this role, you will:

• Work on green field projects defining OCI's foundational architecture and leading the future standard of cloud industry, with massive business impact.
• Solve engineers' dream problem space such as cluster management (K8s is not the answer and never will, but building an innovative solution), lightweight and ultra fast container runtime, cloud connectivity re-imagined, action-driven machine-friendly observability & supervision infra, and hardcore distributed systems.

You will also:

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to design and build scalable, high-performance foundational platform services.
• Define and improve engineering best practices, development processes, and design standards.
• Design, implement, and maintain software components across the full development lifecycle.
• Contribute to debugging, performance tuning, and improving reliability of system-level software.
• Drive architectural and design decisions with broad impact across OCI.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of professional software development experience.
• Experience as a technical lead on large-scale cloud services with end-to-end project leadership experience.
• Proficient in systems-level programming with one or more of the following: Rust, Java, C/C++, or Go.
• Demonstrated leadership in making critical technical decisions and setting engineering vision.
• Familiarity with running and supporting production systems in mission-critical, live-service environments.
• Strong problem-solving skills, ownership mindset, and excellent communication abilities.
• Experience designing architectures for high availability, scalability, and future flexibility across services.

Preferred Qualifications

• Solid understanding of Linux systems, including kernel and driver development.
• Experience with Linux virtualization technologies and container runtimes.
• Experience with Linux networking, cloud & cluster networking, and security.
• Proven track record of delivering high-quality products through all stages of the software lifecycle.
• Experience developing high-performance, low-level systems.
• Deep experience developing and operating services on public cloud platforms (e.g., Oracle Cloud, AWS, Azure).
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes and container orchestration.
• In-depth knowledge of Linux internals and virtualization technologies
• Strong understanding of computer networking fundamentals (e.g., OSI model, TCP/IP, HTTP, DNS, DHCP, subnets, gateways).
• Expert-level Linux/Unix troubleshooting skills.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills; able to produce clear technical designs and documentation.
• Experience with highly distributed infrastructure and scalable service architectures.
• Proven experience mentoring and hiring, with a commitment to raising the technical bar across teams.