Senior Network Security/AI Software Engineering

508 Intel Research & Development Ireland Ltd.; Leixlip; On-site; EUR 76,000 - 142,000; Full time

Job summary

Intel Corporation in Ireland is seeking a Senior Network Security Software Development Engineer to lead the architecture and delivery of open-source, high-performance network security and AI reference solutions for the Network Software Enabling team.

This role will work with architects, customers, and ecosystem partners to define requirements and build reference workloads optimized for Intel Xeon processors in on-prem, edge, and cloud deployments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in networking or systems software development.
• Strong programming skills in C/C++/Rust on Linux; Python, PowerShell or Bash for tooling.
• Hands-on experience with high-performance networking technologies such as DPDK, VPP, or XDP.
• Exposure to AI/ML techniques and models for security workloads.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Own architecture and roadmaps for one or more network security reference solutions.
• Design and optimize packet-processing pipelines for throughput and latency.
• Integrate hardware acceleration into open-source stacks (e.g., Snort3, VPP, Hyperscan).
• Enable and optimize AI/ML models for security use cases (URL detection, phishing, anomaly detection).
• Lead performance benchmarking and develop customer-facing value collateral.
• Drive IaC automation for cloud/edge deployment (Terraform, Packer, Ansible).
• Evaluate emerging technologies and drive PoCs and reference implementations.
• Provide technical leadership and mentor engineers.

Skills

C/C++/Rust

Python

Linux

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical discipline

Tools

DPDK

VPP

XDP

Snort3

Hyperscan

Terraform

Ansible

Packer

Job description

Job Details: Job Description

The Senior Network Security Software Development Engineer will lead the architecture, development, and delivery of open-source, high-performance network security and AI reference solutions for the Network Software Enabling team in the Enterprise/Cloud Networking segment. This role works closely with architects, customers, and ecosystem partners to define technical requirements and to build reference workloads, with best known methods and configurations, optimized for Intel® Xeon® processors and accelerators across on-prem, edge, and cloud deployments. The successful candidate will drive the design and optimization of security data planes and AI-enabled security workloads. These include Next-Generation Firewall, Secure Web Gateway, SD-WAN etc. focusing on key performance areas such as scale-up, load distribution, crypto processing, pattern matching, and the migration to AI-driven security functions. The role requires expertise in high-performance packet processing, network security functions, hardware acceleration, performance engineering, and deployment automation.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the architecture and technical roadmap for one or more network security reference solutions, and keep design consistent across the portfolio.
• Design and optimize packet-processing and security pipelines for throughput, latency, and TCO on current and upcoming Intel® Xeon® platforms.
• Integrate hardware acceleration technologies (QAT, AVX-512/AMX, NIC offloads) into open-source security stacks such as Snort3, VPP, and Hyperscan.
• Enable and optimize AI/ML models for security use cases such as malicious URL detection, phishing and fraud detection, anomaly detection, and encrypted traffic analysis, utilizing technologies such as OpenVINO™, vLLM.
• Lead performance characterization, define benchmarking methods, and produce the collateral that shows customer value.
• Drive Infrastructure as Code (IaC) automation for cloud and edge deployment, provisioning, and benchmarking using tools such as Terraform, Packer, and Ansible.
• Evaluate emerging network security, AI, and platform technologies, and drive innovation through proofs of concept and reference implementations.
• Provide technical leadership, mentor engineers, and lead design and code reviews.
• Represent the team with customers, partners, and upstream open-source communities to speed up adoption of Intel-powered solutions.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in networking or systems software development.
• Strong programming skills in C and/or C++/Rust on Linux, with Python, PowerShell or Bash for tooling.
• Hands-on experience with high-performance networking technologies such as DPDK, VPP, or kernel networking/XDP.
• Exposure to AI/ML technologies and concepts, such as model training and inference, neural network architectures (CNNs, transformers), and LLMs, and how they apply to network security workloads.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with a proven ability to lead technical work across teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong background in network security: firewall, IPS/IDS, IPsec/TLS, VPN, or deep packet inspection (DPI) and pattern matching.
• Experience with AI/ML training and inference optimization (including model compression) for security use cases, using frameworks such as PyTorch, TensorFlow, OpenVINO™, and vLLM.
• Upstream contributions to DPDK, VPP, Linux, or related networking/security open-source projects.
• Track record of profiling and tuning performance at the microarchitecture level.
• Experience with containers, Kubernetes, and cloud or edge deployment automation.
• Experience integrating hardware acceleration technologies (QAT, NIC offloads) and vectorized optimization of software pipelines.
• Experience with Snort3, Hyperscan, or comparable IPS and pattern-matching engines.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code tools.
• Experience presenting technical solutions to customers, partners, and industry forums.

Job Type: Experienced Hire

Shift: Shift 1 (Ireland)

Primary Location: Ireland, Leixlip

Position of Trust N/A

EU Salary We offer a total compensation package that ranks among the best in the industry.

Annual Salary Range for this job which could be performed in Ireland is: 76,000.00 € - 142,100.00

Within this range, individual pay is determined by job related skills, experience, and relevant education, training.

As part of our total compensation approach, the final offer may include additional pay components and benefits.

Your recruiting team will share the confirmed base salary along with any applicable total compensation elements upon employment offer delivery.

Work Model for this Role This role will require an on-site presence.

Posting Statement: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, religious creed, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, military and veteran status, marital status, pregnancy, gender, gender expression, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by local law, regulation, or ordinance.