Principal Engineer

NetApp; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 228,000 - 339,000; Full time

Job summary

NetApp is seeking a Principal Engineer to set the technical direction for the Active IQ platform, defining architecture and engineering approaches for AI, agentic AI, and automation to turn telemetry into actionable customer intelligence. This senior individual contributor role operates as the top technical authority across Active IQ teams.

You will mentor engineers, collaborate with product, design and SRE, and drive architecture that scales across cloud services while ensuring reliability and

Qualifications

• BS in Computer Science or related field; MS/PhD preferred.
• 15+ years in high-tech with senior technical leadership.
• Experience designing AI/ML systems in production.
• Strong communication and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Own multi-year technical vision and target architecture for Active IQ.
• Architect and deliver agentic AI and ML systems at fleet scale.
• Lead design and code reviews for high-risk components.
• Establish engineering standards and practices across teams.
• Evaluate emerging AI/cloud tech and run proofs of concept.

Skills

Agentic AI

LangGraph

LangChain

Kafka

Cloud architecture

Kubernetes

Docker

Python

Generative AI

Distributed systems

Education

BS in Computer Science or related field

MS or PhD preferred

Tools

MongoDB

AWS

Azure

Google Cloud Platform

Dynatrace

Splunk

Kafka

APIs & integration

Job description

Own Every Moment at NetApp

At NetApp, your ideas power innovation. We lead in intelligent data infrastructure—delivering unified storage, integrated data services, and solutions that help organizations unlock the full potential of their data, from AI to multicloud. Ready to innovate and contribute to our path to $10B? Here, you'll collaborate with passionate teams, tackle real-world challenges, and see your impact in how customers transform and grow. If you're ready to bring curiosity, creativity, and drive to every moment, NetApp is where your journey begins. Join teams that innovate to elevate, drive results, and excel together across every function.

Job Summary

NetApp is seeking a Principal Engineer to set the technical direction for the Active IQ platform, defining the architecture and engineering approach for the AI, agentic AI, and intelligent automation capabilities that turn NetApp telemetry into actionable customer intelligence. This is a senior individual contributor role. The Principal Engineer operates as the most senior technical authority across multiple Active IQ teams, solving ambiguous, high-impact problems that span systems and organizational boundaries, and remains hands‑on for the most critical and complex components of the platform.

About Active IQ

NetApp Active IQ is a digital advisor that uses AIOps to simplify and automate the proactive care and optimization of a customer’s infrastructure environment to improve its health and availability. Active IQ provides actionable intelligence for optimal storage health and simplified management.

Responsibilities

• Technical Vision & Architecture: Own the multi-year technical vision and target architecture for Active IQ, and drive alignment on that direction across engineering, product management, and executive leadership.
• Agentic AI & Machine Learning Systems: Architect and deliver agentic AI and machine learning systems that operate reliably at NetApp fleet scale, including the data, evaluation, and safety foundations they depend on.
• Hands-On Technical Leadership: Lead the design and implementation of the most complex and highest-risk components, setting the technical bar through hands-on contribution, design review, and code review.
• Cross-Team Problem Solving: Identify and resolve systemic technical problems that span multiple teams, and establish the engineering standards, patterns, and practices that other teams adopt.
• Technology Evaluation: Evaluate emerging AI and cloud technologies, run the proofs of concept that de-risk them, and make build, buy, or partner recommendations that shape the roadmap.
• Platform Reliability & Security: Partner with SRE and operations to ensure Active IQ services meet availability, performance, and security targets at scale, and drive the automation and observability strategy that sustains them.
• Mentorship: Mentor and grow senior and experienced engineers, raising the technical capability of the broader Active IQ organization without formal management responsibility.
• Collaboration: Work closely with cross-functional teams, including product management, development, design, and operations, to deliver high-quality solutions.
• Technical Representation: Represent NetApp engineering with customers, partners, and industry forums on Active IQ architecture, AI strategy, and technical direction.

Job Requirements

• Experience in design and development of agentic AI applications using modern frameworks such as LangGraph, LangChain, Google ADK, Phoenix, Guardrails, Mem0, and related technologies.
• Strong working knowledge of streaming and event-driven technologies such as Kafka.
• Deep experience with database technologies across relational, document, and vector stores, preferably including MongoDB.
• Extensive knowledge of cloud architecture and containerization, preferably Kubernetes and Docker, with cloud services such as AWS or Azure.
• Extensive knowledge of observability and application performance monitoring platforms such as Dynatrace and Splunk.
• Experience building enterprise software applications with a strong focus on Python development and generative AI technologies.
• Experience in building out the infrastructure layer (Storage, Compute and Databases) to support the Active IQ Ecosystem.
• Demonstrated track record of setting technical direction and delivering complex systems across multiple teams, with influence extending beyond a single organization.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems design, computer architecture, data structures, and large-scale data processing.
• Extensive experience architecting, implementing, and operating highly scalable, production-grade cloud services on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform.
• Proven experience designing and shipping AI or machine learning systems in production, including the trade-offs of latency, cost, accuracy, and reliability at scale.
• Ability to drive technical decisions to closure in ambiguous problem spaces where requirements, constraints, and success criteria are not yet defined.
• Strong understanding of both on-premises and cloud infrastructure, and of the reliability and security practices required to operate customer-facing services.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor senior engineers and elevate engineering practice across teams.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to make complex technical trade-offs clear to both engineering teams and executive stakeholders.
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to build consensus across organizations.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Education

B.S. in Computer Science or a related field is required; an M.S. or Ph.D. in Computer Science or a related field is preferred.

Experience

15+ years of experience in the high-tech industry is required, including demonstrated technical leadership at the principal or equivalent level.

Compensation

The target salary range for this position is 227,800 - 338,800 USD. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate’s location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range. Final compensation packages are competitive and in line with industry standards, reflecting a variety of factors, and include a comprehensive benefits package. This may cover Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off, various Leave options, Performance-Based Incentives, employee stock purchase plan, and/or restricted stocks (RSU’s), with all offerings subject to regional variations and governed by local laws, regulations, and company policies. Benefits may vary by country and region, and further details will be provided as part of the recruitment process.

At NetApp, we embrace a hybrid working environment designed to strengthen connection, collaboration, and culture for all employees. This means that most roles will have some level of in‑office and/or in‑person expectations, which will be shared during the recruitment process.

Equal Opportunity Employer

NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status, and any other protected classification.

Why You’ll Thrive at NetApp

At NetApp, you won’t wait for the perfect moment—you’ll make it. The early planning, the extra thought, the bold idea that turns good into great: That’s how our people operate and how we continue to push the boundaries of data infrastructure.

NetApp is the trusted partner for organizations transforming data into opportunity. As the only enterprise‑grade storage service natively embedded in Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, we empower customers to run everything from traditional workloads to enterprise AI with unmatched performance, resilience, and security.

Our culture

We celebrate mold breakers, bold thinkers, and problem solvers. We reward initiative, impact, and ownership. We provide flexibility so you can balance professional ambition with your personal life. Here, differences are not just welcomed—they drive everything we do.

If you’re ready to innovate, rise to the challenge, and own every moment - make your next move your best one.

AI Disclosure

For select roles, some stages of our hiring process may use artificial intelligence tools to help evaluate applications and candidate selection. These tools support—rather than replace—human decision‑making.