Principal Software Engineer

NetApp, Inc.; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 227,800 - 338,800; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health Insurance

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Retirement Plan (401k)

Paid Time Off

Job summary

NetApp is seeking a seasoned software architect for the ANF team to envision growth, design, develop and operate cloud-scale distributed systems spanning storage, networking, cloud infra, and user experience.

The role requires ownership from design through production, working across architecture reviews, platform teams, and strategic partners in a fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• Fifteen or more years of experience in software architecture and cloud-native distributed systems.
• 2

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long-term architecture strategy for ANF platform capabilities.
• Identify, incubate, and drive growth opportunities and platform capabilities.
• Serve as a principal technical advisor to engineering, product, and business leadership.
• Influence business and product strategy through technical leadership and customer insight.
• Lead architectural standards and direction across ANF service areas and partner orgs.
• Drive resolution of highly ambiguous technical and business challenges with significant customer impact.
• Collaborate with Azure, security, networking, and partner teams to accelerate outcomes.
• Mentor senior engineers and contribute to architectural growth of the team.

Skills

Cloud architecture

Distributed systems

Go

C#

Azure

AWS

GCP

Kubernetes

Observability

Security

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field; or equivalent practical experience

Tools

Azure

AWS

GCP

Kubernetes

Go

C#

Job description

Job Summary

NetApp's Azure NetApp Files (ANF) team is building industry-leading cloud storage services that power mission-critical enterprise workloads in Microsoft Azure. We are looking for a highly motivated software architect to help envision the next growth opportunity, design, develop and operate cloud-scale distributed systems that span storage, networking, cloud infrastructure, and user experience. This is a unified engineering role where engineers are expected to contribute across architecture, development, automated validation, operational readiness, and service reliability. The ideal candidate enjoys understanding evolving business needs, solving complex product challenges, takes ownership from design through production, and thrives in a collaborative, fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the long-term architecture strategy for ANF platform capabilities.
• Identify, incubate, and drive new growth opportunities, platform capabilities, and strategic technical investments.
• Serve as a principal technical advisor to engineering, product, and business leadership.
• Influence business and product strategy through technical leadership and customer insight.
• Establish architectural standards and technical direction across multiple ANF service areas and partner organizations.
• Lead resolution of highly ambiguous technical and business challenges with significant customer and organizational impact.
• Build alignment across ANF, Azure (platform teams, security, networking), and strategic partners to accelerate delivery of business outcomes.
• Represent ANF in executive-level technical discussions with internal and external stakeholders.
• Contribute to the technical growth of the team through architecture leadership, design reviews, and development of senior engineers and technical leaders.

Job Requirements

• 15+ years of Experience.
• Proven experience architecting and delivering large-scale cloud-native distributed systems with high availability, security, and operational excellence requirements.
• Deep expertise in one or more of the following domains: cloud storage services, distributed systems, file systems, data protection, databases, networking, or cloud infrastructure services.
• Demonstrated ability to define technical strategy and drive architectural direction across multiple teams, products, or organizations.
• Strong track record of leading highly ambiguous technical initiatives from concept through production at enterprise scale.
• Experience influencing technical and business decisions through data, customer insight, and engineering judgment.
• Ability to build alignment across diverse stakeholder groups, including engineering, product management, operations, security, and executive leadership.
• Experience leading cross-organizational initiatives involving multiple engineering teams and stakeholders without direct management authority.
• Experience driving architecture reviews, establishing engineering standards, and mentoring senior engineers and technical leaders.
• Strong understanding of modern cloud platforms, microservices architectures, containers, Kubernetes, observability, and operational excellence practices.
• Experience building and operating services in Azure, AWS, or GCP, with a strong understanding of cloud-native design principles.
• Strong software engineering foundation with experience designing and implementing production-quality systems using modern programming languages such as Go, C#, or similar.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to learn quickly, challenge conventional thinking, and solve complex business and technical problems.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field; or equivalent practical experience.

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.

Submitting an Application

To ensure a streamlined and fair hiring process for all candidates, our team only reviews applications submitted through our company website. This practice allows us to track, assess, and respond to applicants efficiently. Emailing our employees, recruiters, or Human Resources personnel directly will not influence your application.

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.