Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Forwarding Plane

Alkira Australia; San Jose, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Alkira, a Lumen company, is seeking a Principal Software Engineer, Forwarding Plane to lead the architecture, design, and evolution of our next-generation cloud networking Forwarding Plane platform. You will own critical Forwarding Plane technologies and drive architectural decisions while mentoring engineering teams in a hybrid San Jose, CA setting.

The role emphasizes high-performance C development for Linux, deep networking knowledge, and experience with DPDK/VPP.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, or related field.
• 12+ years of software engineering experience with a focus on networking and systems software.
• Expert proficiency in C.
• Deep understanding of Linux operating systems, networking subsystems, and kernel internals.
• Extensive systems programming experience in performance-sensitive environments.
• Strong TCP/IP networking fundamentals and protocols.
• Hands-on experience developing high-performance Forwarding Plane or packet-processing software.
• Deep knowledge of NAT, Stateful connection tracking, IPsec, routing and forwarding technologies, firewall and policy enforcement, and network security.
• Experience with DPDK, VPP, or similar high-performance packet-processing frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture, design, implementation, and long-term roadmap of Alkira's core Forwarding Plane platform.
• Define scalable networking architectures for enterprise cloud networking and security services.
• Drive technical strategy for forwarding plane reliability, scalability, observability, and maintainability.
• Establish engineering standards and best practices across Forwarding Plane development.
• Design and develop high-performance packet-processing systems and networking services.
• Build and enhance forwarding plane components including flow/session management, NAT, policy enforcement, traffic steering, IPsec, and cloud connectivity.

Skills

C programming

Linux kernel

Networking

TCP/IP

DPDK/VPP

Forwarding Plane

Security/IPsec

Performance optimization

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/CE

Master's degree preferred

Tools

DPDK

VPP

Job description

Alkira, a Lumen company, is seeking a Principal Software Engineer, Forwarding Plane to lead the architecture, design, and evolution of our next-generation cloud networking Forwarding Plane platform. You will own critical Forwarding Plane technologies and drive architectural decisions while mentoring engineering teams in a hybrid San Jose, CA setting.

The role emphasizes high-performance C development for Linux, deep networking knowledge, and experience with DPDK/VPP.