Senior Software Engineer, Kernel Network Simulation (eBPF)

SimSpace; United States; On-site; USD 160,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Health benefits

401(k) with match

Unlimited PTO

Job summary

SimSpace seeks a Senior Software Engineer, Network Simulation, to design and build a kernel-level simulation layer that reproduces observable routing behavior worldwide. You will lead architectural direction, mentor engineers, and partner with senior staff to deliver a high-fidelity, production-grade system.

The role emphasizes leadership in kernel-space development, eBPF, and distributed control-plane topology management, with collaboration across cyber ranges and platform teams.

Qualifications

• Deep expertise in Linux kernel networking and eBPF program development.
• Strong systems programming skills in C or Rust for kernel-space work.
• Solid understanding of real-world internet routing, ASN topology, CIDR allocation.
• Experience with control plane and data plane separation in distributed systems.
• Demonstrated technical leadership, architectural direction, and reviews.
• Familiarity with Kubernetes as the deployment environment for services.
• Experience with network simulation, traffic shaping, or cyber range infra.
• Background in cybersecurity, defense, or government-adjacent work is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end architecture of the eBPF-based routing simulation layer, including XDP and TC hook point design, BPF map structure, and synthetic ICMP TTL-exceeded generation that makes traceroute and MTR behave correctly against the simulated topology
• Design and build the control-plane topology database and the pipeline that compiles real-world internet topology data into a form that in-range agents can consume and apply
• Architect the in-range proxy agent: the lightweight component that bridges the persistent control plane to individual cyber ranges, applying topology configuration locally and handling DNS delegation and traffic forwarding
• Define the interface contract between the control plane and in-range agents, including topology update propagation and agent lifecycle management
• Serve as technical lead for the team — daily architectural decisions, design reviews, and ensuring engineering quality
• Partner with other engineers on novel challenges, shape the technical roadmap, and drive architectural tradeoffs
• Mentor engineers on systems design, kernel-level debugging, and engineering rigor
• Collaborate with adjacent platform teams on operational model for a long-lived, multi-tenant service

Skills

Linux kernel

eBPF

C

Rust

Go

Python

Kubernetes

Networking

System design

Traceroute

Tools

XDP

TC hooks

BPF maps

Go tooling

Job description

SimSpace seeks a Senior Software Engineer, Network Simulation, to design and build a kernel-level simulation layer that reproduces observable routing behavior worldwide. You will lead architectural direction, mentor engineers, and partner with senior staff to deliver a high-fidelity, production-grade system.

The role emphasizes leadership in kernel-space development, eBPF, and distributed control-plane topology management, with collaboration across cyber ranges and platform teams.