Senior Staff Engineer - AI ADC

ThreatX; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

A10 Networks is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer to drive the architecture, design, and development of the ACOS ADC platform, covering data plane capabilities and transport-layer processing. You will lead features from SLB to GSLB, SSL offload, and content switching for diverse deployments.

The role demands deep expertise in networking, distributed systems, and performance engineering, with collaboration across product, engineering, and field teams to translate customer needs into robust platform

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in CS/CE/EE or related field.
• Strong background in networking and distributed systems.
• Experience with high-performance traffic processing and platform-scale software.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture, design, and development of ACOS ADC platform capabilities.
• Design and enhance L4-L7 traffic management features (SLB, GSLB, SSL offload, content switching).
• Develop scalable, high-performance traffic processing solutions across deployments.
• Define platform architecture for configuration management and automation.
• Mentor engineers and drive technical leadership across teams.

Skills

TCP/IP

TLS/SSL

HTTP/1.1/2/3

QUIC

DNS

C/C++

Linux systems programming

Multithreaded design

High-performance networking

Performance analysis

Education

Bachelor's degree

Master's degree

Tools

GDB

Perf

Wireshark

Job description

Senior Staff Engineer - ACOS ADC Platform

A10 Networks is seeking a highly experienced Senior Staff Engineer to drive the architecture, design, and development of the ACOS Application Delivery Controller (ADC) platform. This role will contribute to the evolution of core ADC capabilities including server load balancing, SSL/TLS processing, application traffic management, GSLB, observability, automation, cloud integration, and platform scalability.

The ideal candidate possesses deep expertise in networking, distributed systems, and high-performance traffic processing, and can lead complex technical initiatives from concept through delivery. The role requires close collaboration with product management, engineering teams, customer-facing organizations, and platform architects to define and implement next-generation ADC capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead architecture, design, and development of core ACOS ADC capabilities on data plane
• Design and enhance Layer 4 to Layer 7 traffic management features, including:
  • Server Load Balancing (SLB)
  • Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB)
  • SSL/TLS offload and optimization
  • Content switching and traffic steering
  • Health monitoring and service discovery
  • High Availability (HA) and clustering
• Develop scalable and high-performance traffic processing solutions for physical, virtual, containerized, and cloud deployments.
• Define and implement platform architecture for configuration management, distributed state synchronization, orchestration, and automation.
• Optimize system performance, throughput, latency, resource utilization, and scalability across large-scale customer deployments.
• Collaborate with product management and field teams to translate customer requirements into robust product capabilities.
• Engage on customer escalations
• Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership on networking, performance engineering, software architecture, and debugging methodologies.
• Ensure product quality through design reviews, benchmarking, performance testing, security reviews, and operational excellence practices.
• Contribute to technical strategy and long-term evolution of the ACOS platform

Education

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• Master's degree preferred

Technical Skills

Deep expertise in Layer 4 through Layer 7 networking technologies, including:

• • TCP/IP
  • UDP
  • TLS/SSL
  • HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, HTTP/3
  • QUIC
  • DNS
  • Routing and switching fundamentals
• Strong understanding of ADC technologies such as:
  • Server Load Balancing
  • Global Server Load Balancing
  • Application traffic management
  • Health monitoring
  • Content switching
  • Rate limiting and traffic shaping
• Strong software development and debug expertise in:
  • C/C++
  • Linux systems programming
  • Multithreaded and concurrent software design
• Experience developing high-performance networking or distributed systems software
• Strong debugging and performance analysis skills using tools such as:
  • GDB
  • Perf
  • Wireshark
  • System profiling and tracing tools
• Strong understanding of software architecture, design patterns, scalability, resiliency, and fault tolerance
• Proven ability to lead complex technical initiatives from architecture through production deployment

Leadership Skills

• Demonstrated technical leadership across multiple teams and projects.
• Strong design, communication, collaboration, and mentoring skills.
• Ability to influence technical direction and drive consensus among stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications

The following qualifications are preferred:

• Experience with AI, and Machine Learning technologies.
• Knowledge of AI inference workloads, model serving architectures, and LLM ecosystems
• Experience applying ML techniques to operational analytics, anomaly detection, traffic analysis, or capacity forecasting
• Familiarity with AI gateways, API gateways, or intelligent traffic management systems
• Exposure to vector databases, model registries, AI observability, or MLOps platforms

Key Attributes

• Strong systems-thinking mindset with passion for solving complex networking and scalability problems
• Customer-focused approach to building highly reliable and secure products
• Ability to balance innovation with operational excellence and product quality
• Ownership mentality with a track record of delivering impactful technical outcomes
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

A10 Networks is an equal opportunity employer and a VEVRAA federal subcontractor. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. A10 also complies with all applicable state and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment.

#LI-AN1 - Hybrid

Targeted compensation guideline: $180,000 - $195,000. Compensation will vary based on number of factors, including market demand for specific skills, role type, job level, and individual qualifications. Final salary offers are determined by considerations including, but not limited to, subject matter expertise, demonstrated skill level, relevant experience, geographic location, education, certifications, and training.