Senior Staff Storage Engineer

DataDirect Networks; Santa Clara (CA); Hybrid; USD 170,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Highly Competitive Vacation Plans

Paid Holidays

Bonus Programs

Tuition Reimbursement

Employee Referral Program

Excellent Medical, Dental and Vision

Paid Leave Programs

Anniversary and Recognition Awards

Job summary

Data Direct Networks is seeking a Senior Staff Storage Backend Engineer to design and optimize the next generation of high-performance distributed storage systems. You will focus on the core I/O path, improving scalability, reliability, and software quality across large-scale storage clusters.

The ideal candidate has deep expertise in C/C++, distributed systems, storage architecture, and performance optimization, with a proven track record of building highly available, low-latency

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience developing large-scale systems software using C/C++.
• 10+ years of hands-on experience designing and developing storage systems, distributed storage platforms, or high-performance I/O subsystems.
• Deep understanding of storage architecture, I/O optimization, memory management, caching, scheduling, and data path design.
• Experience with distributed storage concepts, including erasure coding, replication, recovery, and fault tolerance.
• Hands-on experience with SPDK or similar high-performance user-space storage frameworks.
• Strong knowledge of concurrency, synchronization, and distributed systems design.
• Expertise in performance analysis, profiling, debugging, and system optimization.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize high-performance storage I/O paths for extreme throughput, low latency, and high concurrency.
• Build and improve distributed storage components, including erasure coding, data protection, recovery, and data layout algorithms.
• Develop scalable concurrency models, locking mechanisms, and fault-tolerant designs.
• Collaborate with QE, storage, networking, performance, field, and support teams to deliver reliable enterprise-class software.
• Influence CI/CD pipelines, automation frameworks, and release processes to enable scalable and reliable software delivery.

Skills

C/C++

Distributed systems

Storage architecture

Performance tuning

Concurrency

SPDK

I/O optimization

Profiling

Debugging

Tools

SPDK

NVMe-oF

RDMA

Job description

We are on our way to being the first company to power 1 MILLION GPUs and want world-class talent to join our amazing team!

The world is moving faster than ever, and yet, it will never move this slowly again. We are at the forefront of an incredible technological revolution but, at its core, it is fueled by incredible people. People like you.

1,000 Global Employees11k Happy Customers16 International Offices

We’re Looking for the Best and Brightest

We are the world’s leading data intelligence platform that reliably accelerates massive datasets for actionable real-time insights. Join our team to help the best and brightest minds tackle the world’s biggest challenges in business, science, medicine, academia and government.

Do What Can't be Done

For the past 20 years, our team has kept us at the forefront of storage technology and has provided the foundation for enabling researchers to push the limits of "what can be done."
These innovations take research and discovery to the next level, enabling them to discover cures to disease, observe global warming patterns, model innovative automotive and aerospace designs, discover new sources of energy, make communities safer, and accelerate business results across a wide variety of industries.

DDN Helps Build Your Future, Too

At DDN, we understand our customers' diverse needs. Whether you're a data scientist, IT professional, executive, or researcher, our solutions empower you with cutting-edge technology and unparalleled support.

• Highly Competitive Vacation Plans
• Paid Holidays
• Bonus Programs
• Tuition Reimbursement
• Employee Referral Program
• Excellent Medical, Dental and Vision Benefits
• Paid Leave Programs
• Anniversary and Recognition Awards

Location

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

Hybrid

Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Staff Storage Backend Engineer to design and optimize the next generation of high-performance distributed storage systems. This role focuses on building the core I/O path, improving scalability, reliability, and software quality across large-scale storage clusters.

The ideal candidate has deep expertise in C/C++, distributed systems, storage architecture, and performance optimization, with a proven track record of building highly available, low-latency infrastructure.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize high-performance storage I/O paths for extreme throughput, low latency, and high concurrency.
• Build and improve distributed storage components, including erasure coding, data protection, recovery, and data layout algorithms.
• Develop scalable concurrency models, locking mechanisms, and fault-tolerant designs.

Performance & Scalability

• Analyze and optimize storage performance across CPU, memory, caching, scheduling, and data movement paths.
• Drive profiling, benchmarking, and performance tuning across multi-node, multi-device environments.
• Design asynchronous, event-driven architectures supporting AI workloads, high-speed data pipelines, and real-time analytics.

Technical Leadership

• Serve as a technical leader for the IO Path team, driving architecture decisions, design reviews, code reviews, and complex debugging efforts.
• Partner with engineering leadership to define technical strategy, evaluate new technologies, and influence the product roadmap.
• Mentor engineers and promote engineering excellence through strong engineering practices and rigorous technical reviews.

Quality & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Collaborate with QE, storage, networking, performance, field, and support teams to deliver reliable enterprise-class software.
• Partner with QE to identify quality gaps, improve validation strategies, and ensure robust coverage of complex distributed storage scenarios.
• Debug complex customer and system issues and translate learnings into product improvements.
• Influence CI/CD pipelines, automation frameworks, and release processes to enable scalable and reliable software delivery.

Required Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience developing large-scale systems software using C/C++.
• 10+ years of hands-on experience designing and developing storage systems, distributed storage platforms, or high-performance I/O subsystems.
• Deep understanding of storage architecture, I/O optimization, memory management, caching, scheduling, and data path design.
• Experience with distributed storage concepts, including erasure coding, replication, recovery, and fault tolerance.
• Hands-on experience with SPDK or similar high-performance user-space storage frameworks.
• Strong knowledge of concurrency, synchronization, and distributed systems design.
• Expertise in performance analysis, profiling, debugging, and system optimization.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with high-performance computing (HPC), AI infrastructure, or large-scale storage platforms.
• Experience with distributed file systems, object storage, or hybrid storage architectures.
• Knowledge of NVMe-oF, RDMA, and high-speed networking technologies.
• Experience building observability, monitoring, and self-healing infrastructure.
• Familiarity with containerized workloads and cluster orchestration.

We pride ourselves on our commitment to delivering tangible and consistent results.

Regional Director of Sales, Middle East and Africa

Let's Forge a Better Future, Together

Explore our current job openings and find the perfect opportunity to advance your career with a company that values expertise, creativity and growth.