Software Engineer, Networking (Agent Infra)

Candidate; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 240,000 - 340,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Meaningful equity

Flexible PTO

Parental leave

401(k)

Exposure to ML startups

Job summary

Baseten is seeking an experienced Platform/Network Engineer to design and implement a high-performance user-space data plane for sandboxed agents. You will enable private, multi-tenant networking across regions with overlays and programmable APIs, delivering low-latency routing and secure ingress/egress.

You’ll collaborate with compute, storage, GPU infra and data center teams to ship rapidly. Ideal candidates bring production-grade systems programming in Rust/Go/C/C++, expertise in VPP/FD.io,

Qualifications

• Experience with user-space packet processing or VNFs.
• Proven ability to build multi-tenant networking in production.
• Production-grade systems programming in Rust/Go/C/C++.
• Experience with overlay networks (VXLAN/GENEVE) and SDN.
• Experience building cloud networking as provider, not consumer.

Responsibilities

• Design and build the user-space, VPP-based data plane that connects microVM sandboxes to each other, to Baseten services, and to the internet
• Build multi-tenant virtual private networking and overlays (for example EVPN, GENEVE, VXLAN) across regions
• Expose the network as a programmable API that the rest of the platform calls
• Cut latency and raise connection scale for agent-to-agent and agent-to-service traffic
• Build routing that sends each request to the nearest region and keeps connections working as sandboxes suspend and resume
• Build secure ingress and egress for sandboxes, including firewalling, static egress IPs, and custom domains with managed TLS
• Build L7 proxies for request inspection, filtering, secret injection, and auditing
• Own per-sandbox addressing, including IPv6, and network isolation between tenants
• Build observability for the packet path across guest, host, and network, and debug production issues end to end
• Work closely with the compute, storage, GPU infrastructure, and datacenter teams

Skills

User-space packet processing

Multi-tenant networking in production

Systems programming (Rust/Go/C/C++)

SDN/Overlay networking

Cloud networking provider experience

TCP/IP routing

Proxies / load balancers

BGP / Anycast routing

TLS termination / DNS security

Latency optimization / telemetry

Tools

VPP / FD.io

GENEVE / VXLAN overlays

eBPF/XDP / Linux networking

Virtio-net / TAP devices

Job description

ABOUT BASETEN

Baseten powers mission-critical inference for the world's most dynamic AI companies, like Cursor, Notion, OpenEvidence, Abridge, Clay, Gamma, and Writer. By uniting applied AI research, flexible infrastructure, and seamless developer tooling, we enable companies operating at the frontier of AI to bring cutting-edge models into production. We're growing quickly and recently raised our $1.5B Series F, led by Altimeter Capital, Conviction Partners, and Spark Capital. Join us and help build the platform engineers turn to ship AI products.

THE ROLE

Every agent on Baseten Sandboxes runs in its own microVM. Agents call models, reach tools and APIs, expose services, and more and more often talk to each other. Networking built into today's cloud providers was not designed for very large numbers of isolated machines that suspend, resume, and exchange data constantly.

The Agent Infra team builds its own networking stack for sandboxes, designed from the start for that scale. It runs in user space, with VPP (FD.io) as its main data plane technology, and is built from virtualized network functions (VNF/NFV): carrier-grade, low-latency packet processing designed for very large numbers of agents. In September 2026, Baseten acquired Blaxel, whose sandboxes, storage, and networking are the foundation for Baseten Sandboxes.

You’ll build multi-tenant virtual private networking that connects each customer's agents and services privately and securely, using modern overlay technologies.

We are building a cloud, not just using one. We want engineers who expose the network as a programmable API and write the code, not operators who push router and switch configuration. The team is small and ownership is big: we ship in weeks and months, not multi-year programs.

This role is separate from Baseten's GPU-to-GPU networking. Here you’ll own how sandboxes connect to each other, to Baseten services, to customer networks, and to the internet.

If you've built user-space data planes, virtualized network functions, or multi-tenant cloud networking and want to design one for agents, we’d love to talk.

EXAMPLE INITIATIVES

• Blaxel is joining Baseten to build the future of agentic infrastructure
• Securing the open frontier with NVIDIA OpenShell and Blaxel sandboxes
• Baseten Sandboxes documentation

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Design and build the user-space, VPP-based data plane that connects microVM sandboxes to each other, to Baseten services, and to the internet
• Build multi-tenant virtual private networking and overlays (for example EVPN, GENEVE, VXLAN) across regions
• Expose the network as a programmable API that the rest of the platform calls
• Cut latency and raise connection scale for agent-to-agent and agent-to-service traffic
• Build routing that sends each request to the nearest region and keeps connections working as sandboxes suspend and resume
• Build secure ingress and egress for sandboxes, including firewalling, static egress IPs, and custom domains with managed TLS
• Build L7 proxies for request inspection, filtering, secret injection, and auditing
• Own per-sandbox addressing, including IPv6, and network isolation between tenants
• Build observability for the packet path across guest, host, and network, and debug production issues end to end
• Work closely with the compute, storage, GPU infrastructure, and datacenter teams

REQUIREMENTS

• Experience with user-space packet processing (DPDK, VPP, or similar) or virtualized network functions (VNF/NFV)
• Experience building multi-tenant networking in production (VXLAN, GENEVE, VRF)
• Experience building a software-defined network, overlay network, or packet-processing data plane in production
• You write production code: strong systems programming in Rust, Go, and/or C/C++. Network architects are welcome if they build, not only configure
• Experience building cloud networking as the provider, not only consuming a cloud provider's network
• Solid grounding in TCP/IP and routing
• Experience building or operating proxies, load balancers, or L4/L7 gateways at scale
• Experience debugging latency and throughput problems with packet captures, tracing, and profiling
• You move fast and like owning a problem end to end on a small team

NICE TO HAVE

• Experience with VPP / FD.io, our main networking technology
• Experience with GENEVE or VXLAN overlays and EVPN
• Linux kernel networking: eBPF/XDP, netfilter or nftables, network namespaces
• Familiarity with virtual machine networking: virtio-net, vhost, TAP devices, or networking for Firecracker or Cloud Hypervisor
• Experience running IPv6 at scale
• Background in telecom user-plane or 5G core networking, or in low-latency trading networks
• Experience with multi-region traffic routing, anycast, or BGP
• Experience with TLS termination, DNS, and egress security controls

BENEFITS

• Competitive compensation, including meaningful equity
• (U.S. only) 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance for employee and dependents
• Flexible PTO policy including company wide Winter Break (our offices are closed from Christmas Eve to New Year's Day!)
• Paid parental leave
• Fertility and family-building stipend through Carrot
• (U.S. only) Company-facilitated 401(k)
• Exposure to a variety of ML startups, offering unparalleled learning and networking opportunities.

At Baseten, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law (by example, the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, where applicable).