Sr/Staff Lustre Engineer

Data Direct Networks; California (MO); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; 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

Job summary

Data Direct Networks is seeking a Sr/Staff Lustre Engineer to contribute to Lustre architecture and lead the implementation of features across core subsystems. You will write high‑performance code in the Lustre kernel and user space, and own the full development lifecycle from design to upstream patch submission.

You will drive scalability for multi‑petabyte Lustre deployments, modernize internals, prototype NVMe‑oF and CXL integrations, and validate with IOR/mdtest/fio.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of Lustre software development experience.
• Strong track record of meaningful Lustre codebase contributions in production or open‑source environments.
• Experience designing, implementing, and upstreaming Lustre features that made it into major releases.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to Lustre architecture and lead implementation of new features across core subsystems including MDS/OSS, LDLM, DNE, DoM, FLD, layout, snapshot, quota, security, and recovery.
• Write high‑performance, production‑grade code across the Lustre kernel module, user‑space utilities, and supporting libraries.
• Own the full development lifecycle for major features, from design and coding through testing, performance tuning, and upstream patch submission.
• Improve scalability for multi‑petabyte Lustre environments, including metadata performance, I/O path optimization, and integration with modern interconnects and storage fabrics.
• Modernize Lustre internals through kernel API updates, locking improvements, RDMA enhancements, and cloud/container‑oriented capabilities.
• Prototype and evaluate emerging technologies such as NVMe‑oF, CXL, and other next‑generation storage approaches for potential Lustre integration.
• Strengthen regression, stress, and performance validation using tools such as IOR, mdtest, fio, and custom Lustre test tooling.
• Perform deep code‑level performance analysis using Lustre tracing tools, perf, lockstat, and kernel profilers.
• Work closely with Principal Engineers, hardware teams, and application owners to translate real workload needs into practical Lustre improvements.
• Mentor other developers and contribute design docs, technical guides, and engineering reviews.

Skills

Lustre software development

C programming

Linux kernel development

Distributed systems

High‑performance I/O

Python/Bash tooling

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science/Engineering

Tools

lctl

llstat

strace

perf

kernel tracers

Job description

Sr/Staff Lustre Engineer

Location

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

On-site

What you’ll do

Contribute to Lustre architecture and lead implementation of new features across core subsystems including MDS/OSS, LDLM, DNE, DoM, FLD, layout, snapshot, quota, security, and recovery.

Write high‑performance, production‑grade code across the Lustre kernel module, user‑space utilities, and supporting libraries.

Own the full development lifecycle for major features, from design and coding through testing, performance tuning, and upstream patch submission.

Improve scalability for multi‑petabyte Lustre environments, including metadata performance, I/O path optimization, and integration with modern interconnects and storage fabrics.

Modernize Lustre internals through kernel API updates, locking improvements, RDMA enhancements, and cloud/container‑oriented capabilities.

Prototype and evaluate emerging technologies such as NVMe‑oF, CXL, and other next‑generation storage approaches for potential Lustre integration.

Strengthen regression, stress, and performance validation using tools such as IOR, mdtest, fio, and custom Lustre test tooling.

Perform deep code‑level performance analysis using Lustre tracing tools, perf, lockstat, and kernel profilers.

Work closely with Principal Engineers, hardware teams, and application owners to translate real workload needs into practical Lustre improvements.

Mentor other developers and contribute design docs, technical guides, and engineering reviews.

What we’re looking for

7+ years of progressive, hands‑on Lustre software development experience.

A strong track record of meaningful contributions to the Lustre codebase in production or open‑source environments.

Demonstrated success designing, implementing, and upstreaming Lustre features that made it into major releases.

Deep understanding of Lustre internals, including MDS/OSS architecture, LDLM locking and recovery, journaling, DNE, DoM, FLD, layout, quota, and security.

Expert‑level C programming and strong Linux kernel development experience.

Strong knowledge of distributed systems, parallel file systems, and high‑performance I/O.

Experience with Lustre build, development, and debugging tooling such as lctl, llstat, strace, perf, and kernel tracers.

Python and/or Bash skills for tooling and automation.

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field.

Clear written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts effectively.

Nice to have

7+ years in HPC or storage software development.

Visible contributions to the Lustre open‑source community, including accepted patches, LUG participation, or public technical talks.

Experience running or developing Lustre in cloud environments such as AWS FSx for Lustre, Azure Lustre, or custom cloud deployments.

Familiarity with adjacent systems such as Ceph, DAOS, BeeGFS, WekaIO, or GPFS.

Exposure to RDMA, NVMe‑oF, CXL, computational storage, or AI/ML I/O workloads.

Conference presentations, technical publications, or other public engineering contributions.

You’ll likely be a strong fit if you…

Have built inside Lustre itself, not just around it.

Enjoy solving hard kernel, performance, and distributed systems problems.

Care about code quality, upstream contribution, and long‑term architectural impact.

Want to work on infrastructure that operates at real scale under real performance constraints.

This role is probably not the right fit if you…

Have mainly supported or administered Lustre rather than developed it.

Come from general storage or kernel backgrounds without clear Lustre code contribution history.

Prefer high‑level application engineering over low‑level systems and kernel work.

Benefits

• 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