Principal Software Engineer
Employer not yet confirmed · Nashville, Tennessee, United States
About the role
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to build a new Data Processing Unit (DPU) platform spanning networking and storage. You will solve problems involving packet processing, host-to-DPU data movement, concurrency, and predictable performance under congestion and resource pressure.
You will be the technical owner of a substantial component: its architecture, interfaces, implementation, performance, and operational readiness. Starting from broad requirements, you will resolve design choices and drive delivery with partner engineers. You will propose changes that cross component boundaries and align them with subsystem owners. Deep networking expertise is essential; storage familiarity is required and substantial storage experience is especially valuable.
What you will do
Own component architecture and delivery. Translate broad requirements into a component design and executable milestones. Make architectural and implementation decisions within agreed subsystem boundaries and carry the work through production.
Design high-performance data paths. Build packet processing, network virtualization, forwarding, policy, or acceleration capabilities. Make deliberate choices about concurrency, buffering, memory ownership, and hardware interfaces.
Define and coordinate interfaces. Establish component contracts with networking, storage, firmware, and hardware partners. Resolve dependencies and drive integration; escalate tradeoffs that require subsystem-wide decisions.
Own component performance. Define representative benchmarks and performance targets. Investigate throughput, tail latency, CPU utilization, and memory efficiency, validating improvements under load and resource pressure.
Evaluate storage interactions. Assess how component choices affect storage I/O performance, backpressure, and failure handling. Work with storage engineers to preserve correctness and reliable recovery.
Deliver production readiness. Own component instrumentation, fault handling, compatibility, and upgrade behavior. Drive qualification and operational improvements, including difficult cross-layer debugging and production support.
Guide engineers and engineering quality. Mentor engineers, lead component design reviews, and establish useful tests and performance regression checks. Help feature owners make independent decisions within the architecture.
Improve responsible AI practices. Validate AI-assisted work and help the team adopt effective coding, testing, debugging, and documentation practices. Reduce repetitive work while preserving quality, accountability, and a sustainable engineering experience.
Required qualifications
8+ years of professional software engineering experience in systems or infrastructure software, including substantial hands-on experience building high-performance networking data planes.
Demonstrated ownership of substantial component architecture and delivery from broad requirements through production.
Deep experience implementing or optimizing packet processing systems, with strong knowledge of network virtualization, forwarding, encapsulation, and traffic management.
Strong C or C++ proficiency and Linux systems knowledge, including concurrency, memory management, multicore processing, and performance profiling.
Familiarity with storage architectures and data paths, and ability to evaluate how component choices affect storage performance and failure handling.
Ability to diagnose complex correctness or performance issues across software layers using measurements and repeatable experiments.
Experience defining interfaces, coordinating technical dependencies, and owning component performance and operational readiness.
Clear design communication and experience mentoring engineers through reviews, implementation, and debugging.
A bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
Preferred qualifications
Experience in one or more of the following areas is valuable. Experience with every listed technology is not required.
Packet processing. DPDK or comparable user-space frameworks; virtual switching, connection tracking, policy enforcement, or offload implementation.
DPU acceleration. DPUs, SmartNICs, AMD Pensando, NVIDIA BlueField/DOCA, P4, or comparable technologies.
Storage. Substantial storage development experience; block storage, NVMe, NVMe over Fabrics, RDMA, or storage virtualization.
Hardware and production. PCIe, DMA, SR-IOV, IOMMU, zero-copy techniques, hardware co-design, staged deployments, fault injection, or upgrade compatibility.
What success looks like
You will deliver a critical component with a clear architecture, stable interfaces, and demonstrated performance and reliability. You will independently resolve component-level decisions, coordinate integration, and help engineers deliver within that architecture.
Why join us
Shape a new platform through architectural ownership of a critical component. You will make consequential software and hardware tradeoffs, partner with experienced networking and storage engineers, and carry your designs from exploration into production.
Disclaimer:
Certain U.S. based or U.S. customer or client-facing roles may be required to comply with applicable requirements, such as immunization/occupational health mandates, and/or drug testing requirements.
Range and benefit information provided in this posting are specific to the stated locations only
US: Hiring Range in USD from: $114,600 to $234,600 per annum. May be eligible for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral.
Oracle maintains broad salary ranges for its roles in order to account for variations in knowledge, skills, experience, market conditions and locations, as well as reflect Oracle's differing products, industries and lines of business.
Candidates are typically placed into the range based on the preceding factors as well as internal peer equity.
Oracle US offers a comprehensive benefits package which includes the following:
1. Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion
2. Short term disability and long term disability
3. Life insurance and AD&D
4. Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)
5. Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
6. Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits
7. 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match
8. Paid time off: Flexible Vacation is provided to all eligible employees assigned to a salaried (non-overtime eligible) position. Accrued Vacation is provided to all other employees eligible for vacation benefits. For employees working at least 35 hours per week, the vacation accrual rate is 13 days annually for the first three years of employment and 18 days annually for subsequent years of employment. Vacation accrual is prorated for employees working between 20 and 34 hours per week. Employees working fewer than 20 hours per week are not eligible for vacation.
9. 11 paid holidays
10. Paid sick leave: 72 hours of paid sick leave upon date of hire. Refreshes each calendar year. Unused balance will carry over each year up to a maximum cap of 112 hours.
11. Paid parental leave
12. Adoption assistance
13. Employee Stock Purchase Plan
14. Financial planning and group legal
15. Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner and pet insurance
The role will generally accept applications for at least three calendar days from the posting date or as long as the job remains posted.Career Level - IC4