Distinguished Software Engineer, Systems Infrastructure - Core Infra

LinkedIn•Bellevue, CA

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

At LinkedIn, the Distinguished Engineer will help shape the future of LinkedIn’s Core Infrastructure platform, which provides shared system services within a large-scale, private, on-premise distributed environment. This role will focus on building technical strategy and raising the bar across multiple infrastructure domains, with particular emphasis on edge/traffic systems and storage, while contributing to adjacent areas such as streaming/messaging (e.g., Kafka), fleet management, and control planes. The work location of this role is hybrid, meaning it will be performed both from home and from a LinkedIn office on select days, as determined by the business needs of the team. This role will be based in Mountain View, CA OR Bellevue, WA.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent experience
10+ years of relevant work experience in infrastructure engineering
Experience leading technical projects with multiple stakeholders

Nice To Haves

PhD in a relevant field or related discipline (machine learning, statistics, computer science etc.), or equivalent research experience
15+ years experience in building infrastructure at scale, with at least 5 of those years in a technical leadership position
Experience building large scale infrastructure and distributed systems
Deep expertise in at least one of the following domains, with working knowledge across others: Networking / Traffic Engineering (edge infrastructure, proxies, load balancing, CDNs) Distributed Storage Systems (object storage, block storage, large-scale data systems)
Experience with messaging and streaming systems (e.g., Kafka, pub/sub architectures, event-driven systems)
Proven ability to operate across infrastructure domains, contributing to areas such as fleet management, control planes, and private cloud systems
Experience designing and evolving high-scale, on-premise or hybrid cloud infrastructure
Strong systems-level thinking, with the ability to move between domains (e.g., networking - storage - distributed systems)
Proven track record of leading cross-company, high-impact infrastructure initiatives from concept through production at scale
Experience mentoring senior engineers and influencing technical direction across large organizations
Experience leading high-impact, cross-company initiatives

Responsibilities

Partner directly with senior engineering leaders to define long-term technical strategy across LinkedIn’s core infrastructure, including networking (edge & traffic), storage, and messaging systems
Lead cross-team and cross-functional initiatives spanning distributed systems, traffic engineering, storage platforms, and event-driven architectures
Head cross team/cross functional discussions and drive alignment on technology strategy.
Contribute directly to initiatives through a combination of design and implementation activities.
Actively improve the level of craftsmanship at LinkedIn by developing best practices and defining best strategies.
Define the bar for quality and efficiency of software systems while balancing business impact, operational impact and cost benefits of design and architectural choices.
Influence and mentor engineers across the organization, raising the bar for systems thinking and technical depth
Drive alignment across organizations on multi-domain infrastructure architecture, balancing scalability, reliability, and cost
Help evolve LinkedIn’s private cloud and fleet infrastructure strategy, enabling efficient operation at massive scale
Foster a culture that values diverse perspectives while navigating complex, ambiguous technical decisions