Principal Software Architect - Performance

Data Direct Networks

2d•Remote

About The Position

This is an incredible opportunity to be part of a company that has been at the forefront of AI and high-performance data storage innovation for over two decades. DataDirect Networks (DDN) is a global market leader renowned for powering many of the world's most demanding AI data centers, in industries ranging from life sciences and healthcare to financial services, autonomous cars, Government, academia, research and manufacturing. "DDN's A3I solutions are transforming the landscape of AI infrastructure." – IDC “The real differentiator is DDN. I never hesitate to recommend DDN. DDN is the de facto name for AI Storage in high performance environments” - Marc Hamilton, VP, Solutions Architecture & Engineering | NVIDIA DDN is the global leader in AI and multi-cloud data management at scale. Our cutting-edge data intelligence platform is designed to accelerate AI workloads, enabling organizations to extract maximum value from their data. With a proven track record of performance, reliability, and scalability, DDN empowers businesses to tackle the most challenging AI and data-intensive workloads with confidence. Our success is driven by our unwavering commitment to innovation, customer-centricity, and a team of passionate professionals who bring their expertise and dedication to every project. This is a chance to make a significant impact at a company that is shaping the future of AI and data management. Our commitment to innovation, customer success, and market leadership makes this an exciting and rewarding role for a driven professional looking to make a lasting impact in the world of AI and data storage. We are seeking a Principal Software Architect – Performance with deep expertise in data path and I/O performance for large-scale distributed file systems. This role is for a senior technical leader who drives performance architecture across the storage stack, from low-level code paths to system-wide behavior at massive scale. You will define performance strategy, guide architectural decisions, and lead complex performance investigations for high-throughput, low-latency distributed systems. This role combines hands-on technical depth with broad architectural influence.

Requirements

15+ years of experience in performance engineering, systems engineering, or distributed systems
Deep understanding of distributed file systems and scale-out storage architectures
Expert-level knowledge of data path and I/O path design and optimization
Strong proficiency in C++ with extensive experience in performance-critical code
Proven expertise in performance measurement techniques, including profiling, tracing, benchmarking, and custom tooling
Strong foundation in distributed systems principles, including scalability, concurrency, and fault tolerance
Demonstrated experience optimizing file system or storage system code for performance at scale
Experience with high-performance, high-scale-out file systems in production environments

Nice To Haves

Experience with kernel-level and user-space I/O stacks
Deep understanding of modern storage hardware (NVMe, SSDs, RDMA, high-speed networking)
Experience building or evolving performance frameworks and benchmarking infrastructure
Background in parallel programming, lock-free or low-contention designs
Experience influencing architecture across multiple teams or large codebases

Responsibilities

Define and own performance architecture for data path and I/O path components across distributed file systems
Lead performance analysis and optimization of large-scale, high-performance, scale-out file systems
Architect performance-aware designs across CPU, memory, storage, and network layers
Drive optimization of performance-critical file system code, primarily in C++
Establish best practices for performance measurement, profiling, benchmarking, and regression detection
Lead deep-dive investigations into complex, system-wide performance issues
Influence system architecture with a performance-first mindset
Mentor senior and staff engineers on performance engineering techniques and methodologies
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure performance goals are met across the stack
Represent performance considerations in design reviews and long-term roadmap planning