Principal Software Engineer

NetApp•San Jose, CA

12d

About The Position

NetApp's Azure NetApp Files (ANF) team is building industry-leading cloud storage services that power mission-critical enterprise workloads in Microsoft Azure. We are looking for a highly motivated software architect to help envision the next growth opportunity, design, develop and operate cloud-scale distributed systems that span storage, networking, cloud infrastructure, and user experience. This is a unified engineering role where engineers are expected to contribute across architecture, development, automated validation, operational readiness, and service reliability. The ideal candidate enjoys understanding evolving business needs, solving complex product challenges, takes ownership from design through production, and thrives in a collaborative, fast-paced environment.

Requirements

15+ years of Experience.
Proven experience architecting and delivering large-scale cloud-native distributed systems with high availability, security, and operational excellence requirements.
Deep expertise in one or more of the following domains: cloud storage services, distributed systems, file systems, data protection, databases, networking, or cloud infrastructure services.
Demonstrated ability to define technical strategy and drive architectural direction across multiple teams, products, or organizations.
Strong track record of leading highly ambiguous technical initiatives from concept through production at enterprise scale.
Experience influencing technical and business decisions through data, customer insight, and engineering judgment.
Ability to build alignment across diverse stakeholder groups, including engineering, product management, operations, security, and executive leadership.
Experience leading cross-organizational initiatives involving multiple engineering teams and stakeholders without direct management authority.
Experience driving architecture reviews, establishing engineering standards, and mentoring senior engineers and technical leaders.
Strong understanding of modern cloud platforms, microservices architectures, containers, Kubernetes, observability, and operational excellence practices.
Experience building and operating services in Azure, AWS, or GCP, with a strong understanding of cloud-native design principles.
Strong software engineering foundation with experience designing and implementing production-quality systems using modern programming languages such as Go, C#, or similar.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Demonstrated ability to learn quickly, challenge conventional thinking, and solve complex business and technical problems.
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field; or equivalent practical experience.

Responsibilities

Define and drive the long-term architecture strategy for ANF platform capabilities.
Identify, incubate, and drive new growth opportunities, platform capabilities, and strategic technical investments.
Serve as a principal technical advisor to engineering, product, and business leadership.
Influence business and product strategy through technical leadership and customer insight.
Establish architectural standards and technical direction across multiple ANF service areas and partner organizations.
Lead resolution of highly ambiguous technical and business challenges with significant customer and organizational impact.
Build alignment across ANF, Azure (platform teams, security, networking), and strategic partners to accelerate delivery of business outcomes.
Represent ANF in executive-level technical discussions with internal and external stakeholders.
Contribute to the technical growth of the team through architecture leadership, design reviews, and development of senior engineers and technical leaders.