Senior Performance Software Engineer

NetApp • Waltham, MA

43d • Hybrid

About The Position

As a Senior Performance Software Engineer in the Cloud Storage and Services organization, you will own the end-to-end performance strategy, measurement, and optimization of next-generation storage products. This role involves deep analysis of I/O paths, scalability modeling, and tuning across hardware and software layers. The ideal candidate combines strong analytical thinking with low-level system expertise to ensure world-class performance across cloud storage products. You'll be partnering with our product and engineering leaders in the cloud storage organization, gathering performance requirements, planning, designing, and providing performance improvements. You'll be responsible for understanding system bottlenecks, reviewing product design and implementation, and making critical technical decisions to improve performance. You are expected to have a strong technical point of view, work with our internal and external partners, and earn their trust with empathy. Your ability to communicate clearly with the leaders of the companies and use data to defend your decisions will be crucial for this role.

Requirements

• Master's or bachelor's degree in computer science or a related field or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of experience in software/systems/performance engineering and analysis.
• 5+ years of experience in the storage domain.
• 5+ years of experience working on embedded SW development with Linux.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in developing code in C/C++.
• Experience working on at least one of the major cloud service providers.
• Deep understanding of storage architectures (block, file, object), RAID, caching, SSD internals and storage protocols.
• Proven record of improving performance of embedded systems. Designing performance measurements, understanding system bottlenecks, and implementing changes.
• Strong proficiency with Linux performance tools
• Proven ability to interpret low-level metrics, diagnose complex issues, and drive improvements across cross-functional teams.
• Proactive and self-driven, with strong technical judgment and influential skills.
• Expertise to provide both architectural guidance and detailed technical direction.
• Excellent communication and writing skills, with the ability to effectively engage with customers, stakeholders, and the engineering community.

Responsibilities

• Improve performance for key NetApp products and solutions in the cloud through design, execute, analyze and implementation.
• Recreate customer environments and workloads to benchmark and improve real-world performance on NetApp cloud products.
• Integrate automated regression checks into CI/CD pipelines to ensure sustained performance quality.
• Develop intelligent solutions to automate performance analysis, characterization, bottleneck identification, and improvement implementation.
• Mentor junior engineers and review their analysis for technical accuracy.
• Understand NetApp's existing systems, their interdependencies, and limitations.
• Influence multiple internal teams and external partners without authority and with strong empathy. (This is an IC role)

Benefits

• We enable a healthy work-life balance.
• Our volunteer time off program is best in class, offering employees 40 hours of paid time per year to volunteer with their favorite organizations.
• We provide comprehensive medical, dental, wellness, and vision plans for you and your family.
• We offer educational assistance, legal services, and access to discounts.
• Finally, we provide financial savings programs to help you plan for your future.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Industry: Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees