Senior Principal Software Engineer, Core Infrastructure

Oracle•Santa Clara, CA

3h•$136,500 - $306,400

About The Position

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) is seeking a Senior Principal Software Engineer to build a new Data Processing Unit (DPU) platform spanning networking and storage. The role addresses system-level questions such as host-versus-DPU responsibilities, predictable tail latency under mixed workloads, and correct behavior across offload transitions, failures, and upgrades. The engineer will own a major subsystem spanning components and teams, potentially including a storage I/O pipeline, packet processing pipeline, host-to-DPU data path, or infrastructure acceleration subsystem. The role defines architectural boundaries, aligns component owners, and remains accountable for integration and subsystem outcomes. The engineer may bring deep storage data path expertise with working familiarity in networking, or deep networking data path expertise with working familiarity in storage, and will collaborate across both domains. The position turns ambiguous requirements into architecture, component contracts, and phased delivery plans; shapes foundational data path decisions across host, DPU software, firmware, and hardware; leads delivery and integration across component owners; establishes end-to-end performance expectations; and ensures production readiness, observability, fault isolation, and safe upgrades. It also includes mentoring component owners and establishing reusable AI practices with validation and clear accountability.

Requirements

10+ years of professional software engineering experience in systems or infrastructure software, including substantial hands-on experience building high-performance storage data paths or networking data paths.
Demonstrated technical ownership of a major subsystem spanning multiple components and engineering teams, from ambiguous requirements through production integration.
Deep expertise in storage data path architecture, implementation, and optimization, or in networking data path architecture, implementation, and optimization.
Strong hands-on C or C++ expertise and deep knowledge of Linux, synchronization, memory management, multicore architectures, and performance analysis.
Working familiarity with the complementary domain: networking fundamentals and transport behavior for storage specialists, or storage I/O architecture and behavior for networking specialists.
Ability to evaluate cross-domain performance and failure interactions with partner engineers.
Experience defining component boundaries and contracts, establishing performance budgets, and resolving cross-component correctness and reliability issues.
A record of driving technical alignment and delivery across teams while remaining actively involved in implementation and difficult debugging.
Ability to explain complex architectural decisions and develop other engineers into effective component owners.
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience with DPU architecture, including DPUs, SmartNICs, AMD Pensando, NVIDIA BlueField/DOCA, P4, or comparable technologies, and software, firmware, and hardware interface design.
Architecture or substantial extension of DPDK-based systems or comparable user-space packet processing frameworks.
Storage I/O pipeline design or optimization, block storage, NVMe, NVMe over Fabrics, RDMA, or storage virtualization experience.
Hardware co-design, PCIe, DMA, SR-IOV, IOMMU, zero-copy techniques, fleet qualification, failure recovery, or upgrade compatibility experience.

Responsibilities

Own subsystem architecture and outcomes by translating ambiguous system requirements into architecture, component contracts, and phased delivery plans, and resolving cross-component tradeoffs.
Shape foundational data path decisions across host, DPU software, firmware, and hardware; validate queueing, memory ownership, acceleration, and recovery through prototypes and representative workloads.
Lead delivery across component owners by decomposing subsystem work, aligning dependencies, resolving integration risks, guiding implementation, and personally implementing or debugging critical paths.
Establish subsystem performance budgets and targets for throughput, tail latency, resource efficiency, and relevant storage I/O or packet processing metrics; resolve cross-component bottlenecks.
Connect storage and networking architecture, evaluating I/O processing, transport, ordering, buffering, backpressure, and recovery tradeoffs while protecting end-to-end performance, availability, and data integrity.
Own subsystem integration and production readiness, including qualification, technical readiness reviews, compatible interfaces, observability, fault isolation, safe upgrade behavior, and rollout risk resolution.
Mentor engineers in architectural judgment and systems debugging, establish shared engineering practices, and help component leaders make sound decisions independently.
Guide effective and accountable AI use across subsystem engineering work, sharing approaches that improve quality and productivity, reduce repetitive debugging and documentation, and support employee well-being.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion.
Short-term and long-term disability.
Life insurance and AD&D, with supplemental life insurance options for employees, spouses, and children.
Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts.
Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits.
401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match.
Flexible or accrued vacation, depending on employee eligibility and position.
11 paid holidays.
72 hours of paid sick leave upon hire, refreshed annually, with carryover up to a 112-hour cap.
Paid parental leave.
Adoption assistance.
Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
Financial planning and group legal benefits.
Voluntary auto, homeowner, and pet insurance benefits.
May be eligible for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral.