Senior Principal Software Engineer

Oracle • Nashville, TN

8d • $135,200 - $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. Depending on the assignment, this may include 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. Candidates may bring deep storage data path expertise with working familiarity in networking, or deep networking data path expertise with working familiarity in storage.

The role includes shaping architecture and foundational data path decisions; leading delivery across component owners; setting end-to-end performance expectations; connecting storage and networking architecture; and owning integration and production readiness. The engineer will also mentor component owners and guide effective, validated AI use across subsystem engineering work.

Success means establishing a coherent subsystem architecture, aligning component owners, delivering successful integration with measured end-to-end results, resolving systemic risks early, leading consequential cross-team decisions, and strengthening the technical judgment of other engineers. The position offers ownership of a substantial part of the platform and close collaboration with networking, storage, and hardware partners.

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 networking data path architecture, implementation, and optimization. Relevant experience may include storage I/O pipelines, block storage or storage transport, or high-performance packet processing and network virtualization.
• 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.
• 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 one or more of the following areas; experience with every listed technology is not required.
• DPU architecture: DPUs, SmartNICs, AMD Pensando, NVIDIA BlueField/DOCA, P4, or comparable technologies; software, firmware, and hardware interface design.
• Packet processing: architecture or substantial extension of DPDK-based systems or comparable user-space packet processing frameworks.
• Storage data paths: storage I/O pipeline design or optimization, block storage, NVMe, NVMe over Fabrics, RDMA, or storage virtualization.
• Hardware and production: hardware co-design, PCIe, DMA, SR-IOV, IOMMU, zero-copy techniques, fleet qualification, failure recovery, or upgrade compatibility.

Responsibilities

• Turn ambiguous system requirements into subsystem architecture, component contracts, and phased delivery plans.
• Establish decision authority and resolve architectural tradeoffs that individual component owners cannot settle independently.
• Evaluate partitioning across host, DPU software, firmware, and hardware; validate decisions about queueing, memory ownership, acceleration, and recovery through prototypes and representative workloads.
• Decompose subsystem work, align technical dependencies, and resolve integration risks across teams.
• Guide implementation through other engineers while personally implementing or debugging critical paths.
• Establish subsystem budgets and targets for throughput, tail latency, resource efficiency, and relevant storage I/O or packet-processing metrics; resolve bottlenecks across component boundaries.
• Work across storage and networking to evaluate I/O processing, transport, ordering, buffering, backpressure, and recovery tradeoffs, preserving end-to-end performance, availability, and data integrity.
• Lead subsystem qualification and technical readiness reviews; establish compatible interfaces, observability, fault isolation, and safe upgrade behavior; resolve systemic risks during rollout and operation.
• Mentor engineers in architectural judgment and systems debugging; establish shared engineering practices and help component leaders make sound decisions independently.
• Guide effective AI use across subsystem engineering work with validation and clear accountability, 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 disability and long-term disability.
• Life insurance and AD&D.
• Supplemental life insurance 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 Vacation for eligible salaried employees or accrued vacation for other eligible employees; accrual depends on hours worked and length of service.
• 11 paid holidays.
• Paid sick leave: 72 hours upon hire, refreshed each calendar year, with unused balance carrying over up to a maximum of 112 hours.
• Paid parental leave.
• Adoption assistance.
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
• Financial planning and group legal benefits.
• Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner, and pet insurance.
• Potential eligibility for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal