Software Director – SONiC

Micas Networks•San Jose, CA

About The Position

Micas Networks is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Software Director – SONiC to lead our Network Operating System software organization. In this role, you will define and execute the long-term software strategy and roadmap for our SONiC-based platforms, lead a high-performing team of software engineers and managers, and collaborate closely with hardware, product management, and customer-facing teams to deliver world-class networking solutions to hyperscalers, cloud data centers, and OEM partners. The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in networking and open-source network operating systems with proven leadership experience in building, mentoring, and scaling software organizations. You will play a critical role in shaping the future of open networking by translating market and customer needs into actionable software requirements, driving cross-functional execution, and ensuring the optimal allocation of engineering resources to maximize impact.

Requirements

10+ years of software engineering and software management experience in networking, with significant exposure to Carrier Service Provider, Data Center, Hyperscaler, and/or Mission-Critical environments.
5+ years of experience leading software teams, including hiring, mentoring, performance management, and building high-performing organizations.

Nice To Haves

Active contributions to open-source projects and communities, particularly SONiC, DENT, or related networking ecosystems.
Hands-on knowledge of cloud computing and modern data center networking architectures (leaf/spine, EVPN-VXLAN, SmartNIC, AI/ML fabrics).
Experience developing or configuring whitebox/disaggregated network devices and switches at scale.
Prior experience working with hyperscaler or Tier-1 cloud customers on production deployments.
Experience scaling globally distributed software engineering organizations.

Responsibilities

Lead and define the long-term SONiC software product roadmap in alignment with hardware, product management, regional, and executive teams.
Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing team of software engineers, technical leads, and managers, ensuring alignment with business unit objectives and fostering a culture of technical excellence and accountability.
Engage directly with customers—including hyperscalers, cloud operators, and OEM partners—to gather insights and translate networking needs into actionable software requirements and feature definitions.
Provide strategic input across the organization to ensure software features, release cadence, and platform capabilities align with customer needs, market trends, and business goals.
Monitor industry, open-source, and technology trends (SONiC, DENT, SAI, P4, eBPF, AI/ML for networking) to inform strategy and maintain competitive differentiation.
Drive resource allocation, budgeting, and headcount planning across software functions to balance short-term delivery with long-term platform investment.
Oversee the design, development, and maintenance of the SONiC network operating system across multiple hardware platforms and customer deployments.
Drive implementation and optimization of network protocols, control-plane and data-plane features, platform drivers, and software modules.
Establish and enforce engineering best practices for code quality, design reviews, performance analysis, and system reliability.
Lead continuous improvement of CI/CD infrastructure, automated regression testing, code coverage, and release engineering to enable rapid, high-quality software delivery.
Champion strong DevOps practices, version control discipline, and modern software lifecycle management across the organization.
Own software quality end-to-end—from feature definition through field deployment—and drive rapid resolution of complex, customer-impacting issues.
Collaborate across functions—including Hardware Engineering, Product Management, Product Marketing, Operations, and Procurement—to deliver high-impact product initiatives on schedule.
Partner with Hardware and Platform teams on switch ASIC SDK integration, hardware abstraction layers (e.g., SAI, switchdev), and BSP development to ensure tight hardware/software co-design.
Drive the development of Product Requirements Documents (PRDs), software design specifications, user stories, and customer-facing technical collateral.
Develop and deliver high-quality, customer-facing presentations that articulate software value, architecture, and roadmap.
Partner with Sales, Solutions Engineering, and Marketing Communications to support go-to-market activities and create compelling technical sales collateral.
Represent Micas Networks externally in customer engagements, industry forums, and open-source communities such as the SONiC Foundation and OCP.