Software Engineering Lead – NFS

Data Direct Networks•San Francisco - Remote, CA

1d•Remote

About The Position

This is an incredible opportunity to be part of DataDirect Networks (DDN), a global market leader in AI and high-performance data storage innovation for over two decades. DDN powers many of the world's most demanding AI data centers across various industries, with its cutting-edge data intelligence platform designed to accelerate AI workloads and enable organizations to extract maximum value from their data. The company is known for its performance, reliability, and scalability, empowering businesses to tackle challenging AI and data-intensive workloads. DDN's success is driven by a commitment to innovation, customer-centricity, and a team of passionate professionals. This role offers a chance to make a significant impact in shaping the future of AI and data management. We are seeking a Software Engineering Lead – NFS with deep expertise in data path and I/O performance for large-scale distributed file systems. This senior technical leadership role involves driving NFS architecture across the storage stack, from low-level code paths to system-wide behavior at massive scale. The successful candidate will define strategy, guide architectural decisions, and lead complex NFS implementation for high-throughput, low-latency distributed systems, combining hands-on technical depth with broad architectural influence.

Requirements

15+ years of experience in NFS engineering, systems engineering, or distributed systems
Deep understanding of distributed file systems and scale-out storage architectures
Expert-level knowledge of NFS and distributed file systems
Strong proficiency in C++ with extensive experience in performance-critical code
Proven expertise in performance measurement techniques, including profiling, tracing, benchmarking, and custom tooling
Strong foundation in distributed systems principles, including scalability, concurrency, and fault tolerance
Demonstrated experience optimizing file system or storage system code for performance at scale
Experience with high-performance, high-scale-out file systems in production environments

Nice To Haves

Experience with kernel-level and user-space I/O stacks
Deep understanding of modern storage hardware (NVMe, SSDs, RDMA, high-speed networking)
Experience building or evolving performance frameworks and benchmarking infrastructure
Background in parallel programming, lock-free or low-contention designs
Experience influencing architecture across multiple teams or large codebases

Responsibilities

Define and own architecture for NFS across distributed file systems
Drive performance analysis and optimization of large-scale, high-performance, scale-out file systems
Architect performance-aware NFS design and architecture
Drive optimization of performance-critical distributed file system code, primarily in C++
Help drive best practices for performance measurement, profiling, benchmarking, and regression detection
Lead deep-dive investigations into complex, system-wide issues
Influence system architecture with a performance-first mindset around NFS and accompanying tradeoffs against other protocols
Mentor senior and staff engineers on engineering techniques and methodologies
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure goals are met across the stack
Represent NFS considerations in design reviews and long-term roadmap planning