Sr. Open-Source Software Engineer - Apache Cassandra

NetApp, Inc.•Waltham, MA

5d•$220,000 - $265,000•Hybrid

About The Position

This role connects deep upstream work - binding committer authority, CEP-level design, release stewardship - directly to production-scale outcomes in one of the largest enterprise Cassandra deployments in the world. NetApp Instaclustr runs one of the industry's largest Cassandra managed services, spanning a broad range of enterprise customers across financial services, retail, and technology sectors. Our Cassandra engineering team leads active work on Cassandra 6.0, owns releases across core and ecosystem subprojects, and drives upstream contributions that directly address production-scale operator needs. The successful applicant will become our second Apache Cassandra core committer, joining a team that already includes an established core committer as well as a committer on the Cassandra Drivers project. You will work at both levels - upstream influence and customer impact - with meaningful autonomy, strong peer collaboration, and direct access to the product and field relationships that turn technical work into commercial outcomes. This is a globally distributed team with up to 10% travel. The role is based in one of our office locations - US (San Jose, Raleigh, Boston, or Seattle), requires 3 days per week in office.

Requirements

A minimum of 12 years of applicable professional software engineering experience is required.
Current Apache Cassandra committer status with a sustained and publicly verifiable upstream track record across patches, reviews, and community standing in Cassandra core or a closely related subproject.
Expert Java engineering capability in performance-sensitive, concurrent, and production-grade distributed systems - comfortable writing, reviewing, and reasoning about complex Cassandra internals at depth.
Deep mastery of Apache Cassandra internals in at least one major domain: storage engine and compaction, indexing and SAI/vector, distributed consensus and repair (including Accord and CEP-37), observability and virtual tables, or release management and CI.
Demonstrated ability to lead complex technical work through the Apache open source governance model: CEP authoring or co-sponsorship, design consensus, mailing-list engagement, and Jira-driven delivery from proposal through merge.
Strong written communication for asynchronous, global, public technical collaboration - mailing lists, design documents, code reviews, and Jira threads.
Proven senior-level technical judgment: resolves most blockers independently, determines approach on novel or ambiguous assignments, surfaces systemic risks proactively, and produces work that is consistent with project and team objectives.

Nice To Haves

PMC membership in Apache Cassandra or a related Apache subproject.
Track record of work in Cassandra 6.0 feature areas (Accord, Transactional Cluster Metadata, CEP-37 automated repair, CEP-38 CQL Management API, ZSTD dictionary compression, SAI/vector write performance).
Experience connecting upstream technical leadership to enterprise customer and operator outcomes - translating production pain points into accepted community improvements.
History of mentoring contributors toward reviewer or committer standing in an open governance project.
Familiarity with Cassandra ecosystem subprojects: Sidecar, Analytics (Spark bulk), GoCQL, or Apache Cassandra drivers.

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end upstream initiatives in Apache Cassandra, from CEP authoring and design consensus through implementation, review, and release, in domains such as storage/compaction, indexing and SAI/vector, distributed repair, observability, and Cassandra releases.
Provide binding committer reviews on upstream patches and community contributions, applying the technical rigor and authority that moves high-quality work through the Apache Cassandra review process.
Co-own Apache Cassandra core release management as part of the rotating committer pool and, where capacity allows, contribute to NetApp-led ecosystem releases (Cassandra Sidecar, Analytics, GoCQL).
Translate enterprise customer needs into credible upstream proposals, CEP-level designs, and sustained technical engagement that only a committer can supply; advise product and field teams on complex upstream trade-offs.
Shape community direction through evidence-based participation on the dev@ mailing list, Apache Jira, GitHub, and community forums; influence project decisions on architecture, release policy, contribution standards, and long-term roadmap.
Mentor engineers toward committer standing and raise overall contribution quality through rigorous review practices, test discipline, and clear engineering guidance.
Improve upstream infrastructure - CI reliability, test coverage, contributor tooling, and release automation - to reduce project-wide maintenance burden and strengthen NetApp's reputation as a steward of the project.