Senior Software Engineer II, Network Datapath

Digital Ocean
Seattle
Workplace: HybridFull timeUSD 167,200 - 209,000 annuallyFunction: Software EngineeringSkills: ["Communication","Technical writing","Mentoring","Project ownership","Cross-team collaboration"]

Design and optimize high-performance network datapath software that powers DigitalOcean’s cloud networking. Build packet processing, forwarding, routing, acceleration, observability, and telemetry across host, kernel, user space, and hardware-accelerated components. Work with Linux networking and technologies like eBPF, XDP, and DPDK to eliminate bottlenecks, improve CPU efficiency, and ensure reliable, scalable production performance—while authoring RFCs and mentoring engineers.

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FursaFursa
Digital Ocean
Digital Ocean
1 day ago

Senior Software Engineer II, Network Datapath

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Source: Company careers pageValidated by: Fursa AI
Last checked: 13 hours agoStatus: Live

Job Summary

Design and optimize high-performance network datapath software that powers DigitalOcean’s cloud networking. Build packet processing, forwarding, routing, acceleration, observability, and telemetry across host, kernel, user space, and hardware-accelerated components. Work with Linux networking and technologies like eBPF, XDP, and DPDK to eliminate bottlenecks, improve CPU efficiency, and ensure reliable, scalable production performance—while authoring RFCs and mentoring engineers.
Location: Seattle
Workplace: Hybrid
Employment Type: Full time
Job Function: Software Engineering
Seniority: Mid level

Key Responsibilities

  • •Design, develop, and optimize high-performance network datapath software for DigitalOcean’s cloud infrastructure.
  • •Build and improve packet-processing and forwarding systems to maximize throughput, minimize latency, and ensure CPU efficiency, scalability, and reliability.
  • •Develop networking functionality across host, kernel, user space, and hardware-accelerated datapaths.
  • •Develop routing, filtering, encapsulation/tunneling, load balancing, traffic steering, and network virtualization capabilities.
  • •Create automated testing/benchmarking and investigate production networking issues, then author technical documentation and mentor engineers.

Pay and Benefits

Salary: USD 167,200 - 209,000 annually
Perks:Employee AssistanceEquity

Key Requirements

  • •Strong experience designing and developing production software in C, C++, or Go.
  • •Deep networking and packet-processing knowledge, including TCP/IP, routing, switching, and network virtualization concepts.
  • •Experience developing software for Linux-based networking systems, including Linux kernel networking internals and NIC drivers.
  • •Experience with one or more high-performance networking technologies such as DPDK, XDP, eBPF, AF_XDP, or SR-IOV.
  • •Strong performance analysis, profiling, benchmarking, and debugging of performance-sensitive systems across hardware and software.
Experience:Cloud networkingNetworkingHigh-performance computing
Skills:CommunicationTechnical writingMentoringProject ownershipCross-team collaboration
Languages:English
Tech Stack:CC++GoLinuxLinux kernelLinux networking stackNetwork namespacesSocketsQueuesInterruptsNIC driversEBPFXDPDPDKAF_XDPSR-IOVProgrammable datapathsP4DPUsSmartNICs

Company Brief

Digital Ocean
Provides cloud infrastructure and developer-focused cloud services including scalable droplets, managed databases, Kubernetes, object storage, and networking to simplify deploying and managing applications for developers and small-to-medium businesses.
Industry: Cloud Computing
Company Size: Enterprise (1,001+ employees)
Revenue: USD 250M to 500M
Growth: Public Company
Valuation: Public Company (Market Cap in USD)
Funding: IPO / Publicly Listed
Headquarters: New York, United States
Founded: 2011
Glassdoor
Glassdoor: 3.8
WebsiteLinkedIn