Senior Software Engineer II, Network Datapath

DigitalOcean

. Design, develop, and optimize high-performance network datapath software for DigitalOcean's cloud infrastructure .

Posted 9/22/2026full-timeRemote • Massachusetts • United StatesSenior💰 $167,200 - $209,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in designing and developing high-performance network datapath software, with a strong focus on packet processing, performance optimization, and integration with hardware acceleration technologies. Proficient in technical documentation and cross-team collaboration to drive complex projects from design to production.

Highest-signal resume keywords

C/C++ Software DevelopmentLinux Networking SystemsPacket Processing and RoutingPerformance Analysis and OptimizationTechnical Documentation and RFCs

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

C ProgrammingC++ ProgrammingGo ProgrammingPacket FilteringLoad BalancingNetwork VirtualizationDPDKXDPEBPFMultithreading

Soft Skills

Technical WritingCommunicationMentoringCollaboration

Tools & Technologies

Linux KernelSmartNICsDPUsNIC DriversPerformance Monitoring ToolsBenchmarking FrameworksTraffic Steering

Industry Keywords

Cloud InfrastructureNetworking InternalsTCP/IPBGPVLANsVXLANECMPNATProduction NetworkingHigh-Performance Packet Processing

Tech Stack

Tools & technologies

CloudLinuxSwitchingTCP/IPC++Go

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Design, develop, and optimize high-performance network datapath software for DigitalOcean's cloud infrastructure
Build and improve packet-processing and forwarding systems for throughput, latency, CPU efficiency, scalability, and reliability
Develop networking functionality across host, kernel, user space, and hardware-accelerated datapaths
Analyze packet-processing paths and eliminate bottlenecks
Develop routing, packet filtering, encapsulation, tunneling, load balancing, traffic steering, and network virtualization functionality
Build datapath observability, telemetry, debugging, and performance monitoring
Integrate software with DPUs, SmartNICs, programmable NICs, and hardware acceleration technologies
Develop automated testing and benchmarking frameworks
Investigate production networking issues including packet drops, latency, throughput degradation, CPU utilization, and unexpected traffic behavior
Collaborate with Network Infrastructure, Compute, Availability, Security, hardware, and other engineering teams
Contribute to next-generation network architectures
Author RFCs, architecture documents, technical proposals, design documents, and implementation plans
Document technical decisions, tradeoffs, performance characteristics, dependencies, and operational considerations
Participate in design reviews and provide technical guidance
Mentor engineers and improve software engineering and networking practices

Requirements

What you’ll need

Strong experience designing and developing production software in C, C++, or Go
Strong understanding of networking and packet processing
Experience developing software for Linux-based networking systems
Understanding of TCP/IP, routing, switching, VLANs, VXLAN, BGP, ECMP, NAT, load balancing, and network virtualization
Experience debugging and optimizing performance-sensitive systems
Understanding of Linux networking internals, including the Linux kernel networking stack, network namespaces, sockets, queues, interrupts, and NIC drivers
Experience with DPDK, XDP, eBPF, AF_XDP, or SR-IOV
Experience with multithreaded and concurrent software
Strong understanding of performance analysis, profiling, benchmarking, and troubleshooting
Ability to reason about complex systems across hardware, operating systems, networking, and applications
Ability to independently drive projects from technical design through implementation and production deployment
Strong technical writing skills for RFCs, architecture/design documents, technical proposals, and other documentation
Strong communication skills and ability to work effectively across engineering teams
Experience with hardware-accelerated networking is highly valuable, including DPUs, SmartNICs, IPUs, programmable NICs, DPU-based networking, P4, PCIe, DMA, queues, interrupts, RSS, offloads, and NIC hardware architecture
Senior-level ownership of technical components, complex performance and reliability problems, scalable solutions, architectural bottlenecks, cross-organization collaboration, technical documentation, mentoring, and use of AI and modern engineering tools
Nice-to-have: cloud networking or hyperscale infrastructure; Linux kernel networking code or NIC drivers; production DPDK/XDP/eBPF/AF_XDP or DPU datapaths; 400G+ networking; high-performance packet processing; VXLAN/EVPN; programmable switches; perf, eBPF tooling, flame graphs, hardware performance counters; benchmarking infrastructure; open-source contributions

Benefits

Comp & perks

Reimbursement for relevant conferences, training, and education
Access to LinkedIn Learning's 10,000+ courses
Employee Assistance Program
Local Employee Meetups
Flexible time off policy
Bonus eligibility based on company and individual performance
Equity compensation, including equity grants upon hire
Option to participate in the Employee Stock Purchase Program