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Salary: USD 167,273 - 278,789 / annual
Alkira, a Lumen company, is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead the architecture, design, and evolution of its next-generation cloud networking Forwarding Plane platform. This is a highly visible technical leadership role responsible for building and scaling the core packet-processing infrastructure that powers Alkira's cloud networking and security services.
You will own critical Forwarding Plane technologies including flow/session management, NAT, policy enforcement, secure cloud connectivity, and traffic optimization. As a hands-on technical leader, you will drive architectural decisions, develop high-performance networking software, and mentor engineering teams while helping define the future of cloud networking infrastructure.
Key responsibilities include:
**Platform Architecture & Ownership**
- Own the architecture, design, implementation, and long-term technical roadmap of Alkira's core Forwarding Plane platform
- Define scalable and resilient networking architectures supporting enterprise-grade cloud networking and security services
- Drive technical strategy for Forwarding Plane reliability, scalability, observability, and maintainability
- Establish engineering standards and best practices across Forwarding Plane development
**High-Performance Networking Development**
- Design and develop high-performance packet-processing systems and networking services
- Build and enhance Forwarding Plane components including flow/session management, NAT, policy enforcement, traffic steering and load balancing, IPsec and secure tunnel processing, and cloud connectivity services
- Develop performance-critical software in C for Linux-based environments
- Optimize packet-processing pipelines for throughput, latency, and resource efficiency
- Leverage expertise in cloud networking across AWS, Azure, GCP and other cloud service providers
**Performance Engineering**
- Drive end-to-end performance optimization across the networking stack
- Leverage modern packet-processing frameworks such as DPDK and VPP
- Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies including hardware acceleration, kernel bypass technologies, and cloud-native networking innovations
- Perform deep performance analysis, profiling, debugging, and tuning of production systems
**Technical Leadership**
- Lead architecture reviews and drive technical decision-making across teams
- Mentor senior and staff-level engineers on networking and systems design
- Partner with product management, platform engineering, and security teams to deliver strategic initiatives
- Influence technology direction and guide the adoption of networking best practices across the organization
Alkira is building the future of enterprise networking: one programmable platform to connect, secure, and operate every cloud, site, partner, data center, and AI workload. Founded by the creators of Viptela and pioneers of the SD-WAN market, Alkira was built to radically simplify how enterprises deploy and manage network infrastructure. As part of Lumen, the company brings a cloud-native operating model to a global network foundation trusted by the world's largest enterprises.
**Requirements**
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related discipline (Master's degree preferred)
- 12+ years of software engineering experience with significant focus on networking and systems software
- Expert proficiency in C
- Deep understanding of Linux operating systems, networking subsystems, and kernel internals
- Extensive systems programming experience in performance-sensitive environments
- Strong expertise in TCP/IP networking fundamentals and protocols
- Hands-on experience developing high-performance Forwarding Plane or packet-processing software
- Deep knowledge of: NAT, stateful connection tracking, IPsec, routing and forwarding technologies, firewall and policy enforcement systems, and network security concepts
- Experience with DPDK, VPP, or similar high-performance packet-processing frameworks
- Proven experience analyzing and optimizing software for performance, scalability, and reliability
- Demonstrated technical leadership and mentoring experience
**Preferred Qualifications**
- Experience building cloud networking platforms in AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud
- Knowledge of SD-WAN, SASE, ZTNA, and cloud security architectures
- Experience with VPP/DPDK and kernel bypass technologies
- Advanced Linux networking frameworks
- Experience contributing to open-source networking projects
- Strong background in distributed systems and highly available networking services
- Experience designing and operating multi-tenant cloud networking platforms
