Principal Software Engineer (Networking)

Quick Facts

• Role: Principal Software Engineer (Networking)

Description

Own and architect the multi-site networking for AKS Flex and Unbounded so Kubernetes pods and nodes behave as part of one cluster across sites and networks. You will design secure encrypted connectivity, tunneling and routing mechanisms (including BGP and eBPF dataplanes), and optimize networking performance and reliability for global deployments. You will also integrate high-performance fabrics for distributed GPU/AI workloads and contribute to production operations.

Responsibilities

• Own networking architecture for flex nodes and Unbounded; help define the multi-year AKS Flex technical roadmap with product and engineering leadership.

• Lead cross-organization design across AKS, Azure networking, compute, and identity.

• Build multi-site networking with encrypted overlays (e.g., WireGuard), tunneling (GENEVE, VXLAN, IPIP), direct L3 routing, BGP, and eBPF dataplanes.

• Design networking for nodes far from the control plane, addressing high/variable latency, intermittent connectivity, partitions, NAT traversal, and secure API server communication.

• Drive networking dataplane and control-plane performance, scale, and reliability (throughput, latency, encryption overhead, route/policy scale).

• Integrate InfiniBand and RDMA fabrics for distributed AI training/inference across heterogeneous and remote hardware.

• Participate in production operations and on-call; turn operational learnings into durable engineering improvements.

• Partner across AKS and Azure teams to deliver secure, compliant, resilient infrastructure.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science (or related technical field) AND 6+ years of technical engineering experience with coding in languages including Go, Rust, C, C++, C#, Java, or Python (or equivalent experience).

• Ability to meet security screening requirements, including passing the Microsoft Cloud Background Check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.

• Experience with Linux/Unix-like environments.

• Experience leading architecture/design/delivery of large-scale networking or distributed systems.

• Deep networking knowledge across data center, overlay, and high-performance fabrics (e.g., InfiniBand, RDMA, MRC, ESUN, VXLAN, GENEVE, WireGuard, BGP, eBPF/Cilium).

• Deep understanding of the Linux networking stack: routing, netfilter/nftables, XDP, and kernel networking performance.

• Experience with Containers/Kubernetes or cloud-native tech, including building controllers and CRDs.

Benefits

• Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation.

• Base pay range (US): USD $142,800–$274,800 per year; Bay Area and NYC metro ranges: USD $188,000–$304,200 per year.