Lead Principal Systems Software Engineer

About the Role

Defines architecture for large-scale systems software, firmware integration, and fleet automation that impacts multiple teams or products. Anticipates platform risks and cross-domain failure modes; builds frameworks for validation, conformance, and rapid incident mitigation. Influences silicon/board/firmware roadmaps to optimize for reliability, performance, and cost at hyperscale. Champions engineering excellence in coding standards, threat modeling, resource management, concurrency, and fault isolation. Leads multi-quarter initiatives, from prototype to production hardening, with measurable improvements in availability and efficiency.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to architectural direction for system software and management paradigms across server, storage, networking, and GPU subsystems, ensuring scalability, reliability, and efficiency.
• Drive the definition and evolution of hardware provisioning solutions for next-generation hardware platforms, leading cross-functional efforts spanning engineering, operations, and global data centers.
• Lead the integration of system firmware with emerging hardware, collaborating with silicon, board, and firmware teams to ensure seamless bring-up and sustained operability.
• Partner with internal and external engineering, security, and vendor teams to deliver continuous improvements in performance, security, and diagnosability of system platforms and provisioning workflows.
• Lead or oversee the analysis of high-impact hardware provisioning and systems software failures, developing systemic engineering and process improvements for large-scale cloud fleets.
• Mentor engineers across teams, championing best practices in systems integration, reliability, and operational excellence.
• Lead project initiatives to design software solutions and identify and analyze requirements; write and define foundational code for new projects or prototypes.
• Adhere to and improve execution of all phases of the software development lifecycle; coach engineers to drive improvements.
• Act as a subject matter expert to develop and guide new software features and enhancements, ensuring accessibility and documenting software design and code.
• Lead process, architecture, and code reviews across projects to drive improvements.
• Utilize modern technologies to conduct debugging and troubleshooting to identify and fix highly complex software issues.
• Lead strategic initiatives to optimize software testing, quality assurance, error logging, monitoring, and observability for effective debugging.
• Encourage innovation and research to optimize performance across products and domains.
• Resolve and troubleshoot highly complex issues related to API functionality and integration; implement innovative API versioning, lifecycle, and interoperability strategies.
• Define project or design scope; review, influence, and approve scope and design recommendations.
• Provide technical guidance, domain expertise, and coaching in software architecture decisions and best practices.
• Conduct highly complex periodic reviews and ensure adherence to architectural standards.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to align software architecture with business and customer goals.
• Implement performance optimization and scalability strategies in software design.
• Conduct regular technology research and evaluation for architectural enhancements.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to understand customer issues, root causes, and mitigation strategies.
• Provide expert technical guidance and support to customers regarding customer-reported issues.
• Advocate for customers' interests and suggest product enhancements based on feedback.
• Guide implementation of strategic solutions for customer issue and defect handling.
• Investigate and troubleshoot complex product maintenance issues to ensure customer agreement on solutions.
• Collaborate with security and leadership teams to establish and improve development practices and coding standards.
• Participate in peer review processes and provide technical leadership to ensure quality and adherence to acceptance criteria.
• Implement secure software development practices to prevent security vulnerabilities.
• Lead project initiatives for periodic maintenance, testing, and upgrading of systems.
• Drive improvements, automation, testing, and debugging to ensure system availability, health, and reliability.
• Manage and provide direction on timelines, deliverables, and budgets for high-impact projects.
• Anticipate and plan for shifts in resources or timelines based on changing business priorities.
• Influence cross-functional leaders and external stakeholders to gain alignment on strategic objectives.
• Foster partnerships with key business leaders, stakeholders, and customers.
• Lead specialized problem-solving efforts and serve as an escalation point for complex issues.
• Guide others to leverage innovative data-driven techniques for addressing ambiguous or novel issues.
• Leverage deep industry knowledge to serve as a thought leader within the organization.
• Contribute to the advancement of the field through thought leadership (e.g., conference presentations, white papers).
• Maintain expertise in relevant areas by monitoring emerging trends and technologies.
• Champion continuous learning and knowledge sharing across teams.
• Develop innovative solutions to increase efficiency and effectiveness of processes and workflows.
• Evaluate effectiveness of updated approaches and methods for continuous improvement.
• Design and develop metrics to measure success of improvement initiatives.
• Serve as a subject matter expert regarding talent needs and organizational talent strategy.
• Impart leadership and expert knowledge throughout the talent development pipeline, including candidate interviews and hiring decisions.

Qualifications

Certain U.S.-based or U.S. customer/client-facing roles may require compliance with applicable requirements, such as immunization, occupational health mandates, and/or drug testing.

Pay

Hiring range in USD from: $146,300 - $306,400 per year. May be eligible for bonus, equity, and compensation deferral.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including expert medical opinion
• Short-term and long-term disability insurance
• Life insurance and AD&D
• Supplemental life insurance (Employee/Spouse/Child)
• Health care and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Pre-tax commuter and parking benefits
• 401(k) Savings and Investment Plan with company match
• Flexible Vacation for salaried employees (13 days annually for the first three years, 18 days annually thereafter; accrual prorated for part-time employees working 20-34 hours per week)
• 11 paid holidays
• Paid sick leave: 72 hours upon date of hire, refreshes each calendar year, with a maximum cap of 112 hours
• Paid parental leave
• Adoption assistance
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Financial planning and group legal services
• Voluntary benefits including auto, homeowner, and pet insurance