Senior Staff Engineer, Software Defined Dataplane

About the role

Equinix is the world’s digital infrastructure company, operating 280+ data centers across the globe and providing interconnections to all the key clouds and networks. Much of the internet flows through our rapid interconnected network and data centers. Equinix Internet Exchange is the world's largest Internet Exchange, while Equinix Fabric has the largest market share in Software Defined Interconnection.

Our software defined dataplane engineering team is designing new network service offerings through network-adjacent virtualized compute on our global network, supporting Equinix's Digital Interconnection services. We're looking for a Senior Staff Software Engineer to build easy-to-operate, reliable, and high-performing applications and networking software for our next-generation networking platform.

As a senior staff engineer, you’ll lead the development of highly scalable and reliable systems, participate in software design and operationalization, and drive critical initiatives. You will focus on building networking services through network-adjacent virtualized compute platforms to deliver network primitives for future cloud-native network software. This role offers the opportunity to make a tangible impact on the future-state technology stack of Equinix’s global networks and infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Develop software services to extend Equinix’s networking services through a network-adjacent virtualized compute platform.
• Design and manage networking software services in highly concurrent, scalable, distributed transactional systems.
• Align technical design of software systems with business outcomes to meet customer SLAs.
• Lead the team in setting up CI/CD pipelines with solid unit and integration tests for rapid, confident deployment.
• Develop an observability strategy for software services.
• Improve system performance and scale using profiling tools and stress testing.
• Identify technical debt and drive continual improvement of software quality.
• Contribute to next-generation networking proof-of-concept projects in collaboration with cross-functional teams.
• Partner with support and operations teams to ensure proper operationalization of software in Production.
• Drive a culture of innovation, excellence, and collaboration across business functions.
• Participate in designing and improving incident management processes and troubleshooting strategies.
• Participate in an on-call rotation once software is in Production.

Qualifications

• 7-10 years of experience in software development, preferably building and operating highly reliable distributed systems.
• Bachelor’s/Master's degree in computer science or relevant engineering field, or equivalent industry experience.
• Experience building software-defined multi-tenant networking platforms at scale using cloud-native technologies.
• Deep understanding of L2/L3 networking protocols and concepts (BGP, EVP-LAN, IPSEC, etc.).
• Experience with network management protocols: gRPC, Netconf.
• Experience with containerization and orchestration technologies: Docker, Kubernetes, or other open-source alternatives.
• Experience with public cloud (AWS, GCP, Azure) services and technologies.
• Expertise in automating deployments of applications into Kubernetes on x86 deployments.
• Experience with open-source and networking technologies, ecosystems, and industry forums (e.g., Linux Foundation).
• Good understanding of the application development stack.
• Substantive track record with Golang programming language.
• Experience leading and mentoring a team of developers to ensure timely delivery of high-quality software.
• Excellent writing and verbal communication skills for engineering and executive audiences.

Pay

The targeted pay range for this position varies by location:

• United States - Dallas Infomart Office (DAI): $136,000 - $204,000 USD / Annual
• United States - Redwood City Office (GHQ): $163,000 - $245,000 USD / Annual
• United States - Tampa Office (TAO): $136,000 - $204,000 USD / Annual
• United States - New York City Office (NYO1): $150,000 - $224,000 USD / Annual
• Canada - Toronto Office (TRO): $131,000 - $181,000 CAD / Annual

Individual pay is based on job-related skills, experience, and relevant education and/or training. The range reflects base pay only and does not include bonus, equity, or benefits. Employees are eligible for bonus, and equity may be offered depending on the position.

Benefits

Equinix offers competitive, inclusive, and sustainable benefits aligned with our core values.

United States

• Insurance: Health, life, disability, and voluntary plans for you and eligible family members.
• Retirement: Contribution to a retirement plan to help secure your financial future.
• Paid Time Off (PTO) and Paid Holidays: Accrued PTO and paid holidays for rest and recharge.
• Employee Assistance Program: Available to all employees.

Canada

• Insurance: Healthcare coverage complementing provincial healthcare, along with life, disability, and optional benefit plans.
• Retirement: Enrollment in Equinix-sponsored retirement or savings plans (DCPP, Group RRSP, TSFA).
• Vacation and Paid Holidays: Vacation and personal time, along with paid holidays.

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits. Benefits are subject to change.