Staff Engineer, Network Infrastructure

We need to output HTML fragment with sections: About the role, Responsibilities, Requirements, Qualifications, Skills, Benefits, Pay, Schedule. Only include sections that have real specific content. We need to parse the posting. We have: - Intro paragraph: "Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean..." That's generic marketing; maybe we can include as part of About the role? The instruction: "Do NOT repeat the job title as a heading (the page already shows it) and do NOT put Job ID / requisition numbers as headings — fold minor metadata into a short

or drop it." Also "Remove cookie/navigation/legal/EEO/equal-opportunity/scam-warning boilerplate, duplicated lines, and application instructions." So we need to strip EEO etc. We need to preserve all substantive information. Let's identify sections: - About The Role: after intro, there is "About The Role DigitalOcean is looking for a Staff Software Engineer..." That's a paragraph describing role. So we can have

About the Role

with

containing that description. - What You'll Be Doing: list of responsibilities. So we can have

Responsibilities

with

• items. - What We're Looking For: list of requirements/qualifications. Could be split into Requirements and Qualifications? The instruction says we can have sections Requirements, Qualifications, Skills. We need to decide based on content. The "What We're Looking For" includes: Significant experience designing and building production software systems at scale; Strong software engineering fundamentals; Strong programming experience; Experience building automation, orchestration, or infrastructure platforms; Strong understanding of networking; Experience working with network devices; Experience designing systems that operate safely; Ability to understand complex infrastructure problems; Strong technical writing skills; Ability to take ambiguous problems; Strong communication skills; Demonstrated ability to operate as a technical leader; Experience in one or more of the following is particularly valuable: (list of DPU etc). This seems like qualifications/requirements/skills. We could put them under Requirements (maybe combine). But we also have "At The Staff Level, You Will Be Expected To" which is more about expectations/leadership. Could be Qualifications? Or maybe "Skills". Let's parse. We have sections: - "At The Staff Level, You Will Be Expected To" list: Own technical direction; Define software architecture; Identify systemic infrastructure problems; Make architectural decisions; Lead ambiguous high-impact initiatives; Own technical documentation and RFC process; Leverage AI tooling; Create leverage; Anticipate operational challenges; Evaluate emerging hardware; Raise technical capabilities; Build strong partnerships. That seems like expectations/qualifications for staff level. Could be under "Qualifications" or "Responsibilities"? It's more about what you'll be expected to do, similar to responsibilities but at a higher level. Could be placed under "Responsibilities" as well, but we already have responsibilities list. Might be better to split: Responsibilities (day-to-day tasks) and Qualifications (expected level). However instruction: "Prefer a few substantive sections over many thin ones." So we might combine similar content. We also have "Nice To Have" list: experience building software for hyperscale, production experience with DPUs, etc. That could be under "Skills" or "Qualifications" as nice-to-have. We have "Why DigitalOcean" paragraph about mission, etc. Could be part of "About the Role" or separate? Might be considered boilerplate? It's descriptive of company; maybe we can keep as part of About the Role or separate section like "About DigitalOcean". But instruction: only include sections when posting has real specific content. "Why DigitalOcean" is specific content about company culture, benefits, etc. Could be placed under "Benefits"? Actually there is a separate "Compensation Range" and "Why You’ll Like Working for DigitalOcean" which includes benefits, career development, well-being, rewards. That's substantive. So we should create a Benefits section from that. We also have "Compensation Range $191,200 - $239,000This is a hybrid role JR: 2026-8150". That's pay and schedule (hybrid). So we need Pay and Schedule sections if posting actually states them. It does state compensation range and hybrid role. So we need Pay section with that range, and Schedule section indicating hybrid. We must not include filler like "commensurate with experience". Not present. We must not include job ID as heading; we can fold minor metadata into a short

  or drop it. The JR: 2026-8150 is a requisition number; we can drop it or put in a short p. We must remove EEO boilerplate etc. At the end there is "DigitalOcean is an equal-opportunity employer..." and "Application Limit: You may apply to a maximum of 3 positions..." That's boilerplate; remove. Now we need to output only HTML fragment, no /, no markdown fences. Let's structure:

  About the Role

  DigitalOcean is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to help design and build the next generation of software powering our global network infrastructure. This role sits at the intersection of software engineering, networking, distributed systems, and hardware acceleration. You will build the automation, orchestration, and infrastructure software that enables DigitalOcean to scale its network reliably while exploring new architectures using Data Processing Units (DPUs), SmartNICs, and programmable network infrastructure. You will work closely with network, infrastructure, and hardware engineering teams to turn complex networking and infrastructure requirements into scalable software. This includes everything from network provisioning and device lifecycle management to telemetry, automated remediation, and software-driven network and DPU orchestration. As a Staff Engineer, you will have impact beyond your own code. You will establish technical direction, drive architectural decisions, identify opportunities to move functionality into software and hardware accelerators, and help define how DigitalOcean's infrastructure evolves over the coming years. A key part of the role is the ability to turn ambiguous technical problems into clear proposals and executable plans. You will be expected to author RFCs, architecture and design documents, technical proposals, and other project documentation needed to establish alignment and drive complex initiatives from concept through implementation.

  Then Responsibilities:

  Responsibilities

  • Design and build network automation and orchestration systems that enable reliable deployment and operation of DigitalOcean's global network infrastructure.
  • Develop software for network provisioning, configuration management, device lifecycle management, validation, monitoring, and automated remediation.
  • Design and build software systems that integrate with DPUs, SmartNICs, and programmable network infrastructure.
  • Develop automation supporting large-scale datacenter and Point of Presence deployments, including new hardware, network fabrics, routing infrastructure, and vendor integrations.
  • Build systems that abstract differences across network vendors, and hardware implementations while maintaining strong operational safety and reliability.
  • Build tools that help engineers diagnose network and infrastructure issues and automate common operational workflows.
  • Identify manual, repetitive, or error-prone infrastructure operations and turn them into scalable software solutions.
  • Partner closely with network engineers and infrastructure architects to translate complex networking and hardware requirements into maintainable software architectures.
  • Establish engineering standards and best practices for infrastructure software development, testing, observability, and operational readiness.
  • Lead projects from early technical design through implementation, deployment, and long-term operation.
  • Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership across the broader engineering organization.
  Now Qualifications/Requirements/Skills. We have "What We're Looking For" and "At The Staff Level, You Will Be Expected To" and "Nice To Have". Could combine into a single section "Qualifications" with sublists? But we need to use
  • for any list of duties/requirements/benefits. We could have multiple
    under same heading? Probably okay. We could have:

    Qualifications

    Significant experience designing and building production software systems at scale.

    • Strong software engineering fundamentals, including distributed systems, API design, concurrency, testing, observability, and system reliability.
    • Strong programming experience in one or more languages such as Go, Python, or C++.
    • Experience building automation, orchestration, or infrastructure platforms.
    • Strong understanding of networking, including TCP/IP, BGP, EVPN/VXLAN, VLANs, routing, switching, and network telemetry.
    • Experience working with network devices, network automation frameworks, APIs, or vendor SDKs.
    • Experience designing systems that operate safely in highly available, production environments.
    • Ability to understand complex infrastructure problems and simplify them into scalable software architectures.
    • Strong technical writing skills, with demonstrated ability to produce RFCs, architecture/design documents, technical proposals, project plans, and other documentation required to drive complex engineering projects.
    • Ability to take ambiguous problems and turn them into clear technical proposals, documented requirements, architectural decisions, and actionable implementation plans.
    • Strong communication skills and the ability to influence technical decisions across engineering teams.
    • Demonstrated ability to operate as a technical leader without relying on organizational authority.
    Then maybe another subsection for "Preferred/Nice to Have":

    Preferred Qualifications

    • Experience building software for hyperscale or cloud infrastructure.
    • Production experience with DPUs, SmartNICs, or IPUs.
    • Experience with DPU-based network, storage, security, or virtualization offload.
    • Experience with SONiC or other disaggregated networking platforms.
    • Experience working with white-box networking and multiple network vendors.
    • Experience building or operating 400G+ datacenter networks.
    • Experience with OpenConfig, gNMI, NETCONF, YANG, or similar network management technologies.
    • Experience with streaming telemetry and large-scale network observability.
    • Experience building automated network validation, testing, or remediation systems.
    • Experience with Kubernetes and cloud-native infrastructure.
    • Experience with eBPF, P4, programmable data planes, or hardware-accelerated networking.
    • Experience contributing to or leading open-source infrastructure projects.
    But we have also "At The Staff Level, You Will Be Expected To" which could be considered part of Qualifications (expectations). Could incorporate into Qualifications as additional bullet points. Alternatively we could have a section "Expectations" but instruction says prefer few sections. Maybe we merge "What We're Looking For" and "At The Staff Level..." into Qualifications. Let's combine: after the bullet list of "What We're Looking For", we add more bullets from "At The Staff Level..." and maybe also include the "Nice To Have" as separate "Preferred Qualifications". That seems reasonable. Thus Qualifications section will have a paragraph intro then a big ul list covering both core expectations and staff-level expectations. Then a separate Preferred Qualifications section. Now Benefits: from "Why DigitalOcean" and "Why You’ll Like Working for DigitalOcean". Let's extract substantive benefits: - Opportunity to solve challenging infrastructure problems at significant scale while helping build technology that makes cloud infrastructure simpler and more accessible. - Network Infrastructure Engineering organization plays foundational role. - Opportunity to shape how networking and infrastructure software interacts with underlying hardware. - Ability to move beyond traditional host-based networking toward programmable and hardware-accelerated infrastructure architecture while maintaining simplicity, reliability, operational excellence. - Opportunity to influence evolution from architecture through implementation—identifying opportunities, evaluating technologies, writing RFCs and technical proposals, aligning engineering teams, delivering production systems at scale. - Innovate with purpose; cutting-edge technology company with upward trajectory; proud to simplify cloud and AI so builders can spend more