Network Software Engineer HAL Job Austin area,Texas USA,Software Development

Position: Network Software Engineer - (HAL)
Role & responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

SAI & HAL Development:
Design, implement, and extend the Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) and Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) to expose hardware capabilities to the SONiC control plane (Syncd, Orchagent).
ASIC SDK Integration:
Act as the primary software expert for integrating, upgrading, and troubleshooting silicon vendor SDKs (e.g., Broadcom SDKLT/OFA, Marvell, etc.) into our networking software stack.
Feature Enablement:
Implement advanced forwarding and hardware-accelerated network features (such as L2/L3 routing, ACLs, QoS, VxLAN, and telemetry) at the driver and abstraction layers.
Performance Optimization:
Profile and debug silicon-level software issues, resolving complex pipeline bottlenecks, packet drops, and memory leaks between the SDK and system software.
Community Co-existence:
Collaborate with the open-source SONiC community and semiconductor vendors to upstream extensions, implement new SAI APIs, and resolve architectural issues.
Cross-Functional Execution:
Work closely with on-site hardware engineering, platform validation, and QA teams in San Jose to bring up new hardware platforms from scratch.

Required Qualifications & Criteria

ASIC SDK

Experience:

6+ years of experience working directly with low-level networking ASIC SDKs (e.g., Broadcom, Marvell/Cavium, Barefoot/Intel).
SAI & HAL Mastery:
Proven, hands-on experience developing or extending the Switch Abstraction Interface (SAI) or custom Hardware Abstraction Layers (HAL).
Advanced Systems Programming:
Expert-level proficiency in C and C++ within a Linux development environment.
Network OS Architecture:
Deep understanding of data-plane forwarding architectures, open networking software, and specifically how SONiC/SAI architectures manage underlying silicon states.
Low-Level Debugging:
Mastery of debugging tools such as GDB, Valgrind, Wireshark, and hardware network testers (e.g., Ixia, Spirent).
L2/L3 Networking Protocols:
Strong conceptual and implementation knowledge of switching/routing mechanics (BGP, ECMP, EVPN, VLANs, LACP).

Preferred Qualifications (Nice to Have)

Direct experience with the inner workings of SONiC daemons like syncd, orchagent, and Redis database states.
Experience with Linux kernel network stack development or custom kernel drivers.
Active contribution or working knowledge within open hardware/software forums (OCP, Linux Foundation).