Senior Hardware Engineer

Senior Hardware Engineer

Company:
Akamai Technologies

Join our Server Team to help build the next generation of cloud server architecture. As a Senior Hardware Engineer you will focus on the Smart

NIC/DPU software and hardware that underpins our compute and GPU servers.

• Driving DPU hardware and software integration into Akamai compute and GPU server platforms, including PCIe, networking, storage, and manageability interfaces.
• Planning and executing validation for DPU platforms, including functional, performance, interoperability, stress, and reliability testing for data‑center scale use cases.
• Implementing and validating networking and offload features such as RDMA/RoCE, L2/L3/L4 Ethernet/IP forwarding, SR‑IOV/virtio‑net/vDPA, overlay networks, and congestion control behaviors.
• Developing automation, scripts, and test tooling to exercise DPUs, collect telemetry at scale, and turn results into requirements.
• Collaborating closely with cross‑functional teams to translate workload and SLO requirements into software and hardware configurations and test plans.
• Working with vendors to evaluate new DPU generations, firmware and feature updates, and trade‑offs between performance, efficiency, supply continuity, and TCO.

• 8+ years of relevant engineering experience and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering or a related field.
• Experience with data‑center Smart
  
  NICs or DPUs, integration into x86/ARM servers, and familiarity with PCIe, SR‑IOV, and virtualization concepts.
• Solid understanding of networking fundamentals and familiarity with VXLAN, BGP, RDMA/RoCE, congestion control, and load balancing in large‑scale data centers.
• Experience with platform validation, PCIe/NVMe and networking qualification, and system‑level stress testing.
• Linux skills and proficiency with scripting languages such as Python and Bash for automation and data analysis.
• Comfortable working across HW/FW/SW boundaries, collaborating with teams to debug issues in the data path, control plane, and management stack.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to describe problems and solutions to both technical and non‑technical audiences.

• Health, vision, dental, and other medical benefits.
• Financial benefits including 401(k) match and Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP).
• Family and time‑off benefits such as parental leave, vacation, sick time, and flexible scheduling.

Required presence in the Cambridge office 5 days a week.

Akamai Technologies is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race/ethnicity, protected veteran status, disability, or other protected group status.

Base salary for US candidates ranges from $126,100 to $261,900 per year, based on experience, skills, certification, and location. Compensation may also include incentive bonuses, equity awards, and ESPP. Eligibility requirements apply.