Principal Software Engineer, Forwarding Plane

About the Role Alkira, a Lumen company, is seeking a Principal Software Engineer, Forwarding Plane to lead the architecture, design, and evolution of our next-generation cloud networking Forwarding Plane platform. This is a highly visible technical leadership role responsible for building and scaling the core packet-processing infrastructure that powers Alkira's cloud networking and security services. You will own critical Forwarding Plane technologies including flow /session management, NAT, policy enforcement, secure cloud connectivity, and traffic optimization.

As a hands-on technical leader, you will drive architectural decisions, develop high-performance networking software, and mentor engineering teams while helping define the future of cloud networking infrastructure. The ideal candidate combines deep expertise in systems programming, deep knowledge in VPP/DPDK and other kernel bypass technologies, cloud networking, Linux internals, and high-performance packet processing with a passion for solving complex distributed systems challenges.

Location:

This position is a hybrid role and requires onsite collaboration with the team at our San Jose, CA office 2 - 3 times during the week

What You'll Do Platform Architecture & Ownership Own the architecture, design, implementation, and long-term technical roadmap of Alkira's core Forwarding Plane platform. Define scalable and resilient networking architectures supporting enterprise-grade cloud networking and security services. Drive technical strategy for Forwarding Plane reliability, scalability, observability, and maintainability. Establish engineering standards and best practices across Forwarding Plane development effort High-Performance Networking Development Design and develop high-performance packet-processing systems and networking services.

Build and enhance Forwarding Plane components including:  Flow/Session management Network Address Translation (NAT) Policy enforcement Traffic steering and load balancing IPsec and secure tunnel processing Cloud connectivity services Develop performance-critical software in C for Linux-based environments. Optimize packet-processing pipelines for throughput, latency, and resource efficiency. Expertise in cloud networking across AWS, Azure, GCP and other cloud service providers Performance Engineering Drive end-to-end performance optimization across the networking stack.

Leverage modern packet-processing frameworks such as DPDK and VPP. Evaluate and integrate emerging technologies including:  Hardware acceleration Kernel bypass technologies Cloud-native networking innovations Perform deep performance analysis, profiling, debugging, and tuning of production systems. Technical Leadership Lead architecture reviews and drive technical decision-making across teams. Mentor senior and staff-level engineers on networking and systems design. Partner with product management, platform engineering, and security teams to deliver strategic initiatives.

Influence technology direction and guide the adoption of networking best practices across the organization.

Required Qualifications Bachelor's degree in computer science, Computer Engineering, or related discipline;
Master's degree preferred. 12+ years of software engineering experience with significant focus on networking and systems software. Expert proficiency in

C. Deep understanding of Linux operating systems, networking subsystems, and kernel internals. Extensive systems programming experience in performance-sensitive environments. Strong expertise in TCP/IP networking fundamentals and protocols. Hands-on experience developing high-performance Forwarding Planeor packet-processing software. Deep knowledge of: NAT Stateful connection tracking IPsec Routing and forwarding technologies Firewall and policy enforcement systems Network security concepts

Experience with DPDK, VPP, or similar high-performance packet-processing frameworks. Proven experience analyzing and optimizing software for performance, scalability, and reliability. Demonstrated technical leadership and mentoring experience.

Preferred Qualifications Experience building cloud networking platforms in AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. Knowledge of SD-WAN, SASE, ZTNA, and cloud security architectures.

Experience with VPP/DPDK, kernel bypass technologies. Advanced Linux networking frameworks. Experience contributing to open-source networking projects. Strong background in distributed systems and highly available networking services.…