Sr Director, Software Engineer

At NetApp, our High Achievement Principles shape how we work: we innovate to elevate, drive results, and excel as a team. We have a history of helping customers turn challenges into business opportunities. That’s because we bring new thinking to age-old problems, like how to use data most effectively in the most efficient possible way.

As an Engineer with NetApp, you’ll have the opportunity to work with modern cloud and container orchestration technologies in a production setting. You’ll play an important role in scaling systems sustainably through automation and evolving them by pushing for changes to improve reliability and velocity.

Success profile

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Ready to be an engineer at NetApp? Explore the traits that can help you thrive.

• Analytical
• Adaptable
• Communicator
• Detail-oriented
• Quick-thinking
• Problem solver

Responsibilities

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San Jose, California, United States

Job category

Engineering Job ID: 137064-en_US

Own Every Moment at NetApp

At NetApp, your ideas power innovation. We lead in intelligent data infrastructure—delivering unified storage, integrated data services, and solutions that help organizations unlock the full potential of their data, from AI to multicloud.

Ready to innovate and contribute to our path to $10B? Here, you'll collaborate with passionate teams, tackle real-world challenges, and see your impact in how customers transform and grow. If you're ready to bring curiosity, creativity, and drive to every moment, NetApp is where your journey begins.

Join teams that innovate to elevate, drive results, and excel together across every function.

Job Summary

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About DataPelago and NetApp

DataPelago is building a new data-processing platform applying accelerated computing for the AI era. Its technology is designed to accelerate analytics and AI workloads by bringing high-performance compute closer to enterprise data.

Following its acquisition by NetApp, DataPelago combines the ownership, pace, and influence of an early-stage company with NetApp's global customer reach, resources, and enterprise relationships. DataPelago will continue operating with a focused, startup-style model while it builds a scalable business and go-to-market motion.

This is a zero-to-one environment. We are looking for builders who are energized by ambiguity, move quickly, work directly with customers, and take ownership beyond traditional role boundaries. The strongest candidates will ideally bring experience from both early-stage companies and established organizations.

They will know how to build with speed while also creating the processes, partnerships, and operating discipline needed to scale successfully within a larger enterprise.

The Senior Director of Engineering will build and lead the engineering organization responsible for defining, building, and delivering complex data and AI infrastructure software. This is a highly technical leadership role with direct accountability for engineering execution, product quality, and performance.

The leader will bring the technical depth to engage in architecture and critical design decisions, diagnose complex systems problems, and guide senior engineers, while also building a strong team and establishing clear ownership and predictable execution. They will work closely with principal architects, product management, and customer-facing teams.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on technical leader at heart and an effective organizational builder: equally comfortable debating technical trade-offs, with contemporary expertise in AI infrastructure hardware, software frameworks, AI Agent frameworks, protocols, and developing a high-performing engineering team.

Job Requirements

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• Proven record of designing and delivering sophisticated production software, with a strong foundation as a hands-on engineer, systems architect, or technical leader.
• Deep technical knowledge of hardware-software co-design, distributed systems, performance engineering, and large-scale data processing.
• Expertise in GPU computing and acceleration, including GPU architecture, parallel execution, memory and bandwidth trade-offs, profiling, and CUDA or comparable GPU software stacks.
• Experience with AI model processing frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow.
• Experience with modern data and AI ecosystems, including vector processing and search and graph technologies.
• Familiarity with other AI accelerators like TPU, IPU, LPU, etc.
• Track record of improving engineering delivery, software quality, operational reliability, and performance in complex products or platforms.
• Ability to navigate tough architectural decisions and development choices, while delegating effectively and empowering strong engineers and managers.
• Strong communication, integrity, urgency, and ownership; ability to thrive in a fast-moving, evolving organization.
• Experience with storage/data platforms, AI infrastructure, or large-scale ML systems is a plus.
• Experience in both an entrepreneurial engineering environment and a scaled enterprise organization is preferred.

What You'll Do

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• Own end-to-end engineering delivery, from design through implementation, testing, and production reliability.
• Provide deep technical leadership, design reviews, and guidance on performance, scalability, security, and system tradeoffs, including accelerated computing where relevant; partner with senior architects to turn technical direction into robust products.
• Translate product priorities and customer commitments into realistic engineering plans with clear owners, milestones, dependencies, quality gates, and measurable outcomes.
• Build a disciplined execution culture with high engineering velocity, transparent progress, timely decisions, and accountability for commitments.
• Recruit, coach, and retain exceptional engineers and engineering leaders; define team structures, clarify decision rights, develop successors, and raise the technical bar.
• Balance near-term enterprise customer needs with maintainable architecture, technical debt reduction, platform investments, and sustainable innovation.
• Partner with product management, architecture, Solution Architects, and customer-facing teams to validate requirements and convert field feedback into actionable engineering priorities.

Compensation

The target salary range for this position is 266,050 - 396,000 USD. The salary offered will be determined by the candidate's location, qualifications, experience, and education and may be outside of this range. Final compensation packages are competitive and in line with industry standards, reflecting a variety of factors, and include a comprehensive benefits package.

This may cover Health Insurance, Life Insurance, Retirement or Pension Plans, Paid Time Off, various Leave options, Performance-Based Incentives, employee stock purchase plan, and/or restricted stocks (RSU’s), with all offerings subject to regional variations and governed by local laws, regulations, and company policies.

Benefits may vary by country and region, and further details will be provided as part of the recruitment process.

At NetApp, we embrace a hybrid working environment designed to strengthen connection, collaboration, and culture for all employees. This means that most roles will have some level of in-office and/or in-person expectations, which will be shared during the recruitment process.

Equal Opportunity

Employer:

NetApp is firmly committed to Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) and to compliance with all federal, state and local laws that prohibit employment discrimination based on age, race, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability or genetic information, pregnancy, protected veteran status, and any other protected classification.

Why You'll Thrive at NetApp

At NetApp, you won't wait for the perfect moment—you'll make it. The early planning, the extra thought, the bold idea that turns good into great: That's how our people operate and how we continue to push the boundaries of data infrastructure.

NetApp is the trusted partner for organizations transforming data into opportunity. As the only enterprise-grade storage service natively embedded in Google Cloud, AWS, and Microsoft Azure, we empower customers to run everything from traditional workloads to enterprise AI with unmatched performance, resilience, and security.

Our culture

We celebrate mold breakers, bold thinkers, and problem solvers. We reward initiative, impact, and ownership. We provide flexibility so you can balance professional ambition with your personal life.

Here, differences are not just welcomed—they drive everything we do.

If you're ready to innovate, rise to the challenge, and own every moment - make your next move your best one. Apply now.

Submitting an Application

To ensure a streamlined and fair hiring process for all candidates, our team only reviews applications submitted through our company website. This practice allows us to track, assess, and respond to applicants efficiently. Emailing our employees, recruiters, or Human Resources personnel directly will not influence your application.

AI Disclosure

For select roles, some stages of our hiring process may use artificial intelligence tools to help evaluate applications and candidate selection. These tools support—rather than replace—human decision-making.

Our values --------------

Put the customer at the center. Care for each other and our communities. Think and act like owners.

Build belonging every day. Embrace a growth mindset.

Benefits ------------

Volunteer time off

40 hours of paid volunteer time each year.

Well-being

Employee Assistance Program, fitness, and mental health resources to help employees be their best.

Time away

Paid time off for vacation and to recharge.