Enterprise Storage Architect

This is an incredible opportunity to be part of a company that has been at the forefront of AI and high-performance data storage innovation for over two decades. DataDirect Networks (DDN) is a global market leader renowned for powering many of the world's most demanding AI data centers, in industries ranging from life sciences and healthcare to financial services, autonomous cars, Government, academia, research and manufacturing.

"DDN's A3I solutions are transforming the landscape of AI infrastructure." – IDC 

“The real differentiator is DDN. I never hesitate to recommend DDN. DDN is the de facto name for AI Storage in high performance environments” - Marc Hamilton, VP, Solutions Architecture & Engineering | NVIDIA 

DDN is the global leader in AI and multi-cloud data management at scale. Our cutting-edge data intelligence platform is designed to accelerate AI workloads, enabling organizations to extract maximum value from their data. With a proven track record of performance, reliability, and scalability, DDN empowers businesses to tackle the most challenging AI and data-intensive workloads with confidence. 

Our success is driven by our unwavering commitment to innovation, customer-centricity, and a team of passionate professionals who bring their expertise and dedication to every project. This is a chance to make a significant impact at a company that is shaping the future of AI and data management. 

Our commitment to innovation, customer success, and market leadership makes this an exciting and rewarding role for a driven professional looking to make a lasting impact in the world of AI and data storage. 

DDN is currently seeking an Enterprise Storage Software Architect to design new software features and enhance existing code for our line of At Scale and Enterprise Storage Products.

 The ideal candidate will have experience in storage product engineering, including depth in storage interconnects and protocols (Ethernet, IB, Fibre Channel, NFS, SMB, S3, iSCSI), system architecture, storage internals, performance modeling, storage management paradigms and virtualization.  The candidate must have exceptional leadership capabilities, strong software design and development skills and demonstrate expert-level coding skills in C, C++ and application of object-oriented programming concepts. Experience in agile development and use of test automation/DevOps is highly desirable.  The candidate will be responsible for software design at all levels of the software stack, leading in quality both by example and through peer review.  The candidate will be expected to work closely with other team leaders, members, product management and key field personnel to deliver features that will meet internal and external expectations.

What will you bring to the DDN Innovators….

• Deep understanding of the state of the art and the future of Enterprise Datacenter Storage Architectures, including next generation File Systems, cloud workflows and enterprise storage services
• You know what it means to be truly Enterprise and can articulate the value of your vision convincingly
• Experience working with datacenter devops and administrative teams in companies of various sizes, understanding cloud workflows that require and utilize enterprise infrastructure and features
• Technical leadership for the definition, design and implementation of world class software suites and enterprise cloud services
• An Enterprise, end-user focused approach to managing storage services that assumes an always-on, low-touch, best-in-class user experience tightly integrated to GUI front-ends
• Recognition as a leader with ability to build strong working relationships with cross-functional teams to leverage the latest technology innovations into enterprise quality customer solutions
• “Startup” experience in terms of iterating quickly on product/market fit, including customer development and the wisdom and humility to know when to apply your own industry experience versus when to stop and ask the users

What have you achieved…

• A Reputation for leveraging as well as developing the latest Enterprise technology innovations into concrete highly differentiated customer solutions.
• Extensive history of software development in Enterprise storage technologies, and their application in products such as VMWare, OpenStack, Amazon EBS, Google Persistent Disk, Microsoft Azure cloud storage.
• Years of detailed hands on development experience with Linux, C, C++ and other relevant languages pertaining to enterprise storage, cloud and containerization
• Familiarity with current web technologies including languages (PHP, JavaScript), scripting (Python), frameworks (Node.JS, React.JS, Angular.JS, Angular8), and databases (NoSQL and SQL relational DBs)
• You have directly provided technical leadership and delivered enterprise-class storage, cloud computing, virtualization or containerization solutions as a production product
• Experience working with and managing geographically distributed development teams

 Responsibilities for this role include but are not limited to: 

• Defining, architecting and implementing the leading next generation enterprise storage services software and system architecture for future DDN storage products
• Defining and building administration and services front-ends including interfaces between on-prem and cloud storage instances (VMWare, OpenStack, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) that support enterprise hybrid storage functions
• Interacting with other teams at DDN to gather product requirements
• Balancing hands-on contribution with technical guidance, including design and code review
• Being credible and directly involved with development and QA team
• Responsible for Software development on key modules and test frameworks
• Rapid Prototyping of new product concepts/code and evangelizing within DDN
• Code review to ensure correctness and adherence to design
• Mentoring of other developers in reaching release and quality goals
• Assisting the engineering manager with scoping, schedule planning and maintenance
• Producing/reviewing product/architecture documentation, both for internal and external customer needs
• Investigating industry trends and future product concepts and needs
• Working with customers, as required, to cultivate ideas and resolve product issues
• Provide training and product guidance to other members of the DDN team

• This position requires participation in an on-call rotation to provide after-hours support as needed.

Qualifications for this role:

• BS or MS degree in Computer Engineering or Computer Science, or equivalent
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal for a wide array of audiences – Engineers, Executives, Customers, Field Personnel and Industry Peers.
• Minimum 15 years of software development experience, with demonstrable software architecture/design experience
• Minimum 8 years of C/C++ development on Linux
• Solid understanding of distributed systems, clusters, high availability, monitoring, etc.
• Extensive Development Experience in the data storage industry with all aspects of Storage
• Understanding of networking concepts: IP, TCP, routing, etc

Salary Range for this role: $165,940 - $240,000

Join our dynamic and driven team, where engineering excellence is at the heart of everything we do. We seek individuals who love to challenge themselves and are fueled by curiosity. Here, you'll have the opportunity to work across various areas of the company, thanks to our flat organizational structure that encourages hands-on involvement and direct contributions to our mission. Leadership is earned by those who take initiative and consistently deliver outstanding results, both in their work ethic and deliverables, making strong prioritization skills essential. Additionally, we value strong communication skills in all our engineers and researchers, as they are crucial for the success of our teams and the company as a whole.

Interview Process: After submitting your application, one of our recruiters will review your resume. If your application passes this stage, you will be invited to a 30-minute interview during which a member of our team will ask some basic questions. If you clear the interview, you will enter the main process, which can consist of up to four interviews in total:

• Coding assessment: Often in a language of your choice.
• Systems design: Translate high-level requirements into a scalable, fault-tolerant service (depending on role).
• Real-time problem-solving: Demonstrate practical skills in a live problem-solving session.
• Meet and greet with the wider team.
• Our goal is to finish the main process in 2-3 weeks at most.

DataDirect Networks (DDN) is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, sex stereotyping, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

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