Senior Engineering Manager - Datapath

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. 

Senior Manager of Engineering – Infinia Data Intelligent Platform

DDN is seeking a dynamic and experienced Senior Manager of Engineering to lead the design, development, testing, deployment, and maintenance of a critical component of the Infinia Data Intelligent Platform. The ideal candidate will bring deep technical expertise in I/O path optimization, erasure coding, SPDK (Storage Performance Development Kit), and distributed locking mechanisms, combined with strong people leadership skills. In this role, you will balance hands-on technical leadership with team management, guiding engineers to deliver high-performance, fault-tolerant, and secure data management services at extreme scale.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and mentor a team of engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, strong code quality, and continuous learning.
• Set clear performance expectations, provide regular feedback, conduct performance reviews, and support career development for team members.
• Own and execute the team’s technical roadmap for storage I/O path optimization, ensuring alignment with broader engineering and product objectives.
• Collaborate closely with Product Management, Architecture, and peer Engineering teams to define requirements, review designs, and validate technical approaches.
• Provide technical leadership for the analysis, design, and implementation of next-generation I/O path optimizations to improve throughput, latency, and overall system performance.
• Guide the evaluation and implementation of erasure coding techniques to balance data durability, reliability, and storage efficiency.
• Oversee the use of SPDK to integrate effectively with underlying storage platforms and hardware accelerators in heterogeneous environments.
• Drive adoption of best practices in automated testing, CI/CD pipelines, and system monitoring to improve reliability and development velocity.
• Ensure delivered software meets high standards for quality, maintainability, documentation, and test coverage.
• Act as an escalation point for technical challenges, helping the team diagnose and resolve complex system and performance issues.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
• 14+ years of professional software development experience, with a strong focus on large-scale storage systems, I/O path optimization, and performance-critical code.
• 5+ years of experience leading and managing engineering teams.
• Hands-on experience implementing erasure coding solutions and a strong understanding of redundancy and data protection algorithms.
• Solid knowledge of SPDK and its role within low-level storage stacks or distributed systems.
• Experience with distributed locking mechanisms, concurrency control, and consistency models in distributed environments.
• Strong understanding of cluster management, I/O operations, and event-driven architectures.
• Proficiency in networking, distributed, asynchronous, and concurrent programming.
• Proficiency in C/C++, along with experience using debugging, profiling, and performance analysis tools.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver high-quality software iteratively and on schedule through effective team leadership.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with cluster management tools and frameworks.
• Deep understanding of memory management, cache allocation, and bulk data processing.
• Familiarity with performance analysis methodologies and tooling.
• Background in high-performance computing or other data-intensive environments.

DataDirect Networks, Inc. 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.