Senior Software Engineer 2 - Network Datapath

About the Role

DigitalOcean is looking for a Senior Software Engineer, Network Datapath to help build and evolve the software that powers high-performance networking across our cloud infrastructure.

You will work at the intersection of networking, operating systems, distributed systems, and high-performance software, developing datapath technologies that enable DigitalOcean to deliver high throughput, low latency, and predictable network performance at scale.

This role will focus on the software running in and around the network datapath, including packet processing, forwarding, routing, acceleration, observability, and integration with host and hardware-based networking components. You will work closely with Network Infrastructure, Compute, Availability, and hardware teams to design, implement, optimize, and operate production networking systems.

The ideal candidate is a strong software engineer with deep networking knowledge who enjoys working close to the system and is excited about optimizing the path that packets take through cloud infrastructure.

What You'll Be Doing

• Design, develop, and optimize high-performance network datapath software for DigitalOcean's cloud infrastructure.
• Build and improve packet-processing and forwarding systems with a focus on throughput, latency, CPU efficiency, scalability, and reliability.
• Develop networking functionality across the host, kernel, user space, and hardware-accelerated datapath.
• Work with technologies such as Linux networking, eBPF, XDP, DPDK, AF_XDP, SR-IOV, and programmable datapaths.
• Analyze packet-processing paths and identify opportunities to eliminate bottlenecks and improve performance.
• Develop software for routing, packet filtering, encapsulation, tunneling, load balancing, traffic steering, and network virtualization.
• Build and improve datapath observability, telemetry, debugging, and performance monitoring.
• Design software that integrates with DPUs, SmartNICs, programmable NICs, and other hardware acceleration technologies.
• Develop automated testing and benchmarking frameworks to validate datapath correctness and performance.
• Investigate complex production networking issues, including packet drops, latency, throughput degradation, CPU utilization, and unexpected traffic behavior.
• Work with Network Infrastructure and Compute engineers to integrate datapath functionality into DigitalOcean's broader infrastructure architecture.
• Contribute to the design and implementation of next-generation network architectures.
• Author RFCs, architecture documents, technical proposals, design documents, and implementation plans to drive complex networking initiatives.
• Clearly document technical decisions, tradeoffs, performance characteristics, dependencies, and operational considerations.
• Participate in design reviews and provide technical guidance to other engineers.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to improving software engineering and networking practices across the organization.

What We're Looking For

• Strong experience designing and developing production software in C, C++, or Go.
• Strong understanding of networking and packet processing.
• Experience developing software for Linux-based networking systems.
• Solid understanding of networking concepts including TCP/IP, routing, switching, VLANs, VXLAN, BGP, ECMP, NAT, load balancing, and network virtualization.
• Experience debugging and optimizing performance-sensitive systems.
• Understanding of Linux networking internals, including the Linux kernel networking stack, network namespaces, sockets, queues, interrupts, and NIC drivers.
• Experience with one or more high-performance networking technologies such as DPDK, XDP, eBPF, AF_XDP, or SR-IOV.
• Experience with multithreaded and concurrent software.
• Strong understanding of performance analysis, profiling, benchmarking, and troubleshooting.
• Ability to reason about complex systems across hardware, operating systems, networking, and applications.
• Ability to independently drive projects from technical design through implementation and production deployment.
• Strong technical writing skills, with the ability to produce RFCs, architecture/design documents, technical proposals, and other documentation required to drive engineering projects.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work effectively across engineering teams.

Experience with hardware-accelerated networking is highly valuable. This includes:

• Experience developing software for DPUs, SmartNICs, IPUs, or programmable NICs.
• Understanding how functionality can be distributed between host CPUs, NICs, DPUs, and switches.
• Experience with DPU-based networking, security, storage, virtualization, or packet processing.
• Experience with programmable datapaths such as P4, eBPF, or other programmable data-plane technologies.
• Understanding of PCIe, DMA, queues, interrupts, RSS, offloads, and NIC hardware architecture.

At the Senior Engineer level, you will be expected to:

• Own significant technical components and deliver them from design through production.
• Solve complex performance and reliability problems in the network datapath.
• Make sound technical decisions based on measurable performance and operational requirements.
• Develop scalable solutions rather than one-off fixes.
• Proactively identify architectural and performance bottlenecks.
• Work effectively across Network Infrastructure, Compute, Security, and other engineering organizations.
• Produce clear RFCs and technical documentation that enable teams to align on complex architectural decisions.
• Mentor other engineers and raise the technical bar within the team.
• Use AI and modern engineering tools to increase personal and team leverage and accelerate delivery.

Nice to Have

• Experience working on cloud networking or hyperscale infrastructure.
• Experience developing Linux kernel networking code or NIC drivers.
• Experience with DPDK, XDP, eBPF, AF_XDP, or DPU-based datapaths in production.
• Experience with 400G+ networking.
• Experience with high-performance packet processing at 10/25/40/100/200/400G+ speeds.
• Experience with network virtualization and overlay technologies such as VXLAN/EVPN.
• Experience with programmable switches.
• Experience with performance analysis using tools such as perf, eBPF tooling, flame graphs, or hardware performance counters.
• Experience building network datapath tests and benchmarking infrastructure.
• Contributions to Linux, DPDK, eBPF, OVS, or other networking/open-source projects.

Why DigitalOcean

This role provides an opportunity to work on some of the most performance-sensitive software in DigitalOcean's infrastructure. The network datapath is foundational to the performance, scalability, and reliability of our cloud platform.

You will help shape the evolution from traditional host-based networking toward highly optimized, programmable, and hardware-accelerated datapaths, while solving challenging problems across software, operating systems, networking, and hardware.

Compensation Range: 

• $167,200 - $209,000

*This is a hybrid role

JR: 2026-8151

#LI-Hybrid