Senior Network Software Engineer

About Position:

We are looking for an experienced R&D Engineer to join the team responsible for building and optimizing the high-performance packet capture pipeline at the core of our network analytics platform. The platform operates as a containerized DPDK application on bare-metal Kubernetes worker nodes and delivers wire-speed packet acquisition from physical network interfaces. This role offers the opportunity to work across the complete technology stack, from Linux kernel-level provisioning and NIC driver management to DPDK-based packet processing, modern C++ development, and Kubernetes-based deployment automation.

• Role: R&D Engineer
• Location: All Persistent Locations
• Experience: 5 to 8 Years
• Job Type: Full-Time Employment

What You'll Do:

• Design, develop, and optimize high-performance DPDK-based packet capture applications.
• Implement and enhance RX thread architecture, memory pool management, Receive Side Scaling (RSS), and packet timestamping capabilities.
• Develop and maintain hardware abstraction layers supporting multiple packet capture backends, including DPDK, PCIe capture cards, pcap/live capture, and ZMQ injection.
• Build and enhance Python-based node provisioning utilities and Ansible automation playbooks.
• Configure worker nodes for DPDK workloads, including hugepages, CPU isolation, IOMMU settings, NIC driver binding, and node labeling.
• Own and maintain Kubernetes Helm charts supporting DPDK infrastructure deployment.
• Enable efficient node-label-driven PCI device allocation and resource provisioning.
• Configure huge page resources and CPU pinning for optimal application performance.
• Investigate and resolve low-level performance bottlenecks related to CPU cache utilization, NUMA topology, TLB behavior, IRQ affinity, and kernel scheduling.
• Develop automated and manual testing frameworks for packet capture pipelines and infrastructure components.
• Collaborate with downstream processing teams on ZMQ publish interfaces and packet metadata standards.
• Participate in architecture reviews, technical discussions, and code reviews.
• Create and maintain technical documentation and operational procedures.
• Ensure high availability, scalability, and reliability of packet capture systems.

Expertise You'll Bring:

• 5+ years of experience in software development with strong expertise in C++.
• Proficiency in modern C++ (C++17 or later).
• Experience developing latency-sensitive and high-throughput multi-threaded applications.
• Strong understanding of memory models, lock-free programming techniques, and NUMA-aware memory allocation.
• Hands-on experience with Intel DPDK, including poll-mode drivers, memory pools, RSS configuration, and packet processing optimization.
• Strong knowledge of Linux operating systems and Linux kernel internals.
• Experience with network drivers, kernel-level tuning, and performance optimization.
• Good understanding of TCP/IP networking, Ethernet protocols, packet processing, and network diagnostics.
• Experience with Kubernetes, containerized deployments, and Helm charts.
• Familiarity with NIC driver binding, hugepages, CPU pinning, and hardware acceleration techniques.
• Hands-on experience with Python scripting and automation tools.
• Experience working with Ansible for infrastructure automation.
• Knowledge of ZeroMQ (ZMQ) or similar messaging frameworks.
• Strong debugging and performance analysis skills in Linux environments.
• Experience using profiling and monitoring tools for high-performance systems.
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and troubleshooting abilities.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills with cross-functional engineering teams.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary and benefits package
• Culture focused on talent development with quarterly growth opportunities and company-sponsored higher education and certifications
• Opportunity to work with cutting-edge technologies
• Employee engagement initiatives such as project parties, flexible work hours, and Long Service awards
• Annual health check-ups
• Insurance coverage: group term life, personal accident, and Mediclaim hospitalization for self, spouse, two children, and parents

Values-Driven, People-Centric & Inclusive Work Environment:

Persistent is dedicated to fostering diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We invite applications from all qualified individuals, including those with disabilities, and regardless of gender or gender preference. We welcome diverse candidates from all backgrounds.

• We support hybrid work and flexible hours to fit diverse lifestyles.
• Our office is accessibility-friendly, with ergonomic setups and assistive technologies to support employees with physical disabilities.
• If you are a person with disabilities and have specific requirements, please inform us during the application process or at any time during your employment

Let's unleash your full potential at Persistent - persistent.com/careers

"Persistent is an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind."