Principal Engineer, Data Path / Metadata / Performance (StorageGRID)

About the role

NetApp is looking for a Principal Engineer for the StorageGRID team in Vancouver, British Columbia. You will own the architecture and technical direction of the StorageGRID S3 data path, including metadata and performance, and set the standard for a mission-critical product running at hundreds of nodes and exabytes of capacity. The role suits a hands-on technical leader at the intersection of distributed systems, storage internals and high-scale performance.

Key responsibilities

• Own the architecture and implementation of the StorageGRID S3 data path, from ingest/retrieve/delete to metadata storage and the on-disk replicated/erasure-coded data flow.
• Lead performance analysis and benchmarking, identify improvements and deliver them.
• Design for scale and geo-distribution, including multi-site, cross-grid replication and global/federated namespace behavior.
• Drive large, cross-cutting data path initiatives from architecture through implementation, validation and release readiness.
• Stay deep in the code and the hardest bugs, setting technical standards through design, reviews, root-cause analysis and debugging.
• Mentor senior and MTS engineers on data path internals, performance optimization and distributed-systems debugging.
• Work with quality engineering, product management, support and field teams to turn customer requirements into data path and performance improvements.

Required profile

• 12+ years of experience in systems, storage, distributed systems or performance engineering, with a track record of technical leadership.
• Built or owned an object storage system, S3 implementation or large-scale distributed storage/database product, including request data path, data placement, replication/erasure coding, consistency and failure handling.
• Proven ability to influence technical direction across teams without direct authority.
• Education: typically 15 years of related experience for IC, 10 years for manager/executive levels.

Required skills

• Strong hands-on programming in C/C++, Go or Python, and debugging distributed software in Linux-based environments.
• Experience with Apache Cassandra or comparable distributed databases at scale.
• Nice to have: S3 protocol semantics, load balancing, NVMe/SSD/HDD and x86 hardware, and AI-assisted development and observability tooling.

The target salary range is 227,800 - 338,800 USD, or 225,250 - 291,500 CAD for Vancouver, depending on location, qualifications and experience. Applications are submitted only through the company website.