5+ years of professional software engineering experience, building backend systems in production
Proficiency in at least one modern backend language such as Go, Rust, C++, Java, or Python
Solid understanding of distributed systems concepts: consensus, state reconciliation, fault tolerance, and high availability design
Track record of designing and building scalable, reliable APIs or services used by multiple teams
Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code tooling (e.g., Terraform, Ansible)
Strong communication skills and experience collaborating cross functionally with product, operations, and other engineering teams
Demonstrated ability to mentor engineers and contribute to technical direction
Experience with networking software, protocols, or control plane systems (e.g., routing, switching, BGP, SDN)
Experience at a cloud provider, hyperscaler, or large scale data center operator
Familiarity with network telemetry/management protocols such as gNMI, gRPC, or NETCONF
Experience with Kubernetes based orchestration or building custom controllers/operators
Contributions to open source infrastructure or networking projects