DigitalOcean, San Francisco +1
DigitalOcean is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to help design and build the next generation of software powering our global network infrastructure.
This role sits at the intersection of software engineering, networking, distributed systems, and hardware acceleration. You will build the automation, orchestration, and infrastructure software that enables DigitalOcean to scale its network reliably while exploring new architectures using Data Processing Units (DPUs), SmartNICs, and programmable network infrastructure.
You will work closely with network, infrastructure, and hardware engineering teams to turn complex networking and infrastructure requirements into scalable software. This includes everything from network provisioning and device lifecycle management to telemetry, automated remediation, and software-driven network and DPU orchestration.
As a Staff Engineer, you will have impact beyond your own code. You will establish technical direction, drive architectural decisions, identify opportunities to move functionality into software and hardware accelerators, and help define how DigitalOcean's infrastructure evolves over the coming years.
A key part of the role is the ability to turn ambiguous technical problems into clear proposals and executable plans. You will be expected to author RFCs, architecture and design documents, technical proposals, and other project documentation needed to establish alignment and drive complex initiatives from concept through implementation.
Why DigitalOcean
At DigitalOcean, you'll have the opportunity to solve challenging infrastructure problems at significant scale while helping build technology that makes cloud infrastructure simpler and more accessible.
The Network Infrastructure Engineering organization plays a foundational role in DigitalOcean's ability to expand its datacenter footprint, increase network capacity, improve reliability, introduce new network technologies, and deliver a consistent experience to customers around the world.
This role provides an opportunity to shape how networking and infrastructure software interacts with the underlying hardware. The ideal candidate will help DigitalOcean move beyond traditional host-based networking toward a more programmable and hardware-accelerated infrastructure architecture, while maintaining the simplicity, reliability, and operational excellence expected from a cloud platform.
The Staff Engineer will have the opportunity to influence this evolution from architecture through implementation—identifying opportunities, evaluating technologies, writing RFCs and technical proposals, aligning engineering teams, and ultimately delivering production systems that operate at DigitalOcean scale.
Application Limit: You may apply to a maximum of 3 positions within any 180-day period. This policy promotes better role-candidate matching and encourages thoughtful applications where your qualifications align most strongly.
*This is a remote role
JR: 2026-8150
Dive in and do the best work of your career at DigitalOcean. Journey alongside a strong community of top talent who are relentless in their drive to build the simplest scalable cloud. If you have a growth mindset, naturally like to think big and bold, and are energized by the fast-paced environment of a true industry disruptor, you’ll find your place here. We value winning together—while learning, having fun, and making a profound difference for the dreamers and builders in the world.
Source: the DigitalOcean Greenhouse job board. We last checked this job 7 h ago. We first saw it 4 days ago. A job on a job board does not always mean that the team interviews people now. We found this job board in a public list. We did not yet compare it with the careers page of the company.
This base pay is below the median for staff infrastructure, platform and SRE jobs in the Bay Area.
We compare the middle of each posted range. This is base pay as posted. The group does not include this job.