Staff Systems Engineer

This is an incredible opportunity to be part of a company that has been at the forefront of AI and high-performance data storage innovation for over two decades. DataDirect Networks (DDN) is a global market leader renowned for powering many of the world's most demanding AI data centers, in industries ranging from life sciences and healthcare to financial services, autonomous cars, Government, academia, research and manufacturing.

"DDN's A3I solutions are transforming the landscape of AI infrastructure." - IDC

"The real differentiator is DDN. I never hesitate to recommend DDN. DDN is the de facto name for AI Storage in high performance environments" - Marc Hamilton, VP, Solutions Architecture & Engineering | NVIDIA

DDN is the global leader in AI and multi-cloud data management at scale. Our cutting-edge data intelligence platform is designed to accelerate AI workloads, enabling organizations to extract maximum value from their data. With a proven track record of performance, reliability, and scalability, DDN empowers businesses to tackle the most challenging AI and data-intensive workloads with confidence.

Our success is driven by our unwavering commitment to innovation, customer-centricity, and a team of passionate professionals who bring their expertise and dedication to every project. This is a chance to make a significant impact at a company that is shaping the future of AI and data management.

Our commitment to innovation, customer success, and market leadership makes this an exciting and rewarding role for a driven professional looking to make a lasting impact in the world of AI and data storage.

We are seeking a Staff Systems Engineer to join the EXA Engineering team. This role will be critical in driving product vision, roadmap, and execution for the EXAscaler platform. The ideal candidate will bridge the gap between engineering, customers, and sales by understanding technical requirements and working closely with the Development teams to drive the direction of the product.

Key Responsibilities

Help define and execute the product roadmap for EXAScaler in alignment with customer needs and company goals.
• Collaborate closely with engineering teams to drive product development, ensuring timely and high-quality releases.
• Gather and prioritize customer requirements, translating them into detailed product specifications.
• Engage through various phases of development as required, from concept to release. This includes prototyping, scoping, product definition creation, testing, benchmarking using both synthetic and real-application workload.
• Preparing/creating various types of documentation with appropriate support from product management and marketing teams and colleagues. This includes whitepapers, reference architecture documents, training material for internal and customer use.
• Support product management in their creation of technical collateral material around DDN products, solutions and services.
• Understanding and analysing competitive data to help product positioning and influence next generation roadmap.
• Manage beta programs, customer feedback loops, and product launch activities.
• Support engineering leadership in scoping new features, deployment, and upgrade paths.
• Engage on a wide range of technical tasks and projects in DDN labs and at times, customer facilities.
• Providing performance characterization and analysis of the features and components of storage systems products.
• Creating and delivering demos and/or working with the field to setup such demos.
• Act as the voice of the customer within the engineering organization.
• Working to a demanding schedule with requirements for flexibility & travel.

Job Requirements

• 10 years of Systems Engineering or Solutions Architect experience in enterprise or cloud storage solutions.
• Significant practical experience working with parallel file systems (preferably Lustre), high-performance networking architectures with technologies such as RoCE or Infiniband, and large-scale data storage architectures.
• A strong ability to take a task and see it through to 100% completion, typically with written documentation and/or reports.
• A self-starter approach, and an ability to work with a globally distributed team, communicating flexibly and regularly with field staff, management and colleagues.
• Possess and demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Strong technical, analytical and problem-solving skills with a data-driven mindset.
• Proven ability to multi-task and manage competing priorities.

Preferred Experience

• Deep Experience with Parallel filesystems
• BA/BS or MA/MS in a related technical field and several years' experience which includes substantial benchmarking activity
• Performed extensive benchmarking exercises and written comprehensive reports.
• Knowledge of performance analysis techniques and tools and a strong understanding of computer architecture, operating systems, storage and file systems
• Knowledge of AI/ML workloads and their impact on storage performance.
• Experience with container technologies like Docker and orchestration platforms like Kubernetes
• Operational experience with infrastructure observability platforms at scale

Join our dynamic and driven team, where engineering excellence is at the heart of everything we do. We seek individuals who love to challenge themselves and are fueled by curiosity. Here, you'll have the opportunity to work across various areas of the company, thanks to our flat organizational structure that encourages hands-on involvement and direct contributions to our mission. Leadership is earned by those who take initiative and consistently deliver outstanding results, both in their work ethic and deliverables, making strong prioritization skills essential. Additionally, we value strong communication skills in all our engineers and researchers, as they are crucial for the success of our teams and the company as a whole.

Interview Process: After submitting your application, one of our recruiters will review your resume. If your application passes this stage, you will be invited to a 30-minute interview during which a member of our team will ask some basic questions. If you clear the interview, you will enter the main process, which can consist of up to four interviews in total:

• Coding assessment: Often in a language of your choice.
• Systems design: Translate high-level requirements into a scalable, fault-tolerant service (depending on role).
• Real-time problem-solving: Demonstrate practical skills in a live problem-solving session.
• Meet and greet with the wider team.
• Our goal is to finish the main process in 2-3 weeks at most.

DataDirect Networks (DDN) is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, sex stereotyping, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

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