Principal Software Engineer

Fastly helps people stay better connected with the things they love. Fastly's edge cloud platform enables customers to create great digital experiences quickly, securely, and reliably by processing, serving, and securing our customers' applications as close to their end-users as possible — at the edge of the Internet. The platform is designed to take advantage of the modern internet, to be programmable, and to support agile software development. Fastly's customers include many of the world's most prominent companies, including Vimeo, Pinterest, The New York Times, and GitHub.

We're building a more trustworthy Internet. Come join us.

Posting Open Date: 7/26/24

Anticipated Posting Close Date*: 9/26/24

*Job posting may close early due to the volume of applicants.

Principal Software Engineer, Edge Linux

Join Fastly's Kernel Engineering team as a technical leader and play a pivotal role in the company's operational excellence. You will optimize performance and stability for Fastly's low-latency data path, which is integral to all customer traffic, running through the Linux kernel and XDP. The Kernel team is the core of Fastly's Edge stack, ensuring our systems leverage the latest Linux technologies and supporting our hardware platform, OCI containers, and Linux OS distributions. Your work will be critical to maintaining stability and performance for our customers, making a significant impact on the entire business.

What You'll Do:

• Drive the technical direction and architectural decisions for kernel development, ensuring alignment with Fastly's strategic goals
• Spearhead the development of cutting-edge solutions across kernel, XDP, system architecture, and distro tooling to enhance the Fastly's Linux Operating System
• Mentor and coach a high-performing team of kernel developers, architects, network engineers, and site reliability engineers
• Partner with Engineering and Operations teams to optimize performance, automation, and efficiency across the organization
• Provide structured planning and strategic oversight to ensure confident and successful project execution

What We're Looking For:

• You have at least 8 years of experience in software development using one or more programming languages (e.g., Python, C, Go, Rust), with 4 of those years leading projects and/or teams
• You have a minimum of 5 years of experience in maintenance of Linux kernel subsystems and the kernel repository with 1 year of Linux kernel development experience
• You have experience in network data path and deployment methodologies
• Experience maintaining Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Debian, etc)
• Experience with OCI containers (e.g., Docker)

We'll be super impressed if you have experience in any of these:

• Large scale Fleet management and Release techniques
• Experience with acute incident response including Addressing security vulnerabilities.
• Implementing IETF RFC specifications particularly transport protocols
• Experience in distributed systems and highly available environments

Work Hours:

This position will require you to be available during core business hours.

Work Location(s) & Travel Requirements:

This position is open to the following preferred office locations:

• New York, NY
• San Francisco, CA
• Denver, CO

Fastly currently embraces a largely hybrid model for most roles which allows employees flexibility to split their time between the office and home.

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

Salary:

The estimated salary range for this position is $195,720 to $244,640.

Starting salary may vary based on permissible, non-discriminatory factors such as experience, skills, qualifications, and location.

This role may be eligible to participate in Fastly's equity and discretionary bonus programs.

Benefits:

We care about you. Fastly works hard to create a positive environment for our employees, and we think your life outside of work is important too. We support our teams with great benefits that start on the first day of your employment with Fastly. Curious about our offerings?

We offer a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance. Family planning, mental health support along with Employee Assistance Program, Insurance (Life, Disability, and Accident), a Flexible Vacation policy and up to 18 days of accrued paid sick leave are there to help support our employees. We also offer 401(k) (including company match) and an Employee Stock Purchase Program. For 2024, we offer 10 paid local holidays, 11 paid company wellness days.

Why Fastly?

• We have a huge impact. Fastly is a small company with a big reach. Not only do our customers have a tremendous user base, but we also support a growing number of open source projects and initiatives. Outside of code, employees are encouraged to share causes close to their heart with others so we can help lend a supportive hand.
• We love distributed teams. Fastly's home-base is in San Francisco, but we have multiple offices and employees sprinkled around the globe. As a new hire, you will be able to attend our IN-PERSON new hire orientation in our San Francisco office It is an exciting week-long experience that we offer to new employees to build connections with colleagues across Fastly, participate in hands-on learning opportunities, and immerse yourself in our culture firsthand.
• We value diversity. Growing and maintaining our inclusive and diverse team matters to us. We are committed to being a company where our employees feel comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work and have the ability to be successful -- every day.
• We are passionate. Fastly is chock full of passionate people and we're not 'one size fits all'. Fastly employs authors, pilots, skiers, parents (of humans and animals), makeup geeks, coffee connoisseurs, and more. We love employees for who they are and what they are passionate about.

We're always looking for humble, sharp, and creative folks to join the Fastly team. If you think you might be a fit please apply A fully completed application and resume or CV are required when applying.

Fastly is committed to ensuring equal employment opportunity and to providing employees with a safe and welcoming work environment free of discrimination and harassment. Our employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, family or parental status, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances.

Consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and federal or state disability laws, Fastly will provide reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact your Recruiter, or the Fastly Employee Relations team at or

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