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# Sr Director, Software Engineer

- **Company:** NetApp, Inc.
- **Location:** San Jose, CA, United States
- **Experience:** Expert
- **Salary:** $266,050.0
- **Contract:** Permanent contract
- **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Application Frameworks, Big Data, Profiling, Software Quality, Nvidia CUDA, Distributed Systems, General-Purpose Computing on Graphics Processing Units, Tensorflow, AI Infrastructure, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), Pytorch, Technical Debt, Data Management, Machine Learning Operations, Virtual Agents
- **Published:** November 7, 2026
- **Apply:** https://jobs.netapp.com/talentcommunity/apply/1448518800/?locale=en_US

## About the Role

* Proven record of designing and delivering sophisticated production software, with a strong foundation as a hands-on engineer, systems architect, or technical leader.
 * Deep technical knowledge of hardware-software co-design, distributed systems, performance engineering, and large-scale data processing.
 * Expertise in GPU computing and acceleration, including GPU architecture, parallel execution, memory and bandwidth trade-offs, profiling, and CUDA or comparable GPU software stacks.
 * Experience with AI model processing frameworks like PyTorch, TensorFlow.
 * Experience with modern data and AI ecosystems, including vector processing and search and graph technologies.
 * Familiarity with other AI accelerators like TPU, IPU, LPU, etc.
 * Track record of improving engineering delivery, software quality, operational reliability, and performance in complex products or platforms.
 * Ability to navigate tough architectural decisions and development choices, while delegating effectively and empowering strong engineers and managers.
 * Strong communication, integrity, urgency, and ownership; ability to thrive in a fast-moving, evolving organization.
 * Experience with storage/data platforms, AI infrastructure, or large-scale ML systems is a plus.
 * Experience in both an entrepreneurial engineering environment and a scaled enterprise organization is preferred.

## Description

The Senior Director of Engineering will build and lead the engineering organization responsible for defining, building, and delivering complex data and AI infrastructure software. This is a highly technical leadership role with direct accountability for engineering execution, product quality, and performance.

The leader will bring the technical depth to engage in architecture and critical design decisions, diagnose complex systems problems, and guide senior engineers, while also building a strong team and establishing clear ownership and predictable execution. They will work closely with principal architects, product management, and customer-facing teams.

The ideal candidate is a hands-on technical leader at heart and an effective organizational builder: equally comfortable debating technical trade-offs, with contemporary expertise in AI infrastructure hardware, software frameworks, AI Agent frameworks, protocols, and developing a high-performing engineering team., * Own end-to-end engineering delivery, from design through implementation, testing, and production reliability.

 * Provide deep technical leadership, design reviews, and guidance on performance, scalability, security, and system tradeoffs, including accelerated computing where relevant; partner with senior architects to turn technical direction into robust products.
 * Translate product priorities and customer commitments into realistic engineering plans with clear owners, milestones, dependencies, quality gates, and measurable outcomes.
 * Build a disciplined execution culture with high engineering velocity, transparent progress, timely decisions, and accountability for commitments.
 * Recruit, coach, and retain exceptional engineers and engineering leaders; define team structures, clarify decision rights, develop successors, and raise the technical bar.
 * Balance near-term enterprise customer needs with maintainable architecture, technical debt reduction, platform investments, and sustainable innovation.
 * Partner with product management, architecture, Solution Architects, and customer-facing teams to validate requirements and convert field feedback into actionable engineering priorities.