Staff Engineer - Performance

We are seeking a Staff Engineer – Performance with strong expertise in data path and I/O performance for large-scale distributed file systems. This role focuses on analyzing, optimizing, and improving performance across the storage stack, from low-level code paths to system-wide behavior at scale.

You will work closely with architects and cross-functional teams to investigate complex performance issues, implement optimizations, and ensure high throughput and low latency in distributed systems. This role emphasizes hands-on technical contributions, performance tuning, and data-driven decision-making to improve overall system efficiency and reliability.

Key Responsibilities:

- Contribute to the performance design of data path and I/O components in distributed file systems
- Perform performance analysis, troubleshooting, and optimization of large-scale, high-performance file systems
- Implement performance-aware improvements across CPU, memory, storage, and network layers
- Optimize performance-critical file system code, primarily in C++
- Apply best practices for performance measurement, profiling, benchmarking, and regression detection
- Investigate and resolve complex system-level performance issues
- Collaborate with architects and senior engineers to incorporate performance considerations into system design
- Work with cross-functional teams to validate and meet performance goals across the stack
- Participate in design reviews with a focus on performance implications
- Share knowledge and support peers in adopting effective performance engineering practices

Requirements:

- Accountable and highly motivated with solid people skills
- 10+ years’ experience system software development and complex problem resolution.
- Deep understanding of distributed file systems and scale-out storage architectures
- Expert-level knowledge of data path and I/O path design and optimization
- Strong proficiency in C++ with extensive experience in performance-critical code
- Proven expertise in performance measurement techniques, including profiling, tracing, benchmarking, and custom tooling
- Strong foundation in distributed systems principles, including scalability, concurrency, and fault tolerance
- Demonstrated experience optimizing file system or storage system code for performance at scale
- Experience with high-performance, high-scale-out file systems in production environments

What Success Looks Like

- Consistently delivers measurable improvements in throughput, latency, and scalability
- Identifies and mitigates performance bottlenecks early in the development lifecycle
- Produces reliable performance analysis that informs design and implementation decisions
- Contributes to stable, repeatable performance testing and regression detection practices
- Effectively collaborates with team members to meet performance goals across components
- Builds and applies strong performance engineering expertise to improve code and system quality