Staff Engineer, Lustre

DDNSanta Clara OfficeDepartment

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Opens the official DDN careers page

Salary

$200K - $250K USD

Job type

Full-time

Work mode

Remote

Posted

1 Oct 2026

Status

Open · checked 7d ago

About this role

DDN is currently seeking a Staff Engineer, Lustre to join their team in Santa Clara with remote flexibility. This hands-on senior technical role is ideal for an experienced professional with a strong background in distributed storage and Linux-based systems engineering.

Role Overview

The Staff Engineer, Lustre position is a hands-on technical role focused on design, debugging, performance, and operational excellence across LustreFS and adjacent stack components. The professional in this position will independently drive complex investigations and collaborate effectively across engineering, QE, support, and release teams.

Key Responsibilities

Design, develop, and debug LustreFS features, fixes, and enhancements across relevant subsystems such as llite, MDS/MDT, OSS/OST, LDLM, and LNet.

Investigate customer and scale-related defects, drive root-cause analysis, and implement high-quality fixes with strong attention to correctness and maintainability.

Contribute to performance tuning, failure analysis, and reliability improvements for large-scale Lustre deployments.

Participate actively in code reviews, design reviews, and subsystem discussions, bringing rigor to testing and operational readiness.

Work closely with QE and support to reproduce issues, improve diagnostic data quality, and increase coverage for high-risk failure scenarios.

Help document subsystem behavior, debugging approaches, known failure patterns, and operational best practices.

Utilize AI-assisted tools to speed up issue triage, summarize logs, improve code understanding, and capture reusable lessons learned.

Requirements

Ten or more years of experience in systems software, distributed systems, storage, Linux kernel, or filesystem engineering.

Strong experience in LustreFS development, support, or performance engineering with depth in at least one major subsystem.

Strong C programming and Linux systems debugging skills.

Working knowledge of Linux kernel internals, filesystem semantics, networking, and performance analysis.

Experience with LNet and/or high-performance transports such as RDMA, InfiniBand, RoCE, or TCP-based storage networking.

Ability to debug and resolve issues spanning multiple layers including client, server, network, and backend storage.

Strong collaboration skills and the ability to work across functions in a fast-moving engineering environment.

Nice to Have

Experience in HPC, AI infrastructure, or large-scale parallel storage environments.

Exposure to metadata-heavy and throughput-heavy workload characterization and tuning.

Familiarity with ZFS, ldiskfs, NVMe-backed storage, and related observability or performance tooling.

Experience creating test plans, reproducer frameworks, runbooks, or diagnostic automation.

Comfort using AI tools to accelerate debugging, code reviews, triage, documentation, and early-stage design ideation.

Experience mentoring junior engineers or leading focused technical efforts within a subsystem.

Skills and Tools

LustreFS development and debugging across subsystems including llite, MDS/MDT, OSS/OST, LDLM, and LNet

C programming language and Linux systems debugging

Linux kernel internals, filesystem semantics, and networking

High-performance transports such as RDMA, InfiniBand, RoCE, and TCP-based storage networking

ZFS, ldiskfs, and NVMe-backed storage technologies

AI-assisted tools for code comprehension, debugging, and issue triage

Salary and Benefits

Annual Salary: $200,000 to $250,000 USD

Employment Type: Full-Time

About the Company

DDN specializes in high-performance storage solutions, supporting massive scale architectures for AI infrastructure, high-performance computing, and enterprise environments.

How to Apply

Interested candidates should visit the official DDN careers page to submit an application for the Staff Engineer, Lustre position.

Questions candidates ask

What is the salary range for the Staff Engineer, Lustre role?

The annual salary for this position ranges from $200,000 to $250,000 USD.

How much experience is required for this position?

Candidates must have 10+ years of experience in systems software, distributed systems, storage, Linux kernel, or filesystem engineering.

Is remote work permitted for this role?

Yes, the position offers remote flexibility while being associated with the Santa Clara office.

What core technical skills are required?

Required skills include strong C programming, Linux systems debugging, LustreFS development experience, knowledge of Linux kernel internals, and familiarity with high-performance transports like RDMA or InfiniBand.

How do I apply for the job?

Candidates can apply directly through the official DDN careers page.

Ready to apply?

The application is on the official DDN careers page.

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