- Location
- San Jose · San Jose, California, United States
- Department
- R&D Department
- Seniority
- Director
- Experience
- 5+ years
- Source
- Greenhouse
Description
Company Overview
Micas Networks is a leading provider of open networking solutions for hyperscalers, cloud data centers, AI infrastructure, and OEM customers. We deliver high-performance Ethernet switching platforms supporting SONiC and other open network operating systems.
Position Summary
Micas Networks is seeking a highly motivated and experienced Software Director – SONiC to lead our Network Operating System software organization. In this role, you will define and execute the long-term software strategy and roadmap for our SONiC-based platforms, lead a high-performing team of software engineers and managers, and collaborate closely with hardware, product management, and customer-facing teams to deliver world-class networking solutions to hyperscalers, cloud data centers, and OEM partners.
The ideal candidate combines deep technical expertise in networking and open-source network operating systems with proven leadership experience in building, mentoring, and scaling software organizations. You will play a critical role in shaping the future of open networking by translating market and customer needs into actionable software requirements, driving cross-functional execution, and ensuring the optimal allocation of engineering resources to maximize impact.
Responsibilities
-
Leadership & Strategy
- Lead and define the long-term SONiC software product roadmap in alignment with hardware, product management, regional, and executive teams.
- Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing team of software engineers, technical leads, and managers, ensuring alignment with business unit objectives and fostering a culture of technical excellence and accountability.
- Engage directly with customers—including hyperscalers, cloud operators, and OEM partners—to gather insights and translate networking needs into actionable software requirements and feature definitions.
- Provide strategic input across the organization to ensure software features, release cadence, and platform capabilities align with customer needs, market trends, and business goals.
- Monitor industry, open-source, and technology trends (SONiC, DENT, SAI, P4, eBPF, AI/ML for networking) to inform strategy and maintain competitive differentiation.
- Drive resource allocation, budgeting, and headcount planning across software functions to balance short-term delivery with long-term platform investment.
Software Development & Delivery
- Oversee the design, development, and maintenance of the SONiC network operating system across multiple hardware platforms and customer deployments.
- Drive implementation and optimization of network protocols, control-plane and data-plane features, platform drivers, and software modules.
- Establish and enforce engineering best practices for code quality, design reviews, performance analysis, and system reliability.
- Lead continuous improvement of CI/CD infrastructure, automated regression testing, code coverage, and release engineering to enable rapid, high-quality software delivery.
- Champion strong DevOps practices, version control discipline, and modern software lifecycle management across the organization.
- Own software quality end-to-end—from feature definition through field deployment—and drive rapid resolution of complex, customer-impacting issues.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Collaborate across functions—including Hardware Engineering, Product Management, Product Marketing, Operations, and Procurement—to deliver high-impact product initiatives on schedule.
- Partner with Hardware and Platform teams on switch ASIC SDK integration, hardware abstraction layers (e.g., SAI, switchdev), and BSP development to ensure tight hardware/software co-design.
- Drive the development of Product Requirements Documents (PRDs), software design specifications, user stories, and customer-facing technical collateral.
- Develop and deliver high-quality, customer-facing presentations that articulate software value, architecture, and roadmap.
- Partner with Sales, Solutions Engineering, and Marketing Communications to support go-to-market activities and create compelling technical sales collateral.
- Represent Micas Networks externally in customer engagements, industry forums, and open-source communities such as the SONiC Foundation and OCP.
Qualifications
- 10+ years of software engineering and software management experience in networking, with significant exposure to Carrier Service Provider, Data Center, Hyperscaler, and/or Mission-Critical environments.
- 5+ years of experience leading software teams, including hiring, mentoring, performance management, and building high-performing organizations.
Preferred Qualifications
- Active contributions to open-source projects and communities, particularly SONiC, DENT, or related networking ecosystems.
- Hands-on knowledge of cloud computing and modern data center networking architectures (leaf/spine, EVPN-VXLAN, SmartNIC, AI/ML fabrics).
- Experience developing or configuring whitebox/disaggregated network devices and switches at scale.
- Prior experience working with hyperscaler or Tier-1 cloud customers on production deployments.
- Experience scaling globally distributed software engineering organizations.
