Senior Principal Engineer (Data Plane) - C, C++ or Go

SonicWall is a cybersecurity forerunner with more than 30 years of expertise and is recognized as a leading partner-first company, ensuring our partners and their customers are never alone in the fight against cybercrime. With the ability to build, scale and manage security across the cloud, hybrid and traditional environments in real-time, SonicWall provides relentless security against the most evasive cyberattacks across endless exposure points for increasingly remote, mobile and cloud-enabled users. With its own threat research center, SonicWall can quickly and economically provide purpose-built security solutions to enable any organization—enterprise, government agencies and SMBs—around the world. For more information, visit www.sonicwall.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

 

Role Overview

We are seeking a Senior Principal Engineer to lead the design and evolution of high-performance data plane systems for next-generation networking and security platforms. This role focuses on building low-latency, high-throughput network traffic processing systems, with deep expertise in Linux networking, protocol design, and performance engineering.

You will play a critical leadership role in shaping scalable, resilient, and secure traffic processing architectures, driving technical strategy, and mentoring teams to solve complex distributed systems challenges.

Key Responsibilities

• Architect and build high-throughput, low-latency data plane systems
• Design and optimize packet processing pipelines and traffic handling mechanisms
• Drive performance tuning, debugging, and optimization in production environments
• Design and operate distributed data plane architectures with a focus on scale and resilience
• Build and enhance traffic management capabilities (load balancing, NAT, proxying, tunneling)
• Implement security enforcement within the data path (firewalling, DPI, ZTNA, policy engines)
• Collaborate cross-functionally across control plane, platform, and security teams
• Lead large-scale technical initiatives; mentor engineers and elevate engineering excellence
• Leverage AI-assisted engineering tools effectively with strong technical judgment

What We’re Looking For

• 12+ years of experience in system/software development with a strong focus on data plane or networking systems
• Strong expertise in Go, Rust, C, or C++, with a deep focus on concurrency and performance optimization
• Expert-level proficiency in at least one language (Go expertise is nice to have)
• Proven track record of building high-throughput, low-latency systems
• Deep understanding of the Linux networking stack, including sockets, epoll, and TCP/IP internals
• Strong knowledge of network protocols (TCP/IP, UDP, DNS, HTTP/HTTPS, TLS)
• Proven ability to design systems for scale, resilience, and fault tolerance in traffic-heavy environments
• Strong debugging, profiling, and performance tuning skills in production systems
• Demonstrated ability to lead initiatives, mentor engineers, and drive technical strategy
• Strong ownership mindset with a focus on engineering excellence and continuous improvement

Nice-to-Have

• Experience designing and operating distributed data plane architectures
• Familiarity with: Load balancing and traffic steering, NAT and proxying, Tunneling technologies (IPSec, TLS, QUIC)
• Experience with DPDK, eBPF, or similar packet processing frameworks
• Understanding of data path security enforcement (firewalling, ZTNA, DPI, policy engines)
• Experience with observability and monitoring in high-volume systems
• Effective use of AI tools in software development, combined with sound engineering judgment

 

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SonicWall is an equal opportunity employer.  

We are committed to creating a diverse environment and are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, age, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.

At SonicWall, we pride ourselves on recruiting a diverse mix of talented people and providing active security solutions in 100+ countries.

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