Staff Software Eng, Kernel Network
Company: eBay
Location: San Jose
Posted on: April 1, 2026
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Job Description:
At eBay, we're more than a global ecommerce leader — we’re
changing the way the world shops and sells. Our platform empowers
millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the
world. We’re committed to pushing boundaries and leaving our mark
as we reinvent the future of ecommerce for enthusiasts. Our
customers are our compass, authenticity thrives, bold ideas are
welcome, and everyone can bring their unique selves to work — every
day. We're in this together, sustaining the future of our
customers, our company, and our planet. Join a team of passionate
thinkers, innovators, and dreamers — and help us connect people and
build communities to create economic opportunity for all. About the
team and the role : The Traffic team is responsible for the
reliability, performance, and security of network traffic across
our edge and core infrastructure. We design and operate
high-throughput, low-latency data paths, evolve our kernel and
userspace networking stack, and build observability that powers
real-time insight and rapid incident response. Our work spans L4/L7
load balancing, service mesh/data plane, packet processing,
congestion control, routing, and traffic policy enforcement. We are
seeking an experienced engineer (10 years) with deep expertise in
the Linux kernel networking stack and production observability to
lead design and implementation of high-performance data planes and
visibility tooling. You will own system-critical components,
influence architecture across teams, and mentor engineers while
delivering measurable improvements to throughput, latency, and
reliability. What you will accomplish : Design, implement, and
optimize kernel-level networking components (TCP/UDP, QUIC,
congestion control, sockets, netfilter, XDP/AF_XDP, eBPF) for
high-scale production environments Build and evolve data planes for
L4/L7 traffic management, including load balancers, proxies, NAT,
firewalling, rate limiting, and traffic shaping Develop robust
observability for the networking stack: eBPF-based telemetry,
tracing, packet capture, flow logs, performance counters, and
SLO/SLA instrumentation Lead initiatives to reduce tail latency,
improve throughput, and decrease resource utilization via
kernel/userspace tuning, scheduling, NUMA/IRQ affinity, offloads,
and memory management Architect and deploy scalable traffic systems
across multi-region, multi-tenant environments with zero-downtime
rollouts and rapid incident recovery Partner with SRE, Security,
and Platform teams on traffic policy, DDoS mitigation, TLS/PKI, and
compliance requirements Drive roadmap, technical strategy, and
cross-functional execution; provide technical leadership and
mentorship to the team Conduct rigorous benchmarking and capacity
planning; define performance baselines and regression gates Own
production health: participate in on-call rotations, root-cause
analysis, and corrective action plans What you will bring : 10
years of software engineering, with significant experience in Linux
kernel networking and high-performance systems. Expert-level
knowledge of kernel networking subsystems: sockets, TCP/IP stack,
routing, netfilter/iptables/nftables, XDP/AF_XDP, eBPF. Strong
systems programming skills in C/C++ and familiarity with Rust or Go
for userspace components. Proven experience building and operating
large-scale traffic systems (load balancers, proxies, packet
processors) in production. Hands-on expertise with observability:
metrics, logs, tracing, eBPF probes, perf/tracepoints, tcpdump,
pcaps, and performance analysis tools. Deep understanding of
performance tuning: NIC offloads, DPDK or kernel-bypass techniques,
IRQ/queue management, NUMA, memory allocators, lock contention, and
scheduler behavior. Solid knowledge of L4/L7 protocols (TCP, QUIC,
TLS, HTTP/2/3), congestion control, and transport/security
internals. Experience with cloud or bare-metal environments,
container orchestration (Kubernetes), service discovery, and
service mesh patterns. Strong debugging skills across
kernel/userspace boundaries; ability to analyze crashes, deadlocks,
and performance pathologies. Preferred Qualifications :
Contributions to Linux kernel, eBPF tools, or relevant open source
projects (Cilium, Envoy, NGINX, HAProxy, Calico, DPDK). Experience
with programmable data planes, SRv6, BGP/ECMP, anycast, and
multi-cluster traffic routing. Background in security for
networking stacks: firewalling, ACLs, mTLS, DDoS
detection/mitigation, bot defense. Experience building self-service
traffic platforms and developer-facing APIs/SDKs. Knowledge of
hardware acceleration: SmartNICs, ASICs, FPGA-based offload, and
NIC telemetry. Experience with time synchronization and precision
timing (PTP), clocking, and its impact on networking performance.
LI-Hybrid The base pay range for this position is expected in the
range below: $190,400 - $254,200 Base pay offered may vary
depending on multiple individualized factors, including location,
skills, and experience. The total compensation package for this
position may also include other elements, including a target bonus
and restricted stock units (as applicable) in addition to a full
range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits (including
401(k) eligibility and various paid time off benefits, such as PTO
and parental leave). Details of participation in these benefit
plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer of
employment. If hired, employees will be in an “at-will position”
and the Company reserves the right to modify base salary (as well
as any other discretionary payment or compensation program) at any
time, including for reasons related to individual performance,
Company or individual department/team performance, and market
factors. Please see the Talent Privacy Notice for information
regarding how eBay handles your personal data collected when you
use the eBay Careers website or apply for a job with eBay. eBay is
an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will
receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color,
religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender
identity, veteran status, and disability, or other legally
protected status. If you have a need that requires accommodation,
please contact us at talent@ebay.com . We will make every effort to
respond to your request for accommodation as soon as possible. View
our accessibility statement to learn more about eBay's commitment
to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities. It
is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie
detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment.
An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal
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Keywords: eBay, Gilroy , Staff Software Eng, Kernel Network, IT / Software / Systems , San Jose, California
