Location: Hybrid - Cork, Ireland
Reporting to: VP Engineering, Apps and Cloud
Company Summary:
At NETGEAR, we are on a mission to unleash the full potential of connectivity with intelligent solutions that delight and protect. We turn ideas into innovative networking products that connect people, power businesses, and advance the way we live.
We're a performance-driven, talented and diverse team that's committed to delivering world-class products for our customers. As a company, we value our employees as the most essential building blocks of our success. And as teammates, we commit to taking our work to the next gear by living our values: we Dare to Transform the future, Connect and Delight our customers, Communicate Courageously with each other and collaborate to Win It Together. You’ll find our values woven through our processes, present in our decisions, and celebrated throughout our culture.
We strive to attract top talent and create a great workplace where people feel engaged, inspired, challenged, proud and respected. If you are creative, forward-thinking, passionate about technology and are looking for a rewarding career to make an impact, then you've got what it takes to succeed at NETGEAR. Join our network and help us shape the future of connectivity.
Job Summary:
As the Principal Engineer in NETGEAR’s new Center of Excellence in Cork, you will lead the architectural vision for backend distributed systems, shaping the foundation of our next-generation software subscription services. You will be responsible for developing and executing a scalable, resilient, and secure architecture that seamlessly integrates with mobile apps, web platforms, and embedded systems.
This role is central to NETGEAR’s transformation, requiring deep technical expertise and strategic insight to drive the end-to-end system architecture. You will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, setting architectural standards that ensure a cohesive and forward-looking technical ecosystem for our connected home products.
As a hybrid role, you'll work from the Cork office at least two days a week, providing the flexibility to balance in-person collaboration with remote work. Your contributions will be pivotal in NETGEAR’s evolution, driving the future of its platform and customer experiences as the company shifts towards a software-driven model.
Specific Responsibilities:
Collaborative Technical Vision:
- Partner with the VP of Engineering, CTO, and counterparts in Mobile and Embedded Systems to develop an end-to-end technical vision for NETGEAR's Software Services systems.
- Ensure this vision integrates seamlessly across mobile apps, web platforms, and embedded systems, creating a cohesive strategy that aligns with NETGEAR's overall business goals.
Architectural Leadership:
- Develop and implement the architectural strategy for backend distributed systems, with a focus on leveraging a Node.js-based stack.
- Define patterns and standards for critical components like state management, service-to-service communication, and stored state consistency across the system.
- Ensure the architecture is designed for scalability, resilience, and security, supporting future growth and enhancements.
Comprehensive Systems Understanding:
- Maintain a deep understanding of how backend systems interact with various front-end interfaces and embedded hardware.
- Provide guidance on system-wide concerns, ensuring a smooth flow of data and interactions across mobile, web, and hardware devices such as routers.
Hands-on Problem Solving:
- Be an active contributor to the development process, diving into the codebase to address critical technical challenges.
- Create proof-of-concepts or reference implementations that demonstrate architectural solutions to key problems, setting a standard for the rest of the engineering team.
Collaboration and Mentorship:
- Serve as a mentor and technical leader for distributed systems engineers, fostering best practices in software development, cloud architecture, and DevOps.
- Provide guidance on how to progressively realize the architectural vision, offering support and expertise as the team moves through each stage of development.
Cross-Functional Collaboration and Evangelism:
- Collaborate closely with product management, engineering teams, and operations to ensure that the backend architecture supports both immediate and long-term product goals.
- Work across NETGEAR teams to promote and standardize the use of common tools, practices, and technology stacks.
- Advocate for the adoption of architectural best practices and foster a culture of innovation, ensuring that all teams are aligned with the overall architectural strategy.
A Typical Day might include:
- Morning Stand-up: Kick off the day with a quick team meeting to discuss progress, roadblocks, and goals.
- Technical Analysis: Review current architecture, understand and document challenges as well as proposing solutions.
- Proof of concept: Undertake proof of concept on a new approach or technical strategy.
- Technical Mentorship: Work alongside developers to troubleshoot issues, review design or code.
- Architecture reviews with CTO, VP of Engineering and others to agree strategy.
About You:
Minimum Qualifications:
- Experience: At least 15 years of software development experience, with a significant focus on AWS and cloud architecture in distributed systems.
- Strong Technical and Business Judgment: Ability to balance long-term technical vision with short-term business goals, ensuring immediate impact while supporting future scalability.
- AWS Expertise (Core Requirement): Extensive, hands-on experience with AWS cloud services, particularly in architecting and managing scalable, secure, and resilient distributed systems. You should have in-depth knowledge of key AWS services (such as EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, DynamoDB, etc.) and cloud-native architectures.
- Architectural Expertise: Proven experience in architecting scalable backend systems for consumer web and mobile applications, with a deep technical understanding of distributed systems, leveraging AWS infrastructure for scalability and resilience.
- APIs and Microservices: Expertise in designing and developing APIs and microservices, ensuring modular and maintainable systems using AWS-native solutions like API Gateway, Lambda, and containerization.
- Programming Skills: Proficiency in several of the following languages: JavaScript, Node.js, Java, PHP, C/C++, Objective-C, with experience building cloud-native applications on AWS.
- DevOps & CI/CD: Strong experience implementing DevOps principles and building CI/CD pipelines on AWS using tools such as AWS CodePipeline, CodeBuild, and CodeDeploy, along with automation for efficient software development and deployment.
- Tools & Platforms: Experience with GitHub, GitHub Cloud, GitHub Actions and AWS developer tools, supporting version control, collaboration, and streamlined cloud deployments.
- Security Best Practices: In-depth understanding of AWS security best practices, including IAM, encryption, and network security, to ensure that systems are architected and deployed securely.
- Agile Environment: Proven ability to thrive in a fast-paced Agile software development environment with frequent software releases.
- Leadership & Collaboration: Demonstrated leadership skills, including mentoring engineers and promoting best practices in software engineering, cloud architecture, and DevOps within cross-functional teams.
- Self-Starter: Proactive, resourceful, and able to navigate complex corporate environments with a strong “get-things-done” attitude.
- Education: B.Sc. in Computer Science or equivalent vocational experience
Desired Qualifications:
- Consumer Embedded Systems: Experience with embedded systems, particularly in consumer products, is a plus.
- Security Expertise: Additional expertise in advanced security frameworks and practices, particularly in distributed systems.
- Entrepreneurial Mindset: Experience working in entrepreneurial or startup environments, demonstrating a strong “get-things-done” attitude and the ability to adapt quickly.
What we Offer:
- Competitive Compensation Package, including shares and bonus schemes.
- 35 days of vacation (including public holidays)
- Flexible Hybrid Working Model
- Private Health Insurance with 100% covered premiums for you and any dependents
- Generous Master Trust Pension arrangement (up to 12% Employer Contribution)
- Life Assurance
- Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
- Learning and Development Benefits, including Tuition reimbursement.
- Free Lunch and Parking