Lead Developer – SONiC NOS

At eBay were more than a global ecommerce leader were changing the way the world shops and sells. Our platform empowers millions of buyers and sellers in more than 190 markets around the world. Were committed to pushing boundaries and leaving our mark as we reinvent the future of ecommerce for enthusiasts.

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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 Role

eBays Site Network Engineering team designs and engineers the production fabrics connecting eBays server fleet across data centers POPs and other properties. We run 100% SONiC-based open networking in production across six switch vendor families on multiple merchant silicon families. Zero availability-impacting fabric incidents every year since the SONiC transition began.

You will establish SONiC platform engineering as an in-house function this is a greenfield mandate not a backfill. You own the full stack from ASIC layer through production deployment with direct influence on architecture release quality and vendor strategy. A near-term goal is converging to a single SONiC release across all six vendor families; this role is central to that.

What Youll Do

• Drive end-to-end platform enablement for new switch hardware (transceivers/CMIS optics qualification and tuning thermal/PSU/fan/watchdog/sensors EEPROM LED/CPLD/FPGA as required).
• Lead ASIC SDK SAI integration: vendor SDK integration/customization SAI behavior tuning/modeling syncd adaptations dataplane correctness performance and stability.
• Design production reliability across the stack: warm/fast reboot correctness upgrade safety and high availability under load (hitless patterns where applicable).
• Debug and resolve complex issues across kernel/drivers SDK/firmware SONiC services (SWSS/orchagent Redis DBs containers) with strong bias for reproducibility and root-cause closure.
• Deliver features on real hardware and meet scale/performance targets (buffers/QoS/queues/counters/telemetry link/port behavior failure handling).
• Define and operationalize release processes: gating rollback strategy known-issue management and production-readiness standards.
• Serve as key technical interface with ASIC vendors and ODMs driving escalations and influencing outcomes.
• Build CI/CD pipelines automated testing (PTF SpyTest or equivalent) hardware-in-the-loop validation and regression coverage.
• Contribute to upstream SONiC when appropriate and define a responsible fork/upstream strategy.
• Mentor peers and contribute to team growth as we scale (people management not required).

What Success Looks Like (First 612 Months)

• Enable or materially stabilize at least one ASIC/platform family with measurable improvements (reboot reliability crash rate performance baselines scale targets).
• Deliver a repeatable ASIC SDK integration qualification pipeline.
• Establish foundational processes (testing CI/CD release discipline vendor engagement) so the capability scales smoothly.

Must-Have Qualifications

• Strong Linux systems software development background with C/C and expert debugging skills (gdb perf strace core dumps).
• Production experience programming switching ASICs via vendor SDKs and/or SAI including integration behavioral tuning and performance/stability troubleshooting.
• Delivered SDK/SAI-based switching features on real hardware in a production or production-like environment.
• Working knowledge of SONiC internals or equivalent NOS (SAI/syncd SWSS/orchagent Redis DBs container model) with ability to ramp quickly.
• Ability to lead ambiguous technical initiatives and drive cross-functional delivery across sites/time zones.

Strong Differentiators

• Track record partnering with merchant silicon vendors including escalation management and influencing outcomes.
• Direct upstream contributions to SONiC SAI FRR or Linux kernel networking.
• Deep SAI behavioral expertise (ACL QoS buffers ECMP counters telemetry).
• Optics qualification tuning and vendor-specific behavior across transceiver families.

Additional Details

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 you have a need that requires accommodation please contact us at. We will make every effort to respond to your request for accommodation as soon as possible. View our accessibility statement to learn more about eBays commitment to ensuring digital accessibility for people with disabilities.

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