Principal Engineering Manager, Platform

Forward Networks is revolutionizing the way large networks are managed. The Forward Enterprise platform delivers a vendor-agnostic "digital twin" of the network, based on a mathematical model. The platform scales to support hundreds of thousands of network devices, whether cloud, hybrid cloud, or on-prem. It serves as a single source of truth for the network, enabling network operators to instantly verify security posture, accelerate troubleshooting, avoid outages, and modernize network management.

Over the past few years, Forward Networks has received tremendous industry recognition, including “Cool Vendor in Enterprise Networking” by Gartner, “Product of the Year” by Cloud Computing, “Hot Company” by Cyber Defense Magazine, “Enterprise Cloud Computing Software of the Year,” and has been named to Fortune’s “Best Workplaces in the Bay Area” list.

The company was founded by four Stanford PhD graduates who saw a massive opportunity to improve network operations. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, MSD Capital, Threshold Ventures, and Goldman Sachs.

Forward Networks is currently seeking a talented Engineering Manager to lead our Platforms team across two geographic regions (US and India). You will oversee the development and operations of a scalable, reliable and high performing platform. As a hands-on leader, you will work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure that platform initiatives are executed smoothly and align with broader organizational goals.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and Mentor the Platform Team: Manage, mentor, and inspire a team of skilled backend engineers. Foster growth, promote engineering best practices, and create a collaborative and innovative work environment.
• Feature Development: Lead the team in designing and developing features that power our platform. Design and implement storage systems, job scheduling systems, data ingestion frameworks, monitoring frameworks etc to ensure high system performance and availability.
• Collaborate with Cross-Functional Teams: Work closely with cross functional teams, including product management and other stakeholders to define, scope, and prioritize new features.
• Code Reviews and Technical Excellence: Review code, design documents, and technical proposals, ensuring that the team consistently produces high-quality, maintainable code. Offer constructive feedback to foster a culture of technical excellence.

Operational Excellence: Monitor platform performance and establish practices for reliability, scalability, and incident response.

• Project Management: Oversee project planning and execution. Balance hands-on development with team management duties to ensure that both personal contributions and team deliverables are completed on time and meet quality standards.
• Hands-On Development: Contribute directly to the design and development of key backend systems. This includes driving platform architectural changes, designing new frameworks, writing clean and maintainable code, and addressing complex technical challenges within a Java/Spring codebase.

Requirements:

• Education: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field; Masters or Ph.D. preferred.
• 10+ years in Software Engineering: Extensive experience in full lifecycle software development, including hands-on backend development with large-scale applications.
• 3+ years in a hands on leadership role managing engineering teams
• Expertise in Java: Deep expertise in Java (version 17 or later) and hands-on experience with Spring or other similar frameworks. Proven ability to design, build, and maintain complex backend systems.
• Strong technical expertise in containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), cloud-native technologies (AWS, Azure, GCP), and microservices architecture.
• Object-Oriented Design & Testing: Expertise in object-oriented programming, design patterns, and writing testable, maintainable code. Strong focus on code quality and automated testing.
• Communication & Stakeholder Management: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate technical concepts and engage with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

NOTE: experience in the networking domain is NOT a requirement for this role but is a plus.

This position is a regular, full-time opportunity with Forward Networks in Santa Clara, CA.

The base pay range for this role is between $200,000 and $240,000. Base pay will depend on your skills, qualifications, experience, and location