Principal Software Engineer, Cloud Networking Platform

Posted Yesterday
Easy Apply
Be an Early Applicant
3 Locations
Hybrid
198K-341K Annually
Expert/Leader
Fintech • Mobile • Software • Financial Services
SoFi’s mission is to help people reach financial independence to realize their ambitions.
The Role
Own the company-wide cloud networking strategy and architecture across AWS, multi-region and multi-cluster environments. Lead network automation, AI-enabled infrastructure operations, progressive delivery, observability, security standards, and major incident response. Partner with engineering, security, compliance, SRE, and executives to deliver resilient, scalable networking. Mentor senior technical staff and guide multi-year, cross-functional initiatives.
Summary Generated by Built In

Employee Applicant Privacy Notice

Who we are:

Shape a brighter financial future with us.

Together with our members, we’re changing the way people think about and interact with personal finance.

We’re a next-generation financial services company and national bank using innovative, mobile-first technology to help our millions of members reach their goals. The industry is going through an unprecedented transformation, and we’re at the forefront. We’re proud to come to work every day knowing that what we do has a direct impact on people’s lives, with our core values guiding us every step of the way. Join us to invest in yourself, your career, and the financial world.

The role:

We are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to own the long-term networking vision for all of SoFi. SoFi runs almost entirely in AWS, and every member interaction, from opening the app to moving money, travels over the cloud networks this role will shape: the internet edge, DNS, CDN and WAF, load balancing and ingress, VPC and multi-account connectivity, service-to-service traffic, and connectivity to our partners. You will sit on the Cloud Platform team, but your scope and impact are company-wide.

You will define the north-star cloud network architecture and the multi-year path to get there. That includes multi-region and multi-cluster traffic management, incremental rollout and progressive delivery at the network layer, and a network that is resilient, secure, and fast for our members. You will also guide the strategy for our small on-premises colocation footprint, including how it connects to the cloud. You will identify the hard problems others miss, make the critical tradeoffs, and lead them from idea through execution.

You will lead how we use AI to run networking and infrastructure. We are moving toward an AI-accelerated SDLC for infrastructure, and you will design and build the automation, agentic workflows, and guardrails that let us change the network faster and more safely, and help other infrastructure teams do the same.

This is a hands-on, high-influence role. You will partner with engineering, security, risk and compliance, SRE, architecture, and business leaders across SoFi and its technology platform businesses. Your partnership with Security and Compliance is especially important: you will help shape the network policies and standards that govern how SoFi's network is built and changed, and make sure they are practical to implement and automate. Beyond networking, you will bring enough depth in compute, Kubernetes, identity, and infrastructure as code to give strategic guidance and feedback across the broader Cloud Platform.

The ideal candidate is a recognized networking expert and a mentor who is equally comfortable writing the design doc, reviewing the code, and leading the incident bridge. They have a solid sense of ownership and can explain a hard tradeoff to engineers and executives alike.

What you’ll do:

  • Network strategy and architecture: Own the long-term technical vision for networking across SoFi, defining a north-star architecture and an incremental, multi-year roadmap. Lead the architecture of member-facing networking. Design multi-region and multi-cluster networking. Enable incremental rollout and progressive delivery. Set direction for service-to-service and multi-account connectivity. Drive network automation end to end.

  • AI and automation: Lead the use of AI to design, operate, and change networks and infrastructure. Define the guardrails, policy checks, and success criteria that make AI-guided infrastructure changes safe in a regulated environment. Build reusable AI tooling and patterns that other infrastructure teams can adopt.

  • Leadership and influence: Serve as a strategic technical advisor to Infrastructure and Technology leadership on networking, influencing roadmaps, investment, and vendor and build-versus-buy choices. Champion AI adoption across infrastructure. Lead design reviews for network-impacting changes, driving clear outcomes on one-way doors. Be the technical partner to Security, Compliance, and Risk on network policies and standards.

  • Operational excellence: Be the subject matter expert and lead resolver for company-critical network incidents. Define SLOs and outcome metrics for networking, such as member-facing latency, availability, and change lead time. Build observability into the network so we detect issues before our members and partners do.

  • Mentorship and talent: Mentor Staff and Senior Staff engineers and emerging technical leaders. Raise the bar for design and code review.

What you’ll need:

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field (or equivalent practical experience).

  • 10+ years of professional engineering experience, including 2+ years in a senior technical leadership role (Staff or above) with company-wide or multi-department scope.

  • Deep expertise in networking fundamentals and protocols, including TCP/IP, BGP, DNS, TLS, HTTP, and L4/L7 load balancing.

  • Deep experience designing and operating large-scale, internet-facing networks, including edge, CDN, WAF, and DDoS protection.

  • Deep expertise in AWS networking and multi-account, multi-region design.

  • Strong experience with Kubernetes networking, ingress and gateway patterns, and service meshes, including multi-cluster topologies.

  • Proven experience with traffic management for progressive delivery, such as weighted routing, canary releases, and automated rollback.

  • Hands-on experience using AI to automate infrastructure or operations work.

  • Proven programming skills in one or more languages such as Go or Python, and excellent experience with infrastructure as code and network automation.

  • Demonstrated track record of setting technical direction across organizations and delivering multi-quarter, cross-functional initiatives to completion.

  • Experience leading the response to high-severity, customer-impacting incidents.

  • Exceptional written and verbal communication, including the ability to present complex technical strategy and tradeoffs to executives, product managers, and engineers.

  • Exceptional interpersonal skills, with the ability to build trust and drive alignment with non-technical partners and across organizational boundaries.

Nice to have:

  • Experience with on-premises data center networking and hybrid connectivity to public cloud.

  • Experience with zero trust networking, network segmentation, and workload identity.

  • Experience building agentic tooling, MCP servers, or AI-guided automation for infrastructure or network operations.

  • Experience with PKI and certificate automation at scale.

  • Experience applying security standards and compliance frameworks (SOC 2, PCI DSS, FFIEC, or similar) to network design in regulated industries.

Compensation and Benefits
The base pay range for this role is listed below. Final base pay offer will be determined based on individual factors such as the candidate’s experience, skills, and location. 
 
To view all of our comprehensive and competitive benefits, visit our Benefits at SoFi page!
SoFi provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion (including religious dress and grooming practices), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions, breastfeeding, and conditions related to breastfeeding), gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age (40 or over), physical or medical disability, medical condition, marital status, registered domestic partner status, sexual orientation, genetic information, military and/or veteran status, or any other basis prohibited by applicable state or federal law.The Company hires the best qualified candidate for the job, without regard to protected characteristics.Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.New York applicants: Notice of Employee RightsSoFi is committed to an inclusive culture. As part of this commitment, SoFi offers reasonable accommodations to candidates with physical or mental disabilities. If you need accommodations to participate in the job application or interview process, please let your recruiter know or email [email protected].We are unable to accommodate remote work from Hawaii, Alaska or Puerto Rico at this time.
Internal Employees
If you are a current employee, do not apply here - please navigate to our Internal Job Board in Greenhouse to apply to our open roles.

Skills Required

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience
  • 10+ years of professional engineering experience
  • 2+ years in a senior technical leadership role at Staff level or above with company-wide or multi-department scope
  • Deep expertise in TCP/IP, BGP, DNS, TLS, HTTP, and L4/L7 load balancing
  • Experience designing and operating large-scale internet-facing networks, including edge, CDN, WAF, and DDoS protection
  • Deep expertise in AWS networking and multi-account, multi-region design
  • Strong experience with Kubernetes networking, ingress, gateway patterns, service meshes, and multi-cluster topologies
  • Experience with progressive-delivery traffic management, including weighted routing, canary releases, and automated rollback
  • Hands-on experience using AI to automate infrastructure or operations work
  • Programming experience in Go, Python, or another programming language
  • Strong experience with infrastructure as code and network automation
  • Track record of setting technical direction across organizations and delivering multi-quarter cross-functional initiatives
  • Experience leading responses to high-severity, customer-impacting incidents
  • Exceptional written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills
  • Experience with on-premises data center networking and hybrid public-cloud connectivity
  • Experience with zero-trust networking, network segmentation, and workload identity
  • Experience building agentic tooling, MCP servers, or AI-guided infrastructure automation
  • Experience with PKI and certificate automation at scale
  • Experience applying SOC 2, PCI DSS, FFIEC, or similar compliance frameworks to network design

What the Team is Saying

Kari
Niyati
Mike
Suban
Caroline
Mona
Donald
Kari
Yelena
Thomas
Jeremy Rishel
Mina K
Arun Pinto
Lauren Stafford Webb
Am I A Good Fit?
beta
Get Personalized Job Insights.
Our AI-powered fit analysis compares your resume with a job listing so you know if your skills & experience align.

The Company
HQ: San Francisco, CA
4,500 Employees
Year Founded: 2011

What We Do

SoFi wasn’t built to be a bank. Or a technology company. We were built for one mission: help people achieve financial independence so they can realize their ambitions. Redefining an entire industry isn’t easy work—and it’s not for the faint of heart. It takes a certain kind of team. People with diverse perspectives and expertise, united by a common sense of purpose. People willing to challenge assumptions but always do the right thing. People proving that innovation and responsibility don’t have to compete, but can come together to create something truly unconventional in the world. For the last eight years, we’ve been charting this new path forward. We call it The SoFi Way. At SoFi, we don’t just talk about culture: we live it. The SoFi Way is how we show up every day, how we make decisions, and how we build for our members, clients, and each other.

Why Work With Us

Together with our members, we’re changing the way people think about and interact with personal finance. We’re a next-generation Fintech company using innovative, mobile-first technology to help our members reach their goals. The industry is going through an unprecedented transformation, and we’re at the forefront.

Gallery

Gallery
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery
Gallery

SoFi Offices

Hybrid Workspace

Employees engage in a combination of remote and on-site work.

For the majority of our workforce who work on a hybrid schedule, the in-office requirement is a handful of days per month!

Typical time on-site: Flexible
Company Office Image
HQSan Francisco, CA
Company Office Image
Cottonwood Heights, UT
Company Office Image
Frisco, TX
Company Office Image
Helena, MT
Company Office Image
Jacksonville, FL
Company Office Image
New York, NY
Company Office Image
Seattle, WA
Learn more

Similar Jobs

SoFi Logo SoFi

Staff Software Engineer

Fintech • Mobile • Software • Financial Services
Easy Apply
Hybrid
2 Locations
4500 Employees
154K-264K Annually

SoFi Logo SoFi

Staff Software Engineer

Fintech • Mobile • Software • Financial Services
Easy Apply
Hybrid
2 Locations
4500 Employees
173K-297K Annually

SoFi Logo SoFi

Senior Engineering Manager

Fintech • Mobile • Software • Financial Services
Easy Apply
Hybrid
Seattle, WA, USA
4500 Employees
173K-297K Annually

SoFi Logo SoFi

Corporate Development Analyst

Fintech • Mobile • Software • Financial Services
Easy Apply
Remote or Hybrid
United States
4500 Employees
104K-160K Annually

Sign up now Access later

Create Free Account

Please log in or sign up to report this job.

Create Free Account