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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 - $254,200Base 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.
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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 [email protected]. 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 penalties and civil liability.
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eBay Inc. is a global commerce leader that connects millions of buyers and sellers around the world. We exist to enable economic opportunity for individuals, entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations of all sizes. Our portfolio of brands includes eBay Marketplace and eBay Classifieds Group, operating in 190 markets around the world. We offer sellers the ability to grow a business with little barrier to entry regardless of size, background or geographic location. We never compete with our sellers. We win when our sellers succeed. Buyers who shop on our Marketplace and Classifieds platforms enjoy a highly personalized experience with an unparalleled selection at great value.
