Staff Software Engineer

Overview

This is an incredible opportunity to be part of a company that has been at the forefront of AI and high-performance data storage innovation for over two decades. DataDirect Networks (DDN) is a global market leader renowned for powering many of the world's most demanding AI data centers, in industries ranging from life sciences and healthcare to financial services, autonomous cars, Government, academia, research and manufacturing.

  

"DDN's A3I solutions are transforming the landscape of AI infrastructure." – IDC 

  

“The real differentiator is DDN. I never hesitate to recommend DDN. DDN is the de facto name for AI Storage in high performance environments” - Marc Hamilton, VP, Solutions Architecture & Engineering | NVIDIA 

  

DDN is the global leader in AI and multi-cloud data management at scale. Our cutting-edge data intelligence platform is designed to accelerate AI workloads, enabling organizations to extract maximum value from their data. With a proven track record of performance, reliability, and scalability, DDN empowers businesses to tackle the most challenging AI and data-intensive workloads with confidence. 

  

Our success is driven by our unwavering commitment to innovation, customer-centricity, and a team of passionate professionals who bring their expertise and dedication to every project. This is a chance to make a significant impact at a company that is shaping the future of AI and data management. 

  

Our commitment to innovation, customer success, and market leadership makes this an exciting and rewarding role for a driven professional looking to make a lasting impact in the world of AI and data storage. 

Job Description

DataDirect Networks Inc. (DDN) engineering organization is seeking a highly focused, self-motivated, innovative, and goal-oriented engineer to fill the role of Staff Software Systems Engineer for its “Continuation Engineering and Level 3 Engineering Support” team. The prospective candidate must have good analytical and debugging skills in Linux/ Virtualization environments to independently analyze and resolve technically challenging customer issues. The primary role involves system level troubleshooting, debugging & root cause analysis of DDN Storage Solutions as well as triage customer issues escalated to engineering by DDN’s Global Services & Support team. This is a multifaceted role that requires collaboration with highly skilled personnel in & out of engineering department at unreasonable velocity across the globe.

 

This is a hybrid position that requires the candidate to be onsite at the Columbia, MD office at least twice a week

 

Key Responsibilities:

Technical Expertise & Escalation Leadership:

• Triage, diagnose, and troubleshoot problems with DDN’s storage systems in customer production environments. 
• Take ownership of customer cases, validate technical aspects, and drive them to resolution with root cause.
• Serve as a primary escalation point for high-severity support cases, working closely with customers and internal teams to drive rapid issue resolution and minimize impact to customer operations.
• Directly contribute to the development of AI-powered debugging, log analysis, and system pattern recognition tools to accelerate resolution.
• Ability to multi-task and manage competing priorities, ensuring all objectives are accomplished with zero compromises.

Product Knowledge & Value Creation

• Be the SME and provide engineering support to DDN’s Global Support & Services organization and to DDN’s customers.
• Collaborate, coordinate feature development & timely release of software patches targeting customer reported field issues.
• Review the product documents and provide necessary feedback for both internal and external customer needs
• Strategically analyze field issues and generate product features to improve product quality and useability.
• Understand customer requirements and work towards enhancing the product quality and customer experience by improving reliability, serviceability & usability.

Customer Engagement & Business Enablement

• Conduct product & features training session to Technical Support & Professional Service groups.
• Clearly communicate complex technical topics to the varied knowledge levels of customers.
• Translate technical issues into executive-ready summaries and business impact statements.
• Actively contribute in PIER (Post Incident & Escalations Review) discus