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About the Team and Role
eBay's Site Network Engineering team designs and engineers the production fabrics connecting eBay's 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 You'll 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 behaviour, failure handling).
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- 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 6–12 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, behavioural 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 behavioural expertise (ACL, QoS, buffers, ECMP, counters, telemetry).
- Optics qualification, tuning, and vendor-specific behaviour 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 status. If you have a need that requires accommodation, please contact us at talent@ebay.com. 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.
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