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Senior HPC Developer - RDMA Networking

Join Clockwork Systems as a Senior HPC Developer to optimize high-performance RDMA networking and storage systems for AI and HPC.

Location
Palo Alto, California, United States
Compensation
$150k–$230k/yr
Level
senior
Type
full time · On-site

Posted by employer 1 day ago

First seen on Joblaze 1 day ago

Last verified on the company career page 1 day ago

What you'll build

  • Design, build, and optimize high-performance RDMA networking and storage systems
  • Develop systems that leverage DPUs, SmartNICs, and programmable switches
  • Debug performance and reliability issues across applications and systems
  • Analyze network and storage behavior including latency and throughput
  • Build tooling and instrumentation to understand end-to-end performance

Must have

  • 5+ years of experience in systems, networking, storage, HPC, or other performance-critical software development
  • Strong proficiency in low-level C/C++
  • Strong understanding of RDMA networking, including RoCE and RDMA Verbs
  • Experience debugging low-level Linux networking, storage, or driver behavior
  • Ability to reason across hardware and software boundaries

Nice to have

  • Experience with DPUs, SmartNICs, or programmable network hardware
  • Experience with platforms such as NVIDIA BlueField
  • Experience with NVMe, NVMe-oF, NVMe/RDMA, or NVMe/TCP
  • Experience with SPDK, DPDK, or other userspace I/O frameworks
  • Background in AI infrastructure, HPC clusters, distributed storage

Requirements

Experience
5+ years

Not disclosed in this posting: visa sponsorship.

Benefits

Catered Lunch Competitive Compensation Great benefits package

Joblaze summary

In this role, the Senior HPC Developer focuses on designing and optimizing high-performance RDMA networking and storage systems, working closely with hardware and software components. Key skills include low-level C/C++ programming and a strong understanding of RDMA networking principles, particularly RoCE and NVMe-over-Fabrics. This position is suited for experienced systems engineers who thrive in fast-paced environments and enjoy tackling complex performance challenges. The team at Clockwork Systems emphasizes collaboration and innovation in building advanced AI infrastructure.

Joblaze insights

  • Listed yesterday — first seen on Joblaze October 7, 2026. Last confirmed on Clockwork Systems's careers page October 7, 2026.
  • Salary band is above the typical range for comparable tech roles (median ~$127,000).
  • Starts above 28% of 112 comparable senior other roles in United States that list C++ we track (median $165,000 across 24 companies). See C++ salary trends
  • C++ appears in 7.1% of 2441 comparable senior other roles in United States; PCIe appears in 0.3% of 2441 comparable senior other roles in United States.

Quick facts

Is the Senior HPC Developer - RDMA Networking role remote?
No — this is an on-site role in Palo Alto, California, United States.
What's the salary range?
Clockwork Systems lists $150,000–$230,000 for this role.
How much experience is required?
At least 5 years of relevant experience for this Senior HPC Developer - RDMA Networking role.
Where is the role based?
Clockwork Systems is hiring for this position in Palo Alto, California, United States.
What's the tech stack?
Joblaze extracted these technologies from the posting: C++, DPUs, Linux, NUMA, NVMe-over-Fabrics, PCIe.
What seniority level is this role?
Clockwork Systems targets senior candidates for this position.
Is this full-time or contract?
Full-time for this Senior HPC Developer - RDMA Networking role at Clockwork Systems.

From the original posting

About Clockwork Systems

To learn more, visit www.clockwork.io.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Senior Systems Engineer – RDMA Networking & Storage to help build and optimize high-performance infrastructure for AI and HPC systems.
You’ll work across RDMA networking and storage data paths, spanning compute hosts, NICs, DPUs, smart switches, storage systems, and the Linux software stack. The work includes RoCE networking, NVMe-over-Fabrics, congestion control, performance optimization, programmable network hardware, and debugging complex interactions across hardware and software.
This role is ideal for an experienced systems engineer who enjoys working close to the hardware, diagnosing difficult performance problems, and building reliable systems where latency, throughput, and network behavior matter.

What You’ll Do
  • Design, build, and optimize high-performance RDMA networking and storage systems
  • Work with RoCE, RDMA Verbs, and NVMe-over-Fabrics
  • Develop systems that leverage DPUs, SmartNICs, and programmable switches for packet processing, telemetry, control, and data-path acceleration
  • Develop and optimize software using queue pairs, completion queues, memory registration, zero-copy I/O, and other RDMA primitives
  • Debug performance and reliability issues across applications, Linux kernel, drivers, NICs, DPUs, switches, and storage systems
  • Analyze network and storage behavior including latency, throughput, queueing, congestion, packet loss, retransmissions, and flow control
  • Develop mechanisms to improve network performance and congestion behavior in high-bandwidth RDMA fabrics
  • Build tooling and instrumentation to understand end-to-end performance across compute, network, and storage
  • Profile and tune systems across PCIe, NUMA, CPU, memory, NIC, DPU, network, and storage boundaries
  • Own major components from design through implementation, performance validation, and deployment
What You Bring
  • 5+ years of experience in systems, networking, storage, HPC, or other performance-critical software development
  • Strong proficiency in low-level C/C++
  • Strong understanding of RDMA networking, including RoCE and RDMA Verbs
  • Strong understanding of networking fundamentals, including packet processing, queues, congestion, and flow control
  • Experience debugging low-level Linux networking, storage, or driver behavior
  • Familiarity with concepts such as DMA, memory registration, queue pairs, completion queues, interrupts/polling, and zero-copy I/O
  • Experience profiling and optimizing latency- and throughput-sensitive systems
  • Ability to reason across hardware and software boundaries and independently debug complex system-level problems
  • Strong ownership and comfort working in a small, fast-moving engineering team
Bonus Points
  • Experience with DPUs, SmartNICs, or programmable network hardware
  • Experience with platforms such as NVIDIA BlueField or programmable switch environments
  • Experience with P4, switch SDKs, or in-network packet processing
  • Experience with NVMe, NVMe-oF, NVMe/RDMA, or NVMe/TCP
  • Experience with SPDK, DPDK, or other userspace I/O frameworks
  • Experience with Linux NVMe and RDMA subsystems
  • Experience with congestion control, including DCQCN, ECN, PFC, or related mechanisms
  • Experience tuning NVIDIA/Mellanox ConnectX NICs and RoCE fabrics
  • Experience working with high-performance switches and data-center network fabrics
  • Experience with PCIe, NUMA, huge pages, DMA, or CPU affinity optimization
  • Experience with performance profiling, tracing, or observability tooling
  • Background in AI infrastructure, HPC clusters, distributed storage, or large-scale data-center systems
Enjoy
  • Challenging, technically deep projects
  • A friendly and inclusive workplace culture
  • Competitive compensation
  • A great benefits package
  • Catered lunch
Compensation for this position will vary based on the skills and experience you bring, as well as internal equity considerations. For candidates hired at the posted level, the expected base salary range is $150,000–$230,000. The offered compensation package may also include stock options or other equity awards, subject to Clockwork’s equity program and applicable approvals.

Clockwork Systems is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to building world-class teams by welcoming bright, passionate individuals from all backgrounds. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, ancestry, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status. We believe diversity drives innovation, and we grow stronger together.

Standard company text repeated across Clockwork Systems's postings is omitted here.

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