Senior Software Engineer, Storage Core (C/Linux)

Hi I’m Nikolay, leading the technical organization at StorPool. We’re looking for exceptional engineers to join our Core Storage team—the heart of our globally recognized distributed block storage platform.

Why StorPool Engineering is Different

Our engineering culture is fundamentally shaped by the belief that a focused, highly talented team, operating within the right environment, can achieve extraordinary results, even in technically complex domains like high-performance distributed storage. This belief stems from our own history – turning that “impossible” idea into a successful global product.

• Customer Empathy & Results Orientation: We are deeply focused on solving real, challenging problems for our customers – the complexity and cost of traditional storage was the genesis of StorPool. We prioritize understanding their needs and making a tangible positive impact on their operations. This translates into a strong results-oriented approach: we value engineers who identify obstacles and drive through them to deliver robust, effective solutions.
• Collaboration in a Remote World: We cultivate an inclusive, supportive, and humble team environment. Collaboration happens naturally because we hire for it. In our remote-first setup, communication is deliberate, often asynchronous, and written, designed to respect focus time and enable effective teamwork across geographies.
• Technical Excellence & Continuous Improvement: We are tackling ambitious engineering challenges at the forefront of storage technology. This requires a commitment to technical excellence and a mindset of continuous improvement – in our product, our development tools and processes, and our skills. Expect a culture where learning is constant, and constructive feedback is shared openly to help everyone grow.

Your role: Building the Future of Data Storage

As a Senior Engineer on the Core team, you’ll:

• Core Platform Development: You will be instrumental in building and evolving the engine that delivers our industry-leading performance, rock-solid reliability, and massive scalability.
• Deep Technical Challenges: Your work will involve deep C programming within the Linux environment, tackling complex issues in distributed systems, including data consistency, low-level disk I/O optimization, network performance tuning (TCP/IP, RDMA), and direct Linux kernel interaction, potentially including custom driver development.
• Advanced Storage Concepts: You will regularly work with critical storage technologies such as synchronous replication, sophisticated fault tolerance mechanisms, zero-copy data paths, lock-free data structures, and advanced data placement algorithms.
• Full Development Lifecycle Ownership: Your responsibilities span designing and implementing new core features, meticulously optimizing existing C code, investigating and resolving complex production issues (sometimes requiring kernel-level debugging), and providing technical leadership within the Core team.
• High-Performance Remote Environment: This is a fully remote position within a culture that demands high performance. Success requires exceptional technical skills, outstanding resourcefulness, self-discipline, and the ability to be highly productive independently.
• Proactive and Independent Work Ethic: While collaboration is vital, our remote setup necessitates a proactive approach. You’ll utilize designated “core work hours” for focused real-time collaboration and critical questions. Outside these times, you are expected to be resourceful, delve into the codebase and available materials to find answers, and make significant progress independently.
• Emphasis on Written Communication: Excellent written communication is paramount for effective asynchronous collaboration in our distributed team.
• Steep Learning Curve & Initiative: Onboarding involves a significant learning curve within a complex domain. We provide structure, but your proactivity in seeking knowledge and overcoming obstacles will be critical to quickly becoming impactful.
• Fundamental Contribution to Mission: Your work directly contributes to StorPool’s mission of making outstanding storage available for cloud builders, thereby helping create a Better World through Better Storage.

Why You Should or Shouldn’t Apply

This role offers immense technical challenges and the opportunity to make a significant impact on a core infrastructure product used globally. However, our high-performance remote environment and the nature of the work require a specific blend of skills, experience, and mindset. To help you decide if StorPool is the right place for you, be honest with yourself – does this sound like a fit?

You Should Apply If:

• You possess excellent, demonstrable C programming skills and have a strong, intuitive grasp of computer science fundamentals, including algorithms, complex data structures, and how software interacts with underlying hardware.
• You have a deep, practical understanding of the Linux operating system, extending beyond user-space into kernel internals, memory management, process scheduling, and particularly the networking stack (TCP/IP required, RDMA knowledge is a plus).
• You have proven experience designing, implementing, debugging, and maintaining fault-tolerant distributed systems. You understand the challenges of consistency, concurrency, and failure handling in a multi-node environment.
• You inherently integrate the scientific method into your engineering work. You approach problems by rigorously analyzing symptoms, forming clear hypotheses, designing experiments or tests to validate assumptions, and iterating towards robust, well-understood solutions. You value data over intuition.
• You thrive when tackling complex problems with significant technical ambiguity and are highly resourceful. You enjoy figuring things out independently, often working across different layers of the technology stack – from low-level kernel interactions to distributed algorithms to API design – to deliver a complete solution. You are proactive in seeking information and don’t wait to be told what to do next.
• You thrive in an environment that grants considerable autonomy, expecting you to proactively identify challenges, devise solutions, and execute on them without needing constant direction or detailed task assignments.
• You know how to strike the right balance between development velocity and building high-quality, reliable, and maintainable systems designed for the long term. You understand that shortcuts in foundational systems create technical debt with high interest rates.
• You are an outstanding communicator and collaborator, particularly in writing. You can articulate complex technical ideas clearly and concisely, which is absolutely crucial for success in our fully remote environment.
• You are highly self-motivated and thrive in a performance-oriented environment where initiative, impact, and the ability to navigate complex challenges independently are highly valued and expected.
• (Extra Credit): Prior experience with cloud computing platforms (OpenStack, Kubernetes, etc.), virtualization technologies (KVM, etc.), or developing/supporting Linux device drivers (storage, networking) is a definite plus.

Put Another Way, You Probably Shouldn’t Apply If:

• You require significant externally imposed structure, constant guidance, or readily available documentation for every task to be productive. You are uncomfortable navigating ambiguity or seeking out information proactively.
• You need frequent, real-time access to senior engineers or mentors outside of designated collaboration periods to make progress. You rely heavily on others to unblock you.
• You want to focus only on architecting new features or “exciting” greenfield development. Debugging complex, sometimes obscure, production issues, occasionally deep within the kernel, is a critical and shared responsibility for everyone on the Core team, including senior engineers.
• You prefer having every detail planned upfront and struggle to adapt when requirements or understanding evolve during implementation.
• You haven’t previously taken significant, end-to-end ownership of complex, ambiguous software projects or demonstrated strong initiative in past roles.
• Your primary career ambition in the near term is to mentor junior engineers. Our engineering team is highly tenured (most would be considered Senior or above), meaning peer learning is abundant, but formal mentorship opportunities for early-career engineers are limited.
• You view senior engineering roles (like Staff or Principal) as positions primarily focused on project management, extensive architecture reviews, or coordinating others’ work. Our most senior engineers spend the majority of their time tackling the hardest technical problems hands-on, building solutions, and while they do help guide others, their primary focus remains deep technical contribution.

Benefits

• Competitive Salary: We offer competitive compensation within the market for high-caliber engineering talent. (Specific details shared during the process).
• Meaningful Time Off: We believe in the importance of rest and disconnection.
• Fully Remote Work: This position is fully remote, offering flexibility in location and work schedule, optimized for focus and productivity.
• Continuous Learning: We support your professional growth with a yearly education budget for books, courses, or subscriptions, plus coverage for more significant learning opportunities like industry conferences with manager approval.
• Life Milestone Celebrations: We celebrate your personal milestones with gifts and bonuses.

Ready to Build the Future of Storage?

If you’re excited by the challenge of building faster, more reliable, and vastly more efficient storage systems that power the modern cloud, and if our culture of technical ownership and open remote collaboration resonates with you, we encourage you to apply.