Senior Software Engineer

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Job Summary

The Senior Software Engineer is a key technical contributor responsible for the architecture, design, development, integration, and lifecycle maintenance of high-quality, carrier-grade packet Ethernet products. This role independently leads complex engineering initiatives, provides technical guidance to other engineers, and collaborates across disciplines to deliver scalable, reliable, and maintainable embedded software solutions. The position requires strong technical judgment, ownership, and the ability to translate business and customer requirements into product capabilities. This role requires the ability to work well in a team-based collaboration environment, delivering completed work assignments in an iterative and prioritized fashion.

Duties and Responsibilities

Serves as a senior contributor and technical owner for major features in the Ethernet product domain, supporting design, development and platform evolution. Designs and develops embedded software applications, primarily using C/C++ using the SAFe development methodology in a team environment. The software applications include platform, kernel, and device driver components and bootloader applications as well as higher level embedded applications which meet the customers’ requirements. Leverage modern software development tools, including AI-assisted engineering tools such as GitHub Copilot and Claude Code, to improve development efficiency, code quality, and engineering productivity. Evaluate and contribute to AI-related engineering initiatives where appropriate. Develop and execute unit, integration, system, and feature-level test strategies to verify software functionality, robustness, performance, and reliability. Contribute to system architecture and technical strategy across multiple subsystems, or serve as the recognized expert for a significant technology domain. Evaluate emerging technologies, lead proof-of-concept investigations, influence technical direction, and represent the organization in relevant industry forums, standards activities, or customer engagements. Considered a department expert in one or more technical areas and is frequently consulted by others for this expertise. Own the technical delivery and quality of major features from requirements through deployment, sustaining support, and customer issue resolution. Provide technical mentoring, design guidance, code reviews, and architectural knowledge transfer to junior and mid-level engineers. Demonstrated success participating in multiple full product development life cycles within telecom, datacom, networking, or related embedded systems industries. Collaborates with systems engineering, product line management, FPGA, hardware and product teams to translate business requirements into functional product solutions. Write clean, maintainable, and well-documented code, improving overall code quality through refactoring, automation, and reduction of technical debt. Creates and maintains unit and integration tests to ensure application stability. Evaluate new technologies and infrastructure improvements that support long‑term sustainability, scalability, and maintainability of the product family.

Qualifications Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Computer Information Science or equivalent education required.
• Typically requires 8+ years of professional embedded software development experience or equivalent demonstrated expertise.
• Strong proficiency with Linux development environments, including system administration, debugging, build systems, process management, and performance analysis.
• Strong understanding of embedded software architecture, multithreading, concurrency, memory management, and performance optimization.
• Development experience on Embedded Linux operating systems.
• Experience debugging complex software issues using tools such as GDB, core dumps, protocol analyzers, and system tracing tools.
• Proficiency with Git and modern source control workflows, including branching strategies, code review processes, and CI/CD integration.
• Experience implementing or troubleshooting networking protocols such as Ethernet, VLAN, MPLS, LACP, STP/RSTP/MSTP, OAM, PTP, or synchronization technologies.
• Familiarity with SAFe development methodology.
• Strong interpersonal, project management, analytical, and investigative skills.
• Strong verbal presentation and communication skills.
• Ability to influence technical decisions and build consensus among cross-functional stakeholders.
• Attentive to detail.
• Limited travel may be required for this position.

Preferred Qualifications (Success Criteria)

• Industry experience developing carrier-grade software for Telecom/Datacom transport equipment.
• Solid understanding of data communications networking with an emphasis on Layer 2 Ethernet technologies.
• Familiarity with IEEE, ITU, and MEF standards.
• Embedded Linux kernel and device driver development.
• Secure software development practices.
• Open-source software integration and maintenance.
• Experience with ARM-based embedded platforms.
• Network management protocols (NETCONF, SNMP, gNMI, RESTCONF).
• High-availability and carrier-grade software architectures.
• CI/CD and automated test frameworks.

Adtran is a leading global provider of fiber-based networking solutions and SaaS applications, focused on the broadband access market. Our comprehensive portfolio spans from the metro core to the customer premises, enabling network providers to deliver Gigabit broadband to every home and business. Our vision is to enable a fully connected world where the power to communicate is available to everyone, everywhere. At Adtran, we believe in our people. With a diverse and inclusive team spread across the globe, our culture embraces creativity and seeks innovation and quality in everything we do. Built on a foundation of communication, trust, collaboration, and an entrepreneurial spirit enables us to be a global technology leader and a strong customer advocate. Adtran began operations in January 1986. Headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama, Adtran is located in Cummings Research Park - the second-largest research park in the U.S. and fourth-largest in the world. Our mailing address is 901 Explorer Boulevard, Huntsville, Alabama, 35806. Adtran, Inc. is a wholly‑owned subsidiary of Adtran Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADTN and FSE: QH9). Find out more at adtran.com, or follow our story on LinkedIn and Twitter.