Director, Software Engineering

Senior Vice President, Platform Architecture

Employees describe ARIN as offering a supportive, casual, and flexible work environment that provides an atmosphere of continuous learning while being responsive to the community we serve.

Located in Chantilly, Virginia, ARIN offers competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits, training, and education reimbursement. In lieu of stock options, we have a generous 401(k) retirement plan.

In 2017, ARIN was named a Top Workplace by The Washington Post.

We are currently seeking a Senior Vice President, Platform Architecture, who will be responsible for defining, governing, and advancing ARIN’s centralized platform and service‑layer architecture across registry applications and supporting systems.

Job Description and Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the long‑term architectural vision for ARIN’s core registry platforms, service layers, APIs, integrations, and shared technical foundations.
• Establish architecture principles, technical standards, design patterns, documentation expectations, and review processes for significant platform changes.
• Ensure architecture decisions align with ARIN’s strategic plan, operating plan, product and registry needs, security requirements, operational resilience, and future growth.
• Serve as a senior technical authority for major engineering initiatives, including platform modernization, service design, technical debt reduction, scalability, performance, reliability, and system lifecycle planning.
• Partner with Engineering, Product, Infrastructure, Security, Operations, and other stakeholders to evaluate technical tradeoffs, build‑versus‑buy decisions, vendor options, and platform investment priorities.
• Identify legacy systems, architectural bottlenecks, duplicated functionality, and technical risks; develop practical modernization roadmaps that balance long‑term improvement with delivery commitments and business continuity.
• As necessary, coordinate and communicate directly with the President/CEO on projects and other items, providing updates to the COO.
• Participate in the development and planning of ARIN’s annual operating plan for presentation to the Board. Determine the tactical and strategic direction of the department in conjunction with the overall company strategic and operating plan, and produce an annual work plan that includes implementation of relevant strategic and operating objectives.
• Adhere to company ethics policy. Set standard of ethical conduct for department staff by exhibiting high ethical principles at all times. Report any incidents of unethical behavior or possible fraud to the CHRO, COO, or President & CEO. Provide a written quarterly statement of any such activities.

Additional Duties

• Ability and willingness to travel in accordance with the ARIN travel guidelines.
• Perform other related duties as required and assigned.

Background/Skills Required

• Four‑year college degree in an information systems or computer science related discipline, or equivalent work experience.
• Fifteen years of information technology, software engineering, platform architecture, or related experience, including at least five years of leadership experience in a technology‑driven organization.
• Prior experience designing and delivering API‑driven, service‑oriented, or platform‑based systems in complex environments.
• Current systems‑level architectural depth with the ability to provide credible technical guidance across software architecture, APIs, service layers, integrations, data flows, cloud or virtualized environments, security, observability, and operational reliability.
• Demonstrated ability to define architecture strategy, evaluate technical tradeoffs, reduce technical debt, and guide modernization of legacy or mission‑critical systems without disrupting business continuity.
• Experience managing one or more information processing or engineering functions, with the ability to organize and manage multiple priorities and resolve problems at both strategic and functional levels.
• Experience with contract and vendor negotiations and management.
• Experience in IP network deployment, critical Internet operations, high‑availability systems, and infrastructure supporting mission‑critical services.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to technical, executive, and non‑technical audiences.
• Proven ability to think ahead and plan over a 1‑3 year time span while balancing practical delivery realities.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills, strong computer skills, and strong organizational skills.

Background/Skills Preferred

• Prior experience in high‑integrity or mission‑critical systems, such as financial systems, telecom, infrastructure platforms, registry systems, or other operationally sensitive environments.
• Prior experience in a VP, Senior Director, Chief Architect, Principal Architect, or equivalent senior technical leadership role.
• Professional security, architecture, leadership, or technology management certifications.

Physical Requirements

• 80+ percent of time working at a computer.

ARIN is committed to providing reasonable accommodations as required by law for physical or mental disabilities (and others as required by law), unless undue hardship would result or an accommodation would pose a direct threat to the individual or others in the workplace. Qualified applicants or employees who require an accommodation should contact their direct supervisor or the Human Resources and Administration Department as to discuss any need for an accommodation and to engage in the interactive process.

Director, Software Engineering

We are currently seeking a Director, Software Engineering, who will be responsible for the overall development, direction, and operation of the Software Engineering team. This Director will work closely with the Chief Software Development Officer (CSDO) on management of the full life cycle software and information systems development supporting the functionality and mission of ARIN.

Job Description and Responsibilities

• Manage members of the software engineering team. Assign and monitor team workload and responsibilities based on operational needs. Mentor team members to allow them to increase their knowledge and experience level. Leads the team in selecting the appropriate building blocks and development systems for optimal production.
• Lead system projects through requirements analysis, design, construction, testing, and implementation. Manage projects, establish project timelines including milestones and completion dates and task assignments. Ensure that projects are planned and executed in a timely and efficient manner.
• Understand company business objectives linked to the development of software systems. Ensure that engineered solution satisfies underlying business objectives.
• Develop best practices and appropriate policies for the full life cycle of software and information systems development.
• Design graphic user interface (GUI) displays to accomplish goals of user requests, when necessary.
• Develop and maintain registration software to update the ARIN databases. Create utilities to modify records, produce statistical and timely reports, and scan the database for integrity.
• Hire, train, and mentor the software engineering team. Assess performance, give support and recommend training and education. Perform formal and informal appraisals for the software engineering team, including 90‑day review after hiring and annual performance appraisals.
• Develop and maintain software supporting Financial Services Department, Registration Services Department and Membership Services Departments. Support other staff and management as needed.
• Make recommended changes to improve system performance. Work with the DBA to define solutions to maximize database performance. Alter programs to increase operating efficiency.
• Train staff when implementing new tools or modifying existing tools.
• Participate in requirements gathering process. Produce, contribute to and/or review project specifications, design documents, flowcharts and diagrams. Analyze software requirements to determine feasibility of design within time and cost constraints. Consult with customers concerning requirements, enhancements and operation of systems.
• Consult with system operations and other engineering staff to evaluate interface between hardware and software, and operational and performance requirements of overall system.
• Document all code. Write documentation to describe program development, logic coding, and corrections. Develop manual pages and/or website outline to assist users in the operation of available tools.
• Participate in a regular on‑call rotation, alongside a team of developers and operational staff, as the lead for application‑related incidents.
• Evaluate new software products, develop comparative analysis, and prepare purchase suggestions to management.
• Oversee department resources essential for the professional and consistent operation of the department including the development of redundancy and contingency plans. Propose future goals and performance standards for the department and determine and recommend needed resources to accomplish goals.
• Participate in the development and planning of ARIN’s annual operating plan for presentation to the Board. Determine the strategic direction of the department in conjunction with the overall company strategic and operating plan, and produce an annual work plan that includes implementation of relevant strategic and operating objectives. Develop and maintain department budget, exercising fiduciary control and responsibility for the department.
• Set in place a plan for succession management – short‑term and long‑term. Identify and mentor staff members with potential for promotion and future leadership positions.
• Adhere to company ethics policy. Set standard of ethical conduct for department staff by exhibiting high ethical principles at all times. Report any incidents of unethical behavior or possible fraud to the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), the Chief Operating Officer (COO), or the President/CEO. Provide a written quarterly statement of any such activities.

Additional Duties

• Ability and willingness to travel in accordance with the ARIN travel guidelines.
• Perform other related duties as required and assigned.

Background/Skills Required

• 4‑year college degree preferably in an information systems or computer science related discipline OR equivalent work experience.
• At least 15 years job‑related experience, including structured programming techniques, structured analysis and design, and computer operations.
• 10+ years of technical management experience.
• Knowledge of object‑oriented languages such as Java.
• Experience building and deploying containerized applications on Kubernetes.
• Ability to understand complex instructions, and work both independently and on teams.
• Strong, verbal, written, and interpersonal skills.

Background/Skills Preferred

• Familiarity of IPv4, IPv6, routing and networking issues and protocols.
• Experience with Spring, Hibernate, Angular technologies desired.

Physical Requirements

• 80+% of time working at a computer.

ARIN is committed to providing reasonable accommodations as required by law for physical or mental disabilities (and others as required by law), unless undue hardship would result or an accommodation would pose a direct threat to the individual or others in the workplace. Qualified applicants or employees who require an accommodation should contact their direct supervisor or the Human Resources and Administration Department as to discuss any need for an accommodation and to engage in the interactive process.

Senior Network Site Reliability Engineer

We are currently seeking a Senior Network Site Reliability Engineer who will be a major contributor to the design, build, configuration, maintenance, and tuning of our Internet connected multi‑site network and support of associated systems and services.

Job Description and Responsibilities

• Perform or support the installation of network infrastructure. Configure routers, switches, and other network infrastructure with a focus on increasing deployment automation. Responsible for the day‑to‑day management of the network environment. Have a very good understanding of network switching, routing, peering, monitoring systems such as Prometheus, operational knowledge of Linux, OpenBSD, and Kubernetes‑based networking, as well as scripting experience in deployment environments like GIT with Ansible and Python.
• Monitor, tune, and upgrade network infrastructure to ensure optimum performance in accordance with established guidelines. Have operational experience in BGP, ISIS, OSPF and establishing peering relationships with other ISPs.
• Perform installation and upgrades of Linux‑based hardware and software. Configure servers, containers, workloads, VMs, and bare‑metal systems in accordance with established guidelines.
• Proactively evaluate network infrastructure, capacity and service security, recommend improvements, perform preventative maintenance and apply security updates as required by ARIN policies. Implement security practices and procedures using industry best‑practices.
• Evaluate and make recommendations for network hardware and applications based on assessments of the operating environment and requirements.
• Participate in the Agile formulation, development, implementation of applications and systems as needed. Provide subject matter expertise on inter‑networking, routing related technologies, and networking services, such as DNS.
• Provide on‑call support for critical network and system operations on a rotating basis. Provide secondary, escalated tier support for network‑associated problems.

Additional Duties

• Provide backup support for UNIX and Windows systems administration and database administration.
• Provide technical administration of DNS zones managed by ARIN.
• Perform other related duties as required and assigned.
• Ability and willingness to travel in accordance with the ARIN travel guidelines.

Background/Skills Required

• 4‑year college degree preferably in an information systems or computer science related discipline, OR equivalent combination of education and experience. In lieu of education, 3 years of network SRE/engineering experience in a service provider environment may be substituted.
• Comprehensive knowledge of physical and virtual network infrastructure (routing, switching, firewalls, and load‑balancing) typical routing protocols (TCP, BGP, ISIS, and OSPF), network services, and network hardening/protection methods.
• Experience in monitoring, supporting, deploying, and managing complex networks.
• Experience with various operating environments, shell scripting, Python, Ansible, Kubernetes/Docker along with experience with RPSL, RPKI, and PeeringDB.
• Should be comfortable with UNIX system, firewall, DNS, and database administration.
• Ability to evaluate new hardware and systems and make sound recommendations.
• Good interpersonal skills in a team environment. Strong verbal and written skills.

Physical Requirements

• Moderate physical activity with the ability to type and perform repetitive motions.
• Ability to pick up and maneuver computer equipment weighing up to 50 pounds. May occasionally maneuver heavy equipment weighing up to 200 pounds.
• 75% of time working at computer.

ARIN is committed to providing reasonable accommodations as required by law for physical or mental disabilities (and others as required by law), unless undue hardship would result or an accommodation would pose a direct threat to the individual or others in the workplace. Qualified applicants or employees who require an accommodation should contact their direct supervisor or the Human Resources and Administration Department as to discuss any need for an accommodation and to engage in the interactive process.