Principal Engineer, Data Path, Metadata & Performance (StorageGRID)

Location: Hybrid role based in Vancouver, Canada, or Raleigh, North Carolina

Salary: 227,800–338,800 USD OTE annually; Vancouver range: 225,250–291,500 CAD.

Company

hirify.global develops intelligent data infrastructure, including unified storage, integrated data services, and multicloud solutions for enterprise and AI workloads.

What you will do

• Own the architecture and technical implementation of the StorageGRID S3 data path, including ingest, retrieval, deletion, metadata storage, and replicated or erasure-coded disk flows.
• Lead performance analysis and benchmarking, identify bottlenecks, and deliver improvements.
• Design multi-site and cross-grid replication and global or federated namespace behavior for hundreds of nodes and exabytes of data.
• Drive cross-cutting data path initiatives from architecture through implementation, validation, and release readiness.
• Stay hands-on in the code, lead design reviews and root-cause analysis, and resolve complex distributed-systems bugs.
• Align architecture across engineering and collaborate with quality engineering, product management, support, and field teams.

Requirements

• 12+ years of experience in systems, storage, distributed systems, or performance engineering, with a record of technical leadership.
• Strong programming skills in one or more of C, C++, Go, or Python, plus experience debugging distributed software in Linux environments.
• Experience building or owning object storage, an S3 implementation, or a large-scale distributed storage or database product.
• Experience with data placement, replication, erasure coding, consistency, failure handling, and Apache Cassandra or a comparable distributed database.
• Ability to influence technical direction across teams without direct authority and mentor senior and MTS engineers.
• Ability to work in a hybrid environment based in Vancouver, Canada, or Raleigh, North Carolina.

Nice to have

• Experience with S3 protocol semantics, including multipart uploads, versioning, and Object Lock/WORM.
• Experience with load balancing, networking, NVMe, SSD, HDD, and x86 hardware.
• Experience using AI-assisted development and observability tools for analysis, debugging, testing, and documentation.

Culture & Benefits

• Hybrid working environment with in-office and in-person expectations.
• Health, life, retirement or pension, paid time off, and leave benefits, subject to regional variations.
• Employee stock purchase and restricted stock opportunities may be included in the regional compensation package.
• Flexible culture focused on initiative, ownership, collaboration, and work-life balance.

Hiring process

• Applications are reviewed through the hirify.global company website.
• Some stages for selected roles may use AI tools to support application evaluation and candidate selection, with human decision-making retained.