MTS - Kernel / Storage Systems Architect

We’re in an unbelievably exciting area of tech and are fundamentally reshaping the data storage industry. Here, you lead with innovative thinking, grow along with us, and join the smartest team in the industry. This type of work—work that changes the world—is what the tech industry was founded on. So, if you're ready to seize the endless opportunities and leave your mark, come join us. THE ROLE As the Lead Kernel Engineer for our Fiber Channel and SAN team, you will spearhead the development and optimization of high-performance storage protocol stacks that power our flagship FlashArray. You will lead a talented engineering group to architect resilient Linux and VMware initiator stacks, directly influencing the speed, reliability, and enterprise-grade scale of our storage solutions. By collaborating with elite hardware vendors and upstreaming code to the open-source Linux community, your work will define the next generation of NVMe and Fibre Channel performance for thousands of global customers. WHAT YOU'LL DO Technical Leadership & Architectural Ownership: Lead, mentor, and technically guide a team of kernel engineers to deliver high-quality, resilient storage drivers and middleware components on time, fostering a culture of technical excellence. Protocol Optimization & Upstreaming: Drive the performance profiling, tuning, and optimization of the Linux storage target and initiator stacks (including NVMe over Fabrics and FC-SCSI), directly contributing enhancements and bug fixes back to the upstream Linux kernel. System Resilience & Debugging: Solve the industry's most complex, low-level SAN congestion, multipathing, and kernel-level bottlenecks to maximize IOPS and bandwidth while enhancing system self-healing and link health. Ecosystem Integration: Partner with major Fibre Channel and fabric vendors (such as Cisco and Broadcom) to seamlessly integrate state-of-the-art PCIe Gen4/Gen5 and HBA technologies into the Pure Storage ecosystem. End-to-End Quality & Validation: Own the strategy for internal Linux kernel maintenance and test automation frameworks, ensuring robust validation of supported SAN configurations and highly predictable field behavior. WHAT YOU BRING Kernel & Driver Expertise: Proven expertise writing, debugging, and optimizing low-level Linux/Unix device drivers, with deep hands-on command of interrupt handling, memory management, NUMA optimization, and lock contention analysis. Advanced Storage Protocol Mastery: Deep technical understanding of SAN architecture and storage protocol stacks, including Fibre Channel (FC-FS, FCP, FC-NVMe) and NVMe over Fabrics (RoCE, TCP, FC), alongside a strong grasp of SAN congestion mechanisms like buffer-to-buffer credits. Systems Systems Tooling & Performance Profiling: Mastery of low-level diagnostics and profiling tools such as perf , ftrace , eBPF , blktrace , or crash to identify and resolve complex system transport bottlenecks. Engineering Leadership: Demonstrated ability to technically steer complex projects from conception to deployment, mentor peer engineers, and collaborate cross-functionally with external technology partners. Polyglot Development Skills: Proficiency in C and C++ for core kernel/driver development, paired with Python skills to drive advanced test automation. Location: We are primarily an in-office environment and therefore, you will be expected to work from the Bangalore office in compliance with Pure’s policies, unless you are on PTO, or work travel, or other approved leave. WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT FROM US: Innovation : We celebrate those who think critically, like a challenge, and aspire to be trailblazers. Growth : We give you the space and support to grow along with us and to contribute to something meaningful. We have been named Fortune's Best Workplaces in Technology™, Fortune's Best Workplaces in the Bay Area™, and certified as a Great Place to Work®! Team : We build each other up and set aside ego for the greater good. And because we understand t…