Principal Software Engineer

About Us

Always open. Our code, our culture, our opportunities. Leading open innovation without limits. We are SUSE.

SUSE is a global leader in innovative, reliable, and secure enterprise open source solutions, including SUSE® Linux Suite, SUSE® Rancher Suite, SUSE® Edge Suite, and SUSE® AI Suite. More than 60% of the Fortune 500 rely on SUSE to power their mission-critical workloads, enabling them to innovate everywhere – from the data center to the cloud, to the edge and beyond.

SUSE puts the “open” back in open source, collaborating with partners and communities to give customers the agility to tackle innovation challenges today and the freedom to evolve their strategy and solutions tomorrow. For more information, visit www.suse.com.

Principal Software Engineer

Job Description

We are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to join the Rancher software engineering team, focusing on building innovative open source software in the container space. This role is key to enriching the user experience of cloud-native platforms like Kubernetes and simplifying containerized workload management. In particular, we are looking for someone to join the Rancher provisioning team to automate the full lifecycle of Kubernetes clusters — from initial deployment to ongoing management (day 2 operations) — utilizing the Cluster API (CAPI) project (https://cluster-api.sigs.k8s.io/).

Our team at SUSE develops the Rancher product suite—open-source software addressing the operational and security challenges of managing cloud-native platforms. Rancher is a flagship product, trusted by Fortune 500 companies and others globally.

SUSE is deeply committed to open source. In this role, you will contribute to major open source projects in the container ecosystem, including Kubernetes, Rancher, Turtles, Fleet, and Kubewarden, working with their communities to advance the state of the art.

Curiosity and teamwork are two of the values that drive us as a development team. If you are passionate about these values too, you are likely a great fit for us. As a team, we’re constantly finding ways to improve ourselves. We pride ourselves on our communication and teamwork – we’re all in this together!

About You

• Proficient in English: You possess excellent written and verbal communication skills.

• Cloud Infrastructure & Provisioning: optimal knowledge of cloud-native infrastructure provisioning, specifically with deep expertise in Kubernetes, the Cluster API (CAPI), and the operational complexities of running distributed systems across public cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure, or others).
• Impactful History: A substantial and impactful history of contributing to the development of innovative principles and game-changing solutions within the industry.
• Technical Leadership: Demonstrated success in leading large, complex technical projects and cross-functional teams with significant organizational impact.
• Strategic & Policy Influence: A proven track record of developing and influencing technical strategy and setting functional policy within your area of expertise.
• Communication & Collaboration: Exceptional communication, collaboration, and influencing skills, with the ability to articulate complex technical visions to diverse audiences, including executive leadership and external stakeholders.
• Open Source Contributions: Experience contributing to or maintaining major open source projects in the container ecosystem.
• Core Engineering Skills: A solid background as a Software Engineer, familiar with technologies like Linux Containers/Docker, Kubernetes, or other orchestrators, and confidence using Linux, shell scripting, Git, and other open source development tools.
• Go Programming: A strong interest in the Go programming language and a passion for coding.
• Educational Foundation: A Master's degree or PhD in Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent exceptional professional experience and recognition.

Highly Valued Skills:

• Familiarity with Cluster API: Deep familiarity and hands-on experience with the Cluster API, including design, implementation, or significant contributions, to enable declarative management of Kubernetes clusters.
• Agile Leadership & Collaboration: Proven ability to drive and work closely with Software Engineering teams in agile environments (SCRUM/Kanban), acting as a mentor and technical leader within the process.
• Expert-Level Debugging: Extensive experience in diagnosing, isolating, and resolving highly complex, intermittent, and production-level issues in highly automated, large-scale, and distributed cloud-native environments.
• Testing and Reliability Engineering: Deep familiarity with modern testing automation frameworks and practices (e.g., unit, integration, e2e testing), with a strong focus on building resilient and reliable cloud infrastructure.
• DevOps/SRE Fluency: A thorough understanding of modern software development practices, including Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), and expertise in Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) principles.

Job

Software Engineering

What We Offer

We empower you to be bold, driving your career to create the future you want. We celebrate and reward your achievements.

SUSE is a dynamic environment that is evolving rapidly, thus requiring agility, strong entrepreneurship and an open mind.

This is a compelling opportunity for the right person to join us as we continue to scale and prosper.

If you’re a big thinker, obsessed by execution and thrive in a dynamic environment in which you can tangibly create a lasting legacy, then please apply now!

We give you the freedom to be yourself. You will work in a global community of unique individuals – like you – with different backgrounds, talents, skills and perspectives. A truly open community where everyone is welcome, has a voice and is encouraged to reach their full potential regardless of age, gender, race, nationality, disability, sexual orientation, religion, or any other characteristics.

Sounds like the right fit for you? Click Apply to submit your resume. A recruiter will contact you if your skills match our current or any future positions. In the meantime, stay updated on the latest SUSE news and job vacancies by joining our Talent Community.

SUSE Values

• Choice
• Innovation
• Trust
• Community