Principal Software Engineer - Service Networking

Set the technical strategy and roadmap for service mesh, balancing reliability, security, performance, and operating cost.

Design and build control-plane and data-plane capabilities for service discovery, routing, load balancing, and traffic policy using Envoy, Istio, and related technologies.

Lead integration and migration across Kubernetes, Nomad, and cloud environments, with clear compatibility requirements and safe rollout plans.

Partner with Security and application teams to deliver workload identity, mutual TLS, and traffic policy enforcement in production.

Improve resource efficiency and operational reliability through performance analysis, testing, observability, incident response, and deployment automation.

Lead technical decisions across teams, write and review production code, and mentor senior engineers to expand their judgment and ownership.

8+ years of software engineering experience building and operating large-scale distributed systems, including leading substantial initiatives across teams.

Expertise in service mesh, proxies, application gateways, or a closely related infrastructure domain, demonstrated through systems you have designed, shipped, and operated.

A strong understanding of networking fundamentals, service discovery, traffic management, failure isolation, and secure service communication.

Strong programming skills in Go, C++, Rust, or another systems language, with experience debugging across application, proxy, control-plane, and operating-system boundaries.

Experience operating Kubernetes or comparable orchestration platforms in production and leading infrastructure migrations or performance improvements. Envoy/Istio internals, xDS, workload identity, and substantive open-source contributions are especially relevant.

A record of turning ambiguous problems into technical direction and coordinated execution, communicating tradeoffs clearly, and helping other engineers lead independently.

Industry-leading compensation package

Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage

A rewarding 401k program

Flexible vacation policy

Roflex - Flexible and supportive work policy

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At Roblox HQ:

Free catered lunches five times a week and several fully stocked kitchens with unlimited snacks

Onsite fitness center and fitness program credit

Annual CalTrain Go Pass

For roles that are based at our headquarters in San Mateo, CA: The starting base pay for this position is as shown below. The actual base pay is dependent upon a variety of job-related factors such as professional background, training, work experience, location, business needs and market demand. Therefore, in some circumstances, the actual salary could fall outside of this expected range. This pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. All full-time employees are also eligible for equity compensation and for benefits as described on this page .

Annual Salary Range

$295,250 — $345,040 USD

Roles that are based in an office are onsite Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, with optional presence on Monday and Friday (unless otherwise noted).

Roblox provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. Roblox also provides reasonable accommodations to candidates with qualifying disabilities or religious beliefs during the recruiting process.

For US based roles only, please note the Company may not be able to employ candidates for this role who have United States work authorization related to certain U.S. visa categories, or support future H-1B sponsorship at this time.