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About the team

NGINX Gateway Fabric is an open-source project that implements the Gateway API using NGINX as its data plane. Our project is delivered as a Docker container running in a Kubernetes cluster and provides an HTTP, TCP/UDP load balancer, reverse proxy, or API Gateway for Kubernetes applications. We operate entirely in the open, with a public sprint board, roadmap, meetings, and open-source code.

Position Summary

F5's NGINX Business Unit is seeking a Software Engineer II primarily located in Cork to join our Nginx Gateway Fabric team. In this role, you will work on cutting-edge cloud-native networking technologies, contributing to the development of an open-source product that integrates deeply with Kubernetes, containers, and NGINX. You will own the entire lifecycle of this product—from design and development to testing, deployment, and documentation. As part of our open-source community, your contributions will be public, allowing you to showcase your work and collaborate with a global network of engineers. You will collaborate with peers under the direction of technical leads on assigned project teams.

Responsibilities

Collaborate within the team and with cross-functional stakeholders to ensure the continuous delivery of high-quality code in an open-source environment.
Research, design, develop, and maintain enhancements for NGINX Gateway Fabric, ensuring performance, scalability, and reliability.
Participate in code reviews, testing, and documentation to maintain high standards of code quality and usability.
Communicate proactively about project status, action plans, and issue resolutions.
Work within a Kubernetes-based ecosystem, enhancing Gateway API integration with NGINX to improve functionality.
Conduct internal and external presentations and demos to showcase product features and improvements.
Attend and participate in the Gateway API community meetings, PRs, and proposals, to help guide the community towards a better Gateway API for everyone.

Required Skills

3+ years of experience in software development with a Computer Science background or equivalent professional experience.
Proficient in any programming language, with a preference for Go. Basic understanding of Kubernetes concepts and a willingness to work with Docker and containerized environments.
An understanding of Kubernetes internals, including API server interactions, controllers, reconciliation loops, and CRDs.
Knowledge of networking protocols such as HTTP, gRPC, TCP, and UDP, and their role in Kubernetes-based traffic management.
Familiarity with networking policies such as rate limiting, circuit breaking, and access control.
Experience with monitoring and observability tools (e.g., Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, Grafana, Fluentd) for analyzing application behavior.
Basic understanding of Kubernetes and cloud environments, with hands-on experience being a plus.
Proficiency in writing clean, efficient, and testable code, with experience in unit and functional testing.
Strong problem-solving skills, with a structured approach to debugging and resolving customer-reported/technical issues.
Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to document solutions, use cases, and operational workflows.
Self-motivated, able to work independently while thriving in a collaborative, open-source, and agile team environment.
Strong interpersonal, team-building, and mentoring skills to support team growth.
Nice to have: Experience contributing to open-source Kubernetes projects.

Professional Experience:

Bachelor's and/or Master's degree in Computer Science Engineering

2 to 5 years of experience in software design and development

#LI-SS5

The Job Description is intended to be a general representation of the responsibilities and requirements of the job. However, the description may not be all-inclusive, and responsibilities and requirements are subject to change.

Please note that F5 only contacts candidates through F5 email address (ending with @f5.com) or auto email notification from Workday (ending with f5.com or @myworkday.com).

Equal Employment Opportunity

It is the policy of F5 to provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and employment applicants without regard to unlawful considerations of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, sensory, physical, or mental disability, marital status, veteran or military status, genetic information, or any other classification protected by applicable local, state, or federal laws. This policy applies to all aspects of employment, including, but not limited to, hiring, job assignment, compensation, promotion, benefits, training, discipline, and termination. F5 offers a variety of reasonable accommodations for candidates. Requesting an accommodation is completely voluntary. F5 will assess the need for accommodations in the application process separately from those that may be needed to perform the job. Request by contacting accommodations@f5.com.

Software Development Engineer II

Job Description