Principal software engineer

Company Description

At Red Hat, we connect an innovative community of customers, partners, and contributors to deliver an open source stack of trusted, high-performing solutions. We offer cloud, Linux, middleware, virtualization, and AI technologies, together with award-winning global customer support, consulting, and implementation services. Red Hat is a rapidly-growing company supporting more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies.

Job Summary

At Red Hat, our commitment to open source innovation extends beyond our products - it’s embedded in how we work and grow. Red Hatters embrace change – especially in our fast-moving technological landscape – and have a strong growth mindset. That's why we encourage our teams to proactively, thoughtfully, and ethically use AI to simplify their workflows, cut complexity, and boost efficiency. This empowers our associates to focus on higher-impact work, creating smart, more innovative solutions that solve our customers' most pressing challenges.

Red Hat’s Global Engineering team is looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join the Agentic and AI Engineering Tools team to develop new APIs, tooling, and providers in the upstream Llama Stack project. In this role, you’ll contribute directly to Red Hat’s rapidly growing AI/ML family of products and will be responsible for the design, development, and refinement of software that enables the creation and deployment of generative AI models.

The ideal candidate will have a proven background in developing robust and scalable Python solutions within an AI/ML context. As part of your responsibilities, you will need to adhere to coding best practices and standards, including well-documented, and efficient code; building and implementing upstream unit and E2E automated tests, maintaining updated code documentation and comments, following security best practices, participating in code reviews and other peer review in upstream projects, and staying up-to-date with software engineering technologies, frameworks, and methodologies.

Primary Job Responsibilities

• Collaborate with Staff Engineers, Engineering, Product Management, and User Experience to define customer needs and use cases.
• Create robust AI/ML software tools to enable AI Application development and contribute to a healthy open source community.
• Develop and implement comprehensive unit, integration, and end-to-end tests to guarantee the reliability and performance in the upstream project, maintaining CI/CD workflows in GitHub, and ensuring downstream quality.
• Participate in AI-assisted code reviews, utilizing tools that provide real-time feedback, identify potential bugs, security vulnerabilities, and adherence to coding standards, contributing to a more thorough and efficient review process.
• Proactively utilize AI-assisted development tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code) for code generation, auto-completion, and intelligent suggestions to accelerate development cycles and enhance code quality.
• Create and maintain clear, concise upstream technical documentation including API references and user guides and collaborating with our internal tech writers to create robust downstream documentation.
• Evaluate and integrate the latest advancements in AI/ML technologies and toolkits to improve existing systems and develop new innovative solutions.
  
  

Required Skills

• 10 years of advanced Python development experience as a Software Engineer in Open Source communities with experience in AI/ML
• Advanced knowledge designing robust and scalable APIs used in highly scaled and performant Distributed Systems
• Experience with AI and Machine Learning platforms, tools, and frameworks, such as LlamaStack, LangChain, PyTorch, LLaMA.cpp, vLLM, LangGraph, and Kubeflow.
• Advanced knowledge creating automation for GitHub, using GitHub Actions or related continuous integration tools.
• Experience developing, deploying or maintaining On-prem or Cloud Infrastructure
• Advanced knowledge developing unit, functional, and end-to-end (E2E) test cases and automation.
• Ability to quickly learn and use new tools and technologies.
  
  

Nice to Haves

• Experience with Security, Observability, Performance or Scale
• Experience working with Kubernetes/OpenShift and containers.
• Knowledge and interest in developing tools and solutions using RAG or Agentic workflows
• Understanding of DevOps methodology, scrum, and/or Jira.
• Knowledge with hardware accelerators, such as CUDA and ROCm
• Bachelor's degree in computer science or related discipline.
  
  

#AI-HIRING

The salary range for this position is $148,540.00 - $245,050.00. Actual offer will be based on your qualifications.

Pay Transparency

Red Hat determines compensation based on several factors including but not limited to job location, experience, applicable skills and training, external market value, and internal pay equity. Annual salary is one component of Red Hat’s compensation package. This position may also be eligible for bonus, commission, and/or equity. For positions with Remote-US locations, the actual salary range for the position may differ based on location but will be commensurate with job duties and relevant work experience.

About Red Hat

Red Hat is the world’s leading provider of enterprise open source software solutions, using a community-powered approach to deliver high-performing Linux, cloud, container, and Kubernetes technologies. Spread across 40+ countries, our associates work flexibly across work environments, from in-office, to office-flex, to fully remote, depending on the requirements of their role. Red Hatters are encouraged to bring their best ideas, no matter their title or tenure. We're a leader in open source because of our open and inclusive environment. We hire creative, passionate people ready to contribute their ideas, help solve complex problems, and make an impact.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Flexible Spending Account - healthcare and dependent care
• Health Savings Account - high deductible medical plan
• Retirement 401(k) with employer match
• Paid time off and holidays
• Paid parental leave plans for all new parents
• Leave benefits including disability, paid family medical leave, and paid military leave
• Additional benefits including employee stock purchase plan, family planning reimbursement, tuition reimbursement, transportation expense account, employee assistance program, and more!
  
  

Note: These benefits are only applicable to full time, permanent associates at Red Hat located in the United States.

Inclusion at Red Hat

Red Hat’s culture is built on the open source principles of transparency, collaboration, and inclusion, where the best ideas can come from anywhere and anyone. When this is realized, it empowers people from different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences to come together to share ideas, challenge the status quo, and drive innovation. Our aspiration is that everyone experiences this culture with equal opportunity and access, and that all voices are not only heard but also celebrated. We hope you will join our celebration, and we welcome and encourage applicants from all the beautiful dimensions that compose our global village.

Equal Opportunity Policy (EEO)

Red Hat is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and an affirmative action employer. We review applications for employment without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, veteran status, genetic information, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, or any other basis prohibited by law.

Red Hat does not seek or accept unsolicited resumes or CVs from recruitment agencies. We are not responsible for, and will not pay, any fees, commissions, or any other payment related to unsolicited resumes or CVs except as required in a written contract between Red Hat and the recruitment agency or party requesting payment of a fee.

Red Hat supports individuals with disabilities and provides reasonable accommodations to job applicants. If you need assistance completing our online job application, email [email protected]. General inquiries, such as those regarding the status of a job application, will not receive a reply.