Engineering Director

About cPacket

cPacket is modernizing network observability for the AI era. The company’s Unified Observability Platform, built on trusted packet data, delivers full-fidelity visibility, real-time analytics, and explainable AI insights across hybrid and multi-cloud environments. The result is faster detection and resolution of performance issues, stronger security posture, and greater operational resilience. Global finance, healthcare, and technology enterprises and government agencies rely on cPacket to ensure network reliability and business continuity at scale. Built for the world’s fastest, most demanding networks - cPacket keeps organizations ready for what comes next.

Our engineering team works across the stack—from FPGA-level packet processing to machine learning–driven insights—tackling challenges like sustained 200G+ capture, petabyte-scale indexed storage, and AI systems that reason about network behavior. We’re not layering AI onto legacy solutions; we’re building it into the foundation.

We are a team of people who genuinely love what they build. Engineers take real ownership of meaningful parts of the product. You’ll shape what you build, see it in production, and know it’s being relied on. The team is sharp, collaborative, and moves with intent. If hard problems and strong teammates energize you, you’ll feel at home here.

Job Description

cPacket is building the next generation of intelligent network observability. As part of this vision, we are looking to hire an Engineering Director to own the capture and analysis product line end-to-end. cPacket’s packet capture and analytics platform - purpose-built appliances that record network traffic at sustained multi-hundred-gigabit rates, store petabytes of packet data, and analyze protocol traffic in real-time.

You’ll drive the technical direction of a hardware-software product that ships to customers who measure downtime in hundreds of dollars per second. You’ll own the roadmap, the architecture decisions, the release schedule, and the team that delivers it. You report directly to the SVP of Engineering and partner closely with product management, field engineering, and sales.

This is a technical leadership role that requires strong technical depth in software architecture and development, networking, low-level interaction with hardware, datapath performance, excellent cross-functional collaboration skills, and the ability to move fast in the face of ambiguity.

Responsibilities

• Full ownership of the capture and analytics product line: architecture, design, delivery, and quality
• Leadership of a team of engineers spanning firmware, systems, software (Linux, storage, networking), UI and protocol analysis
• Technical strategy for the platform - storage architecture, capture pipeline performance, indexing and retrieval at scale, and integration with other cPacket products
• Release planning and execution, including coordination with hardware engineering, QA, and field deployments
• Customer-facing technical engagement when deep product expertise is needed
• Cross-functional partnership with product management to translate market requirements into engineering priorities
• Build, manage, mentor and retain a multidisciplinary engineering team
• Drive all aspects of product development including engineering support to production
• And product enablement
• Make high-impact, high-judgment decisions on product priorities, technical direction, prototype evaluation, system readiness, architecture, performance, and scalability.
• Contribute to the technical vision and the long-term roadmap of capture and analytics product line at cPacket
• Set and communicate your team’s goals, and establish plans and schedules to attain them.
• Turn ambiguous product requirements into actionable plans and designs.
• Foster a collaborative and fast-paced development environment.
• Attract and retain top talent in the SW and networking industry and nurture professional development for your team.
• Foster a culture of learning and staying abreast of the state-of-the-art

Minimum Requirements

• You have 15 years of overall software engineering experience, working on production code, with at least 7 years of hands-on technical leadership and people management experience
• You have the ability and proven track record to successfully lead and ship complex software products in a loosely structured environment
• Proven ability to deliver high-quality software in an agile, fast-paced environment.
• Solid understanding of networking fundamentals and network protocols.
• You can hire, coach, motivate, develop, and delegate to team members with different skill sets from your own
• You can resolve problems, manage risk, lead change, and facilitate collaborative decision-making in a multi-functional team
• You are able to prioritize, organize, and drive the team’s work alongside your product management peers
• Known for balancing fast iteration, strategic ambiguity, and high-quality outcomes in a dynamic business environment.
• Strong project management skills, with the ability to manage and prioritize across multiple projects.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to articulate product strategies to diverse stakeholders.

Why cPacket?

• You’ll own a product line, not just manage a team. The capture and analytics platform is central to cPacket’s value proposition and you’ll have real authority over its direction.
• The technical problems are challenging - sustained 200G+ capture, petabyte-scale indexed storage, and real-time analysis.
• We’re at an inflection point: AI-driven observability is reshaping the market, and this product line is a foundational piece of that story.
• Company-level impact, driving a world-class engineering team