Software Engineer, Network & Protocol Team (Remote)

Software Engineer (Network & Protocol)Location: Remote (U.S.)Team: Engineering • Full‑time • Pre‑seedAbout HoplynkHoplynk is building the communications and networking layer for the intelligent edge, ensuring resilient connectivity for autonomous systems and mission-critical operations in any environment. We’re a pre-seed startup spun out of Stanford University and based in San Francisco, developing an embedded software/firmware stack that delivers multipath, failure-aware networking across heterogeneous links so critical systems stay online when networks don’t.The RoleYou’ll be our first networking specialist and a founding engineer. Your mission: design, ship, and measure a robust multipath networking stack on Linux. You’ll own the edge data plane end-to-end, from kernel and policy to telemetry, experiments, and field support, to accelerate learning in the field and deliver weekly improvements.What You’ll Do and OwnDesign, implement, and evolve the multipath routing/transport stack on Linux, including policy engines for path selection, subflow management, and failover.Define and maintain SLOs for latency, loss, failover time, and goodput.Build and operate telemetry: per-subflow RTT/RTTVAR, cwnd, loss/reordering, packet sampling, and device-health signals; keep schemas stable as the system grows.Design and run experiments with simulated networks in QEMU.Partner with embedded/firmware on BSP, drivers, OTA updates, and device observability.Support deployments and onboarding: capture traces, triage issues, and harden release processes as we scale customers.What You’ll BringClear writing and documentation; ability to mentor and set engineering standards.Willingness to support field work: capture traces, debug issues, and harden releases.Solid Linux networking experience at L3/L4 with iproute2 / netlink / tc.A track record of improving latency, reliability, or throughput via shaping, queue management, or congestion control.Comfort with transports and routing (TCP, QUIC, MPTCP, MPLS, routing daemons).Experience building network telemetry (RTT, loss, cwnd, packet sampling) with stable data models.Ability to design experiments, simulate real conditions, and measure results.Nice to HaveRouting & Fast-Path: FRR, Babel, OLSR, batman-adv; frameworks like DPDK; Segment Routing (SR-MPLS/SRv6).Wireless & Cellular Networking: CGNAT, captive portals, flaky radios.Embedded & Security: OpenWrt, Yocto, Buildroot; OTA frameworks (RAUC/Mender), A/B partitioning, secure boot/firmware signing.Timing & Observability: NTP, PTP, perf, ftrace, pcap, mptcpd, gNMI/streaming telemetry.Hardware & Applied Domains: Schematics interpretation, PHY bring-up testing; robotics/autonomy networks in challenging RF environments.Tools & Tech You’ll TouchLinux 6.x · MPTCP · OpenWrt/Debian/Ubuntu · iproute2/netlink · mptcpd · perf/ftrace · Rust / C / Python (routing and full-stack development)How We Work - Hoplynk’s ValuesWe believe that shared values are the foundation for success. At Hoplynk, we value:Candor: Say the hard thing kindly, early, and with evidence. Speak up during decisions.Humility: Strong opinions, loosely held. Change your mind with facts. Teach and learn in the open; celebrate team wins over heroics.Initiative: Run toward the smoke. Own problems end-to-end. Ship in small, safe steps with clear, observable outcomes.